A Southern Rwy scale test car sits in the Wheel Balancing Shed at Spencer shops, NC. The shed, built in 1944, houses a set of eight Fairbanks scales connected to the tracks where steam locomotives were positioned with their driving wheels on the scales to be individually weighed, up to eight at a time. Using the weight provided by the scales, shop workers could then balance the wheels of the locomotives, by either adding or removing lead from the large counter weight attached to the spokes of each driving wheel, much like how automotive wheels are balanced. Despite being constructed later in Southern Railway’s steam era, the Wheel Balancing Shed saw extensive use during the latter years of World War II, a time when Spencer Shops was also servicing the steam locomotives of other Railroads.
For many years this shed was closed off but is now open to the public for viewing.
