What's the footprint for a typical yard track scale?

[OldEastRR]

I want to include one in my industrial area but need to know the size so I can arrange track to put one in. This would be just a general track scale, nothing big. Something like the Walthers HO version. Somebody once made a scale bldg. in N laser-cut, but I can't remember who.

[Blazeman]

If you have access to Model Railroader indexes, I recall they had a few articles over the years about scale houses and some had Giessel's drawings as part of it.

You could use a Walther's crossing shanty as the "house" part and be accurate in so far as what you are portraying.

[u18b]

They are not very big.

Do a google search.  Lots of info.

Here is one on the Alaska RR that is being repaired or demolished.

http://www.alaskarails.org/stories/ARR-Combs-2010/pix/DG-scales.jpg

[wcfn100]

Here's an NP one.

NP 50' Track Scale House

Jason

[John]

[NYC1956]

The pictures John posted are representative of typical scale installations.
The scale platform is just long enough to support the expected cars.
Look closely, though, and you will see two sets of rails. One set is supported by the scale platform; the other set on a firm base.
That is to allow locomotives and heavy traffic to avoid the delicate weighing mechanism.
Two sets of points at either end are used to route traffic over or away from the scale. It is similar to a gantlet track, like on a narrow bridge where two tracks are necked down. This arrangement necessarily increases the footprint of your scale installation.
You don't necessarily have to have functioning points - just the second set of rails to create the effect.
In practice, a spacer car may be used, to push or pull the car to be weighed on the scale while the locomotive uses the alternate set of rails.
Blair line makes a laser cut kit for a scale house that looks like the one in the second photo above.

[wcfn100]

The scale platform is just long enough to support the expected cars.

Not always.  Many scale were put in before the cars longer than 50' became the norm and especially before 89' cars were around.  In this case the car is weighed twice (once with each truck on the scale).

And there aren't always two tracks even though that's probably very much the norm.

Here's the scale track at Waterloo, IA






At one time the track at the far right (in the first photo) had a trailer ramp [mostly] for Rath meat packing.  Those cars couldn't be weighed all at once.

Jason

[Dave Schneider]

I had a scale track custom built for me by a fellow who builds custom turnouts. The cost a couple of years ago was $90 with shipping. Here are the results. According to the prototype plan I found the distance between the points is 210 ft or 15.75 inches in N. I reduced it slightly to 14 inches.









My tiny scale house.



Best wishes, Dave

[u18b]

Dave,
That is way cool.  I like it.

[Dave Schneider]

Thanks Ron. A scale track can really add some interest to operations, as you know. On the Beer Line it was used to weigh outbound loads of spent grain. Plus I have a destination for my MTL scale test car! It would be cool if Atlas added something like this to their line of RTR track at some point.

Best wishes, Dave

[mu26aeh]

Jason

Though it is only 1 set of tracks, it's interesting to note the cuts in the rail.

[peteski]

Though it is only 1 set of tracks, it's interesting to note the cuts in the rail.

How could you properly weight a car if it was partially supported by a continuous steel rail?     It needs to be cut.

[Chris333]

Old steel mill scale with track removed:

The "house" next to it is actually a 2 story "tower".
http://binged.it/1EM16pO

[OldEastRR]

So we're looking at a footprint of a platform (containing the rails and scale) and a small shed that could fit in the space between two tracks 14' or so  apart? Roughly double the spacing of regular ladder tracks?
Yeah, I went to look up the Walthers HO scale but the description didn't include the footprint measurements.
I would think if the shed is between the scale track and a mainline there'd be more clearance needed. I might have to do that to get all the track geometry to the factories to fit in the space allotted.
I'm using a scalehouse to disguise a rerailer track as a scale and platform. I cut off the rerailer ramps even with the ends of the ties and glued some sheet styrene there to duplicate a concrete platform. I wasn't going to include the 2nd set of rails, but I might try putting in dummy ones.