I am working in HO, late steam. I have a copy of "HO trackside structures you can build". It gives the plan for a scale house which is great. However, it does not show what the actual scale looks like. It states "as a train rolls past, cars to be weighed are switched over to the live (or scale) rails and weighed. This practice could be simulated by laying a second set of rails a scale foot away from the existing ones and filing down the ends instead of installing a turnout." I am not sure how this would look. Would the ends of the live rails bend towards the main rails at their ends? Does anyone have a picture that I can look at or has anyone have advice on how to model this?
As always, thanks for all the help I receive from this forum.
wdcrvr
Here you go.
The scale house is a kit, although I don't recall whose right now. The gauntlet track arrangement was simulated by taking a couple of pieces of rail, bending the ends toward the running rails, and spiking down.
There will be a wood covering of the pit, which I did with stained stripwood cut to fit.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Yep, thats the way its done !!! Mine looks similar. I looked for a close up of my scale track, but didn't have one to post.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
The actual weight scale, inside the shed, looks like a warehouse beam scale on steroids, with a sliding weight and smaller hook-on weights to achieve precise balance.
Of course, the more modern versions use electronic strain gauges under the live rails and digital readouts.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
tomikawaTTThe actual weight scale, inside the shed, looks like a warehouse beam scale on steroids, with a sliding weight and smaller hook-on weights to achieve precise balance.
Chuck,
Oh, it's in there. Pardon the layout fuzz, I shoulda dusted first.
There was an article by Bill Darnaby back in 2000 or 2001 on building a working scale track - not working as in actually weighing cars, but working in that you actually switched points on each end to direct cars onto the live tracks and the loco to cross on the fixed track. This was also reproduced in Andy Sperandeo's book on railroad yard design.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
There was a presentation at this years NMRA Convention on building scales, the presenter even built a working one. You might try contacting the NMRA, I think they recorded the presentations.
Depending on your space and how you want to operate your RxR, you don't need to model the "live rails" on a scale. I worked for an in-plant RxR for a steel mill and their scale only had one set of rails. The scale was was on a short run-a-round track off the steel mill "main". To weigh a cut of cars, the engine pulled the cut on the main past both ends of the "scale track". Both ends of the scale track were lined for the scale, and the cut was shoved through the scale and weighed. The engine stopped just short of the scale when the last car was weighed (engine not allowed on scale). The cut was then pulled back in the opposite direction until it was back out on the main. The turnouts were re-lined for the main, and the engine then continued with the disposition of the cars.
Not as efficient as a scale with two sets of rails, but cheaper to install (read easier to model) and certainly adds opperational interest to the RxR.
Jim
jjryou don't need to model the "live rails" on a scale. I worked for an in-plant RxR for a steel mill and their scale only had one set of rails.
Certainly true. Many modern scales are set-up without the guantlet as they are not mechanical, but electronic, using strain gauges or whatever those things are called. It was the mechnical ones (like in my scale house that Chuck mentioned) that really couldn't handle repeated trips by locos over them without losing accuracy or being damaged.
Track freaks just love such things, so older scales with gauntlet tracks do get more than their share of attention in the model press. While I modeled live rails, mine are dead, just a couple of pieces of rail bent to suit. That's just easier to do, requires no maintenance. Your crews cna stoill get a pretty good workout at a scale with going through the motions of setting the car on the scale and then doing the paperwork.
mlehman tomikawaTT The actual weight scale, inside the shed, looks like a warehouse beam scale on steroids, with a sliding weight and smaller hook-on weights to achieve precise balance. Chuck, Oh, it's in there. Pardon the layout fuzz, I shoulda dusted first.
tomikawaTT The actual weight scale, inside the shed, looks like a warehouse beam scale on steroids, with a sliding weight and smaller hook-on weights to achieve precise balance.
VERY nice work, Mike.
I thought you did a good job of modeling a very light snowfall - the kind we get here in Las Vegas when the main fall is burying Mount Charleston in a foot of fresh powder.
tomikawaTTVERY nice work, Mike. I thought you did a good job of modeling a very light snowfall...SNIP
Thanks!
We do get snow here...
...but that was just a dusting of dust showing up with dramatic side lighting.
OP here. Thanks for all the helpful information.
Stewart used to make a kit for a working HO track scale. I've got most of one somewhere around here (one beam was missing in the kit--got it on sale). Since I never built it, I can't say to what extent it actually worked. But it was designed so that it shoulda.
Ed