Toad,
I don't have the specs handy, but I can offer my own observations...
The markings seem to me self-adhesive reflective tape which is made in pre-cut sections. The ends of the cars are marked with a double section, either length or width (both seem acceptable), and there is a single segment every 10 feet or so. It seems that the segments can be positioned either horivontally or vertically, but I cannot recall seeing any that were a mixture of the two.
The purpose of these markings it to protect idiot drivers who don't know that they should not overdrive their headlights at night. There were a number of accidents where some fool drove into the side of a train on a crossing, usually resulting in an improvement in the gene pool. Since a freight train is such an easy thing to hide, they had to be made more visible.
Sorry, but I have a pretty low opinion of the situation, where private companies are REQUIRED to spend their own money to protect idiots from themselves, especially when there are established LAWS which say the drivers were wrong. And personally, I say that anyone who gets hit by a train (with the exception of passengers in vehicles) got exactly what they had coming to them.
Kenneth Rickman,
Locomotive Engineer, Norfolk Southern Corp.
