I wouldn't think the scale test cars would roam the rails directly very much. Wear and tear (e.g. a dragging brake could seize up and cause a flat-spot on a wheel, reducing the car's weight) can affect their weight, diminishing their value, so at least when used for testing scales at widely separated yards, they might go on flat cars, using these weight test car carriers, rather than coupled directly within a work train. It could also be that a large railroad only has one or two yards that can maintain the weight cars, so conveying the scale cars to/from those yard(s) for such maintenance may need to be done via these carrier assemblies on a flatcar, to reduce potential for damage on the longer journey. Just thinkin' out loud...
Because freight rates are often based on weight, scale test cars also make regular visits to many industries. SCL/CSX would send one annually to the plants I worked at so that our in-motion scales could be certified. We'd use the data to audit weights of inbound coal, fuel oil, wood chips and chemicals as stated by our suppliers. During my career, hump yards were a vital element in car movement and cars were weighed as they went over the hump so that the retarders would apply the proper amount of resistance to assure a soft coupling AND to capture overweight cars, overloaded by error. Overweight cars can do damage to track, overload bridges and understate train weights. With the death of so many hump yards these days, I wonder how this function is handled these days, if at all.
Thanks for the keen insight! Even flat yards have throats, so I'd guess they'd put a scale there? Question: So, if a yard finds an overweight railcar, who unloads it, and to where? Do they bring up an empty (or underweight) car with same origin/destination (and material) to which they can transfer some contents? Who manages that transfer? Do the railroads even have the facilities to transfer loads, say, between covered hoppers? Or do they simply fine the originator, and return the overweight car? I don't think overweight cars pose a track damage problem for a single car/trip, but stiff fines can strongly encourage originators to stay within load limits.
The car is sidelined, the Shipper receives a phone call with the bad news and it's the Shipper's duty to solve the problem. In my employer's case, we'd divert the car to a nearby warehouse that had the right equipment to pluck content from the boxcar and put things in order for continued transport. It's an expensive little excursion. The Shipper is paying for demurrage during the time and the Consignee is pissed off that his load is delayed so there's strong incentive to not mess up again. I'm not sure how overloaded bulk cars are handled. Dipping a clamshell loader into a coal hopper would be easy, but a covered hopper could be a puzzler. In my day, in-motion scales were somewhat fragile and not the sort of thing you wanted to switch cuts of cars over all day long. Perhaps they're much more durable these days and they can (as you suggested) be placed at yard throats.
What about hazamat stuff like molten sulfur in a tanker? You'll be ladling the stuff out until in-weight?
Yeah, I can't imagine many repeat-offenders stay in business too long. I would think overweight tank cars would be rare, but perhaps the overage could be transferred (with appropriate equipment, leased at shipper's expense) to an underweight tank car with the same load & destination? I would bet that hazmat salvage/cleanup equipment is available (for a pretty penny) rather quickly, and could be used to transfer the material, hazardous or not, between tank cars, or simply to a leased tank car, to continue the journey to the destination.
I would think, though I don’t know for certain, that hopper cars, covered hoppers and tank cars are mostly dedicated to specific products that are a standard weight per volume so overloading them is pretty much impossible unless loaded with the wrong product, such as cement in a grain hopper. Boxcars, flat cars, gondolas and shipping containers can carry anything and the weight can vary greatly so they would be much easier to overload. I might be way off base but it makes sense to me.
Shippers often have "weight agreements" with the railroads where the individual product weight (such as sacks of cement, rolls of paper or cases of peanut butter) and quantity are calculated by the shipper, entered on the Bill-Of-Lading and accepted by the railroad. This saves the expense of weighing the cars and is very accurate. Problems surface only when product is mistakenly loaded and not accounted for or when the tare weight of the freight car has become incorrect. For audit purposes, scales on the shipper's production lines are routinely calibrated and the reports are submitted to the railroad.
Picked this up at B&N in Indy. Do tend to pick this magazine up from time to time. Another perspective is always interesting. Some neat ideas and articles that include N scale. It's a shame the freebee that came with it isn't N scale
I have a few issues of those as sent by cousins in Great Britain. Yes, a very good magazine. I seem to "favour" British spellings of words for some reason, Modeller instead of Modeler, Traveller instead of Traveler, Colour vs color, defence vs defense etc.
And rock bands. Pink Floyd "Any Colour You Like" from the Dark Side of the Moon LP. So many good ones on that album. Crap, was that really over 50 years ago?! Ugh... "England and America are two countries separated by the same language." George Bernard Shaw
Actually did something to the layout (other than run some trains) over the weekend. Had one corner left where I wanted to install a folding cup holder. The CFO finally ordered it on Amazon and it arrived Friday. Yesterday afternoon, I installed it! it went over where the screw head is in the picture. Oddly enough, I just realized I didn't take a picture of it installed anyhow, that's one more item checked off the list.
Picked up this kool MTL weathered release Saturday morning. Really like it! Just out of curiosity, I did pop the scrap load out and as expected, the interior of the gon is not weathered to if you want to run it without the load, it will need some attention. Then just to stay up to date, adding a couple of random pics that I have posed in the Weekend Photo Fun threads the past couple of weeks. Cars spotted on the leads for the cement plant, grain elevator, and improvised bids track. CN run through power meeting a UP excursion special Also found a very inexpensive hobby knife set so couldn't pass it up.
Agreed! What makes it appealing to my aging eyes is that it's not covered in graffiti. The weathering is exceptional, an authentic image of a hardworking and servicable gon, not one that looks like it's on its last trip to the boneyard.
Great layout and great attention to detail. I do have one question. Why are there 3 concrete trucks at the cement plant? Shouldn't they be trucks with covered hoppers?
