Scale test car

Cars are weighed for various purposes. These include:

Cars are weighed to ensure they are within the axle load limits of the railroad.

Cars are weighed to determine (by subtracting the car's unloaded, or tare weight from the total weight) the amount of cargo loaded. This is used to bill the railroad's customers for the carriage of bulk commodities, so it is essential that the track scales be accurate.

Many scale test cars were small, old railroad cars carrying heavy metal weights as their superstructure. Scale test cars needed special handling so they would not suffer damage, which might alter their weight. They were reweighed periodically on accurate scales at the railroad's shops.AAR, Engineering Division, "Scale Handbook", Section 4.0{{cite book |last= |first= |author-link= |date=27 December 2010 |title=Weighing Handbook |url=https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/WeighingHB.pdf |location= |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture |pages=31–34 |chapter=SPECIFICATIONS, TOLERANCES, ANDOTHER TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR TESTING AND CERTIFYING OFFICIAL GRAIN WEIGHING DEVICES |isbn= |access-date=31 December 2024}}

• Rail weighbridge

{{reflist}}

• AAR, Engineering Division, "AAR Scale Handbook (2011)"
• USDA, AMS, Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), "Weighing Handbook" ch. 3, pp. 31-34, 27 December 2010 (Overall Document dated: April 2014) Retrieved: 08 June 2020

• NIST [http://nistdigitalarchives.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16009coll19/id/49/rec/15 circa 1913 scale test car and its transporter rail car]. One of its large calibration masses can be seen being hoisted onto the scale test car.

{{Freight cars}}

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Category:Maintenance of way equipment

Category:Mass

Category:Measuring instruments

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