ACI label on a gondola car spotted along the Redwood Harbor industrial lead, Redwood City, California. “ACI” stands for “Automatic Car Identification”. It was part of KarTrak, an early, failed attempt by some companies in the railroad industry to electronically track all their rolling stock by labeling them with this big barcode-like things that could read by scanners off passing trains at speed. The scheme was a bit too complex for the technology of the time, and proved vulnerable to weather, dirt, vandalism, and general lack of enthusiasm in the industry. It was abandoned in the 1970s, but you’ll still see these weird colored labels attached to older equipment. It has been superseded by a more modern system called “AEI” (“Automatic Equipment Identification”) that uses a much more robust RFID system.

Shot with the Nikon D70s and the 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom at 44mm, ISO 400, f/8, shutter 1/250 sec. Exposure, contrast, saturation, levels, and highlights adjustments in Aperture.