Monon's scale car #80020

[George Lortz]

Attached is a photo of the Monon's scale car #80020 recently found on the Internet.  This brings up two questions.

1) What material did they use to fill the car to regulate the weight?

2) Where on the Monon were scales used?

George L.

[Mike Aufderheide]

George,

I have heard that the weight of the scale test car was regulated with pieces of scrap iron placed in a compartment accessed from side hatches.   The scale locations I have are from reweigh locations of freight cars: 

S. Hammond
Monon
Indianapolis
Lafayette
Michigan City
McDoel
Midland
New Albany
Wallace Jct.

Regards,

Mike Aufderheide

[George Lortz]

Thanks for the research, Mike.  That's quite a few locations.

George L.

[Steve Dolzall]

I'm certain there was a scale track at Bedford also.

Steve

[Mike Aufderheide]

Steve,

When I read this the first thing that came to mind is a photo of the B&B wye area in Bedford.  See page 55 of Monon in Color.  The narrow building over top of #21 has always looked like a scale house to me.  The rails in front of this area also look like they belong to a scale. Tim Swan, have you heard of anything there?  Maybe the scale belonged to The Indiana Limestone Co.?

As an aside, I am surprised there isn't a list of scales in the Colonel Cheshire's desktop report.  Has anyone seen a list?

Regards,

Mike Aufderheide

[Steve Dolzall]

Yes, I'm pretty sure you are correct, that was the scale location.

Steve

[Ron Marquardt]

There was a scales at Gosport too.  / Ron

[Eric Reinert]

Did they build this out of an old retired steam locomotive tender? It's got the trucks for it.

[Mike Aufderheide]

Eric,

Most of the tender trucks I've seen that the Monon used had leaf springs rather than the helical springs here.  They look to me like the Andrews trucks used on most of the Monon's freight cars in the teens and twenties.  Most of the cars were gone by the end of the war, but their trucks lasted much longer.

Mike

[Ron Marquardt]

For the record, attached is a crop from the last Monon timetable showing the nine locations of scales still in use on the railroad.  I also looked for the speed restriction when handling the scale car, and couldn't find it, but if memory serves correctly, it had to be handled on the rear of a local, and the speed was restricted to 25 mph.  I'm was told that sometimes that little short wheelbase thing would really cut up back there.  / Ron