QUOTE (mole_man99 @ 22 Nov 2007, 18:04)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi
Anybody have any idea of the exact dimensions of a typical Pooley weighbridge, as in the pic. This one is at Goathland.
Cheers
Hi Mole man
This one looks to be a 16'x8'.It is quite old, the ribbing on the plates was to give horses something to grip on, the next type had the ribbing just down the centre and chequer plate on the sides to finally chequer plate all over. Newer type then went to 9' wide and various lengths and electronic weighing devices replaced the mechanical lever system.Henry Pooley were part of the W & T Avery scales company. They dealt mainly on the industrial side ( the railways,NCB,various steel works etc) and on the GWR had their own vans. Weighbridges came in 3 forms, the ones for road use being the most common (there used to be signs denoting public weighbrige) next came the rail ones which in my time as an Avery employee went up to a combination of 3 machines all interlinked, lastly there was a road /rail weighbridge which was usually a 20'x8' with the rail track down the centre. If you can get access to the weighing mechanism on Avery/Pooley machines the first 2 digits of the serial number denote the year the machine was built, when this started I do not know but is valid from the 1950's at least. The mistake on lots of models is the placing of the steelyard. Mostly there were right hand steelyard i.e. with the weighing mechanism in front of you the steelyard was on the right side. Pooley machines were painted dark green and Avery ones red.
Regards Bizerba