Here is what I use to get a decent idea of rolling stock weight. The scale cost between $15.00 to $20.00. I like gadgets
Very accurate. I took it to the local post office and they said it was very accurate for the price and what I am doing. I also use it for checking letter weight.
I power it up, it shows zero oz, put the ruler on it, hit the Tare button, it shows zero, put a HO scale car on it, read the weight. It shuts off automatically after a couple minutes. It shows 1.782 oz.
I got mine off of ebay about two years ago. I originally got it to measure resins for resin casting.
(http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l267/richg1998/Misc/Scale.jpg)
Rich
The ability to zero any added platform is a great feature. I just have an old spring postal scale, has a "zero" adjust knob for a platform.
What's the weight range? (maximum)
Your local Harbor Freight store has a nice one.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93543 (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93543)
Just looked at mine, capacity of 17.64 oz. This scale will also show weight in grams.
My wife works for Weight Watchers and I was able to purchase a nice kitchen scale (that features a tare button) for a very low price. The only problem is that a 50' car just barely fits on the weighing surface - forcing me to lay it on its side. This scale measures in grams or ounces; and is battery powered.
RichG, I was under the impression that your layout was based in the late 19th or early 20th century. That being the case, why is there a 16-wheel flat car (with a wooden deck and fittings) present? Oh right...it is a company owned special order car that hauls large stationary boilers. Looks nice.
Ray
The scale has a 300 gram limit. A little light for some locos. A 500 gram would be a better choice.
I have seen questions in forums about car weight and wanted to show people that there are inexpensive digital scales available.
I model 1900 and the car photo according to White is 1901. The Wabash built two wooden cars around 1897. Close enough for me.
Rich
What's a gram? I have a nice digital scale from Micro Mark, goes up to 4-5 lbs I believe. I think it is a kitchen scale by orginal design (it came with a nice plastic bowl that sets on it), but Micro Mark markets it directly as a scale for model train rolling stock. Have yet to find a loco too heavy for it anyway.
Sheldon
Quote from: Atlantic Central on May 06, 2009, 11:35:18 AM
What's a gram? I have a nice digital scale from Micro Mark, goes up to 4-5 lbs I believe. I think it is a kitchen scale by orginal design (it came with a nice plastic bowl that sets on it), but Micro Mark markets it directly as a scale for model train rolling stock. Have yet to find a loco too heavy for it anyway.
Sheldon
Google can be a great help. I use it a lot.
http://www.google.com/search?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=gram+weight&btnmeta%3Dsearch%3Dsearch=Search+the+Web
Digital scales have a switch for Mode. Grams, Ounces.
Rich
Anybody remember in the 70's when we were sort of voluntarily going to switch to metric? DOT even mandated that those distance signs that say things like, "Pittsburgh 50 miles" woud say, "Pittsburgh 50 miles 80KM." I do metric if I have to, but I'm too much of a curmudgeon to WANT to! :-\
Rusty
Yes, I remember those days. i was a US Navy contractor in Puerto Rico were distances were measure in Kilometers and would take business trips to to St Croix were you drive on the left side of the road. Fun turning a corner and you wanted to stay on the right side of the road by habit.
Re-gearing with NWSL helped me with Metrics and being a machine mechanic with a new machine made in the UK was quite interesting. Had to stock American parts for US machines and metric parts for the UK machine.
I have a URL in Firefox that takes me to a Metric conversion site.
http://www.worldwidemetric.com/metcal.htm
I have a Formula folder for many types of formula conversion sites that are much easier to use than using a calculator.
The Internet has made stuff like this so much easier.
Rich
Americans, having troubles with the metric system, is something I will never understand. The metric system is based on 10...which means you can convert from say millimeters (or milliliters or milligrams) to kilometers (or kiloliters or kilograms) simply by moving the decimal point. How easier can it get? Still like the SAE system? OK, take your height in inches and convert it to miles NO CALCULATORS ALLOWED! Tomorrow class we will convert ounces into tons...there will be a pop quize on this material.
RichG, just kidding with you. I like the car and somewhere in my resource library is a photograph of a similar 16-wheeled flat car that was owned by (I think) Baldwin. This car was constructed of cast iron and wood and was used to transport whole stationary boiler assemblies from the factory to the job site. How they moved such a huge/heavy item without the use of modern trucks and cranes is beyond me...but they obviously did. Oh...I think some of the subassemblies for the Poughkeepsie (NY) Railroad Bridge [1887 - 1893] were brought in on a similar car. That is the trouble with having a somewhat extensive 19th century reference library...I can't easily find something when I want. I checked Carlton Mabee's book Bridging the Hudson, Purple Mountain Press (2001) and haven't come up with the picture.
Ray
Hey, Ray,
The trouble for Americans, or anyone else using pounds and ounces, is that there has to be someplace to start. I have no problem with miles - kilometers because years ago I had a little Austin A55 sedan and the speedometer was marked in MPH and KPH. I eventually noticed that the 50 MPH mark and the 80 KPH mark were the SAME mark. Hence, I can remember that 1 KM = 5/8 mile. I'm a little shakier with volumn. About all I can remember is that 750 mL is about a fifth. ??? LOL But you are absolutely right...the metric system is much easier, once you get started.
Rusty
CNE runner, I can convert metric to English and back again(without a calculator). We were taught that many years ago in Elementry School. Use to call it Grade School! lol They don't even teach where to find to conversion tables at these days! And I'm just an old Mountaineer from way back too!
Sheldon, I have the same scale from Micro Mark and it performs very well. Mine also has a Tare setting and oz to gram setting as well. It was a kitchen scale and Micro Mark, in an attempt to show how financially sound they are, didn't even change the box. lol Stephen
richG,
I was being sarcastic, I was born into an English world and prefer to stay there.
My work is Architectural Design, and Restoration of Historic Buildings. Metrics don't work well at all in Architecture. The inherent beauty of the English system is the ability to divide the standard unit by both 4 and 3, and its natural link to human proportion. That's why conversion to metrics has never, and likely never will be complete.
Not only that, the NMRA Standards and RP's I got when I joined in 1967 are all in ounces.
Sheldon
Up here in Canada we seem to be stalled half way in our conversion to metric and end up using both systems, even in our day to day life. Meat, for example, is priced by the pound in the ads but sold by the kilogram in the store. Television gives the day's temperature in degrees Celsius but my oven is calibrated in degrees Fahrenheit. We had to give up our imperial gallons in favour of four litre metric containers. But now things are sold in American gallons - strange how the quantity got smaller with each change but the price went up.
For some of us mixed measurement are no problem - after years of building scientific instruments in both inches and millimeters, I finally learned to use both at once. But it is difficult for school kids who are being taught only metric and have no idea what an inch, a yard or a gallon is. And even harder on seniors who have no feel for the metric units - it is 30 degrees outside: do I put on a parka, a sweater or a tee shirt?
Some of it is downright ludicrous. Buildings are designed in feet and inches, then converted to metric and drawn in metric because that is what the bureaucrats insist on. On the job site, the plans are commonly converted back to feet and inches because that is what materials come in. Plywood is usually sold in 4' x 8' sheets but in metric thickness. To make it even more confusing, the metric thickness is usually named by its closest inch equivalent, "1/2" plywood for example is only 11 mm thick (slightly less than 7/16"). The only exception is 1/4" underlay which is actually 1/4" thick to meet code requirements. Sheldon would love it. As for me, when it comes to woodworking, I do it all in inches and feet, largely because estimating 3658 millimeters is a nonstarter while estimating 12 feet in a no brainer.
Jim
Jim,
Here in the US, there is no push or requirement from government regarding metric use. Some things are noted in both or ocasionally just in metric. No problem for me. Prepackaged food weights are usually in both, but anything bought by individual weight like meat is still in pounds/ounces.
Cars have been a combination of both for 3 decades now, and even domestic brands are more and more metric with each new model.
But the construction industry remains firmly in English measurement with the exception you noted, plywood thickness often being noted in both.
The most amazing thing is the number of small machine type items, like the new push mower I bought last year, made partly in China and partly here, that are 100% SAE, not a metric nut or bolt to be found.
The metric system has advandages for some things, and not for others, for construction work it is rediculous. All notions that metric is universally easier ignor its lack of relationship to human proportion.
Sheldon
Before I entered a career as a psychologist, I was a high school chemistry/physics teacher. Just about every student entered my class terrified about the metric system. I told them in my class, for the academic year, we would keep the apples with the apples - and the oranges with the oranges...in other words, we would NOT convert between the two measuring systems (there are lots of devices/charts that can assist you with that task). My students became very proficient in metrics and realized the value of a system of measurement in base 10.
In 1970 I purchased a Land Rover 88 HTD (a real Land Rover...the kind they no longer sell in the U.S.). This vehicle required three kinds of wrenches and sockets: SAE, metric, and Whitworth! Working on the old girl was always interesting. I had that vehicle for 13 years and put on something like 260,000 miles - only [reluctantly] selling her when the frame became terminal. Moving between the three systems of measurement was easy as long as I didn't try to convert from one to the other.
Just my two cents (or its equivalent in euros),
Ray