Does anyone out there have a print, photo, or other material on the Fairbanks track scales which were in use on the Frisco in the early 1900s? I'm especially interested in the switch and frog arrangements.
Attached are the patent drawings from several flavors of track scales, circa 1906 through 1924. I am unaware of any track configuration in which frogs were used, and the gauntlet section used with points only. No doubt there are exceptions. The Boulder Creek Model is pretty slick. http://www.bouldercreekengineering.com/weighstation.php A nicely done, non-working, track-scale model. I have the Northern Division B&B inventory which lists the basic dimensions of each scale house on the division. The Rosedale house was especially interesting, and it contained the yard office, and scale equipment. It would make nice model.
Thanks for the help Karl! I guess I failed with the attachments on the original post. Will try again. Attempting to post (1) Frisco scale operating rules, (2) cost of 4 scales including Arcoal, AR) and (3) the track layout at Arcoal, Mansfield Branch, which is the scale I am currently researching. In 1907 the only scale on the Mansfield Branch seems to have been the one located at the K&T Mines at Huntington. Bache-Denman and Frisco were installing a scale at Arcoal in 1907 on the grading for a new coal mine. I don't know if this scale was exclusively the mining company's or was for general Frisco use. The mine (Coronado) was destroyed in the 1914 mine riots and those tracks removed soon after. I have no information on when the Frisco scale at the Arcoal depot was installed, shown on the 1918 chain map, but the mine tracks are missing from this drawing and so had already been removed. The dead rail track at Arcoal was 714' long and the live rail track at the scale was 213'. The scale tracks, scale house and scales at Arcoal were retired in 1925 with the station building following in 1928.
John, For what it's worth, the Frisco Lines "Official List of Officers, Stations, Agents, Etc." No. 18, dated May 1, 1926, still shows track scales at "Arkoal, Ark." Fairbanks scale, 150 ton capacity, 50 ft. length. I could see, however, where the guide could have been behind in its updates. And, while I don't have drawings, the Fairbanks scales certainly tend to dominate. The exceptions were Howe scales at Ft. Scott, KS, Weir, KS and Chickasha, OK, and "Strait" scales at Afton, OK, and Scammon, KS. Best Regards,
I've just about given up trying to assign exact dates to historic "events". I have a copy of an early Central Division ETT which apparently shows a spur still in use that another document shows had at least some of the rails pulled over three years earlier. The date I gave came from a Frisco's property change records index.
