Allen, I doubt there was any such safety rule in the US. Tank car platforms
are not considered railroad "safety" equipment. They are there for the
convenience of loading and unloading personnel only, not railroad operating
employees. As such they are not under the jurisdiction of FRA nor (I
presume) its predecessor, the ICC. I don't recall anything in the AAR tank
car rules about these, and would be surprised if there is anything there for
the reason stated above. You imply that there was some Canadian (government
?) safety rule that applied. I would be interested to learn more about this
and under which agency of the government they were promulgated.

Chris Barkan

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