Railroads charge by the ton-mile, right? How do they know how much a car weighs? I'm familiar with truck scales; are there train scales? There has to be some way to weigh the load. What does it look like, and where is it located, at the switching yard?
I spent 38 years in railroad marketing, pricing, sales and inter-railroad divisions, and never once did I come upon a rate per ton-mile! The majority of railroad rates at one time were per hundredweight (cwt.), followed in popularity by per Net Ton (2000 lbs.) or per Gross Ton (2240 lbs.) for lower rated commodities. Per carload rates are increasing in popularity. Although most rail charges are based on weight, most carloads are not weighed, as the railroad companies enter into "Weight Agreements" with reputable customers to accept the customer's weight. There are still many railroad scales around the country though, and in most major classification yards all cars are automatically weighed as they go over the hump. The traditional "scale track" has four rails, two are on the scale and two bypass it to permit a locomotive to pass over the scale. There is a small building at the side where the scale readout is printed. As to miles as a part of railroad rates, they mean very little. Railroad rates are telescopic, that is, the rate for 100 miles might be only twice that for 10 miles, while the rate for 1000 miles might be only twice the 100 mile rate. But those are so-called "scale rates" built on a mileage scale. The first freight tariff was published in 1830 based strictly on mileage. By 1832 it was obsolete. There was a flour mill 10 miles from Baltimore on the B&O, and one 12 miles away on the Baltimore & Susquehanna. In 1832 the B&S "met" the B&O's 10 mile rate for 12 miles. I "played this game" on an almost daily basis. Almost all of the costs in railroading are in pulling and placing cars at industries and classifying cars in yards. Road trains account for a very small portion of the total costs. :cat:
