Some comments about track scales. Most if not all Gravity(Hump) yards will have a weigh-in-motion scale at or near the apex of the hump. Not just to provide the weight of the car for billing reasons; but the computer controlling the hump will use the information to set the retarder function so that the car gets to the proper place in the bowl and the targeted 4 mph. A lot of grain elevators will have a scale for inbound trucks as mentioned but will also have a scale attached to the bucket or bin that the grain goes thru before being loaded into whatever outbound method is being used. If the original poster looked closely I would guess that there might not be any brake shoes on the car in the picture either as the wear of the shoes will give a different reading because of wear. Without doing the research in the special instructions, Idnr where the instructions require such cars be placed in trains now days. I would think they would have to be covered by at least one car. While not as many as in the past there are still many RR and private scales in service. If you move a lot of tonnage it still is easier to have your own scale nearby rather than have to wait the several days to get the weights from the nearest rail point with a scale. Then if you happen to have an overload problem its triple the time to get the car back and enroute again. Of course the other side of that is you don't want to be sending cars out short loaded. One has to wonder if back in the days the SP ore and beet trains were ever weighed, not. Andy