Scale Track and weighing cars : A new procedure

 Last Saturday I was invited to operate at John King’s B&O Shenandoah Sub layout. John’s engines, rolling stock and physical plant all function like precision instruments.

One interesting procedure John has that I am looking at stealing is the way he weighs cars. I ran train #97 which works towns along the route until you arrive at the end of the line at Strasburg Jct. At this point cars are interchanged with the Southern*.

While working you pick up a handful of cars that have tags* in their car card pockets that read “WEIGH THIS CAR IN MILLVILLE”. Millville is at the other end of the branch, and to get these cars there requires a back haul.

The point is all the car weighing is done at the scale at Millville. Once the cars are weighed the tags are removed, revealing the cars primary billing. These cars are then taken back to Brunswick, the originating staging yard, where it is implied that these cars are classified.

This procedure reminded me of Al Daumann’s procedure for icing reefers on his BR&W layout. All reefers that need icing get hauled up to Goose Valley where the ice dock is located.

On the AIR2 a scale will be located on the throat to the classification yard at Pettigrew. This is where all coal loads get weighed. Another scale is to be located at Littlerock Yard in East Charleston. 

I believe all merchandise freight, as opposed to coal, gets weighed here. I had not given much thought to bringing cars from across the layout to Littlerock for weighing. But I liked what I saw in practice at John’s layout, and think it will work here. 

I have a couple things I’d like to add or just keep in mind. Too much car weighing becomes a nuisance. I and several other friends have operated where extensive car weighing is a part of the operation. Additional copious paperwork is associated with these weighing operations. We all agree that this has VERY limited play value. With this in mind cars that need to be weighed should be just enough to “imply” that this goes on, but not so many as to dominate the job or session.

Secondly, I thought adding a couple tracks adjacent to the scale would add to the play value of this operation. Instead of back hauling all the cars back to staging, the cars could be classified into blocks for major destinations, then through trains could stop and pick up the appropriate cars on their way through town.

Since my “merchandise” scale is at Littlerock Yard, it’s a simple matter to pull the cars off the scale “tail” and classify them. I’ve assigned the Littlerock yard job to the scale track anyway, so it should not be a problem.

As cars are getting classified at Littlerock some sort of procedure and supporting trackwork will need to be included so all the cars for the Littlerock Switcher have a place to go*

The two locals that work across the entire layout from each end would gather a hand full of cars requiring weighing. These would be brought back to Littlerock where they would eventually make their way into the clutches of the Littlerock switcher. 

Finally, John King’s scale track is a gauntlet track, with working points to divert the locomotive away from the “live” rails. I wondered if these switch points were available commercially, so I asked on the OPSIG about it.

I got a multitude of answers and suggestions, but the conclusion was that these switch points were not available as Comercial track. But several people sent links to videos on how to build these gauntlet scale tracks. A very simple moveable switch point “looks” easy to build. Flex track would probably be ideal to build these switch points.

On John’s scale track I actually asked if he wanted us to divert the engine off the live scale tracks, and I was told no. So if the gauntlet isn’t used in practice, why build it?

*I wonder if CSX interchanges with NS to this day?

* I would call them “Action Bills” on the AIR.

*My system of action bills will divert a lot of cars to this job. Remember these action bills divert cars to the scale, ice dock, RIP track, clean out track; numerous locations.