3 ms·

I've never seen this type of railroad cars in Europe.

by taubek 5y ago

geenew 5y ago
They must be rare, I’ve never seen them in North America.
- dbcurtis 5y ago
  Or, maybe you don’t spend a lot of time hanging around marshalling yards. You won’t see this go by very often while you wait at a crossing.
ummwhat 5y ago
In Europe they all used to be compared to the standard scale railcar which was kept in Paris. Recently standards have been updated to only rely on universal constants. So now European freight is measured in terms of the speed of light.
- gumby 5y ago
  > So now European freight is measured in terms of the speed of light. Europe expands high speed rail to freight while as usual US rail is stuck in a slow speed ghetto. I don't expect the US to even catch up, much less exceed this new speed challenge.
bombcar 5y ago
> Some yards have scales to weight freight cars to determine billing, acceptable axle loadings, etc. Periodically a test car will be put on the scale, and its reading better match the weight of the test car. Note that they are neurotic about handling these cars gently so nothing gets knocked off and changes the weight. My guess is the scale cars never leave the rail yard. But https://lionelllc.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/freight-car-friday-scale-test-cars/ https://lionelllc.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/freight-car-frida... says they're owned by the railroad and sent around so perhaps there's a chance. It sounds like they're most likely to appear on rails that carry bulk goods, and most railways now ship containers (which will be weighed otherwise, probably by the crane loading them).
Symbiote 5y ago
The second picture on Wikipedia is of a British one [1]. And [2] have modern ones for hire, but there's no picture. But [3] seem to use a crane and weights, rather than a truck. ("[Railroad] scale test car" is American, it should be something like "rail[way] weighbridge test truck" in British. I don't know this term in any other languages, so finding German and French ones is an exercise for someone else.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale_test_car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale_test_car [2] https://www.brash-scales.com/weighbridge-test-unit-hire https://www.brash-scales.com/weighbridge-test-unit-hire [3] https://www.wyjs.org.uk/calibration/testing-of-weights-and-measures-equipment/testing-of-automatic-rail-weighbridges/ https://www.wyjs.org.uk/calibration/testing-of-weights-and-m...

I've never seen this type of railroad cars in Europe.

by taubek 5y ago

I've never seen this type of railroad cars in Europe.

geenew 5y ago

They must be rare, I’ve never seen them in North America.

dbcurtis 5y ago
Or, maybe you don’t spend a lot of time hanging around marshalling yards. You won’t see this go by very often while you wait at a crossing.

ummwhat 5y ago

In Europe they all used to be compared to the standard scale railcar which was kept in Paris. Recently standards have been updated to only rely on universal constants. So now European freight is measured in terms of the speed of light.

gumby 5y ago
> So now European freight is measured in terms of the speed of light. Europe expands high speed rail to freight while as usual US rail is stuck in a slow speed ghetto. I don't expect the US to even catch up, much less exceed this new speed challenge.

bombcar 5y ago

> Some yards have scales to weight freight cars to determine billing, acceptable axle loadings, etc. Periodically a test car will be put on the scale, and its reading better match the weight of the test car. Note that they are neurotic about handling these cars gently so nothing gets knocked off and changes the weight. My guess is the scale cars never leave the rail yard. But https://lionelllc.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/freight-car-friday-scale-test-cars/ https://lionelllc.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/freight-car-frida... says they're owned by the railroad and sent around so perhaps there's a chance. It sounds like they're most likely to appear on rails that carry bulk goods, and most railways now ship containers (which will be weighed otherwise, probably by the crane loading them).

Symbiote 5y ago

The second picture on Wikipedia is of a British one [1]. And [2] have modern ones for hire, but there's no picture. But [3] seem to use a crane and weights, rather than a truck. ("[Railroad] scale test car" is American, it should be something like "rail[way] weighbridge test truck" in British. I don't know this term in any other languages, so finding German and French ones is an exercise for someone else.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale_test_car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale_test_car [2] https://www.brash-scales.com/weighbridge-test-unit-hire https://www.brash-scales.com/weighbridge-test-unit-hire [3] https://www.wyjs.org.uk/calibration/testing-of-weights-and-measures-equipment/testing-of-automatic-rail-weighbridges/ https://www.wyjs.org.uk/calibration/testing-of-weights-and-m...