What Bumper!!!

[Sascha]

I was wondering what bumper to use in what situation. Are they for certain train types or for a specific area?

[HantuBlauLOL]

Take a look on the real location that you want to model.. The last one seems to be appeared in old terminus and freight yards..

[katoftw]

bumper A - concrete block, found in modern built yards and sidings.

bumper B - wooden 3 sided box filled with ballast, middle era.

Bumper C - old style, steam era, but as above still will be found across many yards.

[Sascha]

Thanks guys!!!

[Jcarlton]

I think the different bumpers are not so much a function of time as function and what they need to protect. For instance the steel bumper is designed to slide along the track and stop the train with a moderate stop. you place them where there is some stopping distance available and the bumper self destructs rather than the train being heavily damaged. They are useful where the train doesn't move very fast anyway, like the end of a branch. Where I live in Norwalk CT there's a Hayes type steel bumper like that and it's been replaced at least twice that I know if after it was trashed by the Danbury dink. The wood bumper is something a rural shortline would make from readily available materials. Ie ties and ballast. It's used to derail a slow moving train so that it doesn't go all over the landscape out of control. It's also cheap. The concrete bumper is used to protect things like buildings that are at the end of the track and the consequences of a runaway mandate that if the train overruns the end of track, the train is stopped even if the train is heavily damaged. That is if the train isn't moving fast enough that almost nothing will stop it, which actually happened to a train running into Washington Union Station and putting a GG1 in the basement.

[Ewan.in.gz]

I have seen bumper B style ones used in at least 2 Shinkansen Depot yards, the one serving the Tokaido Shinkansen at Shinagawa, and the Sendai Shinkansen Depot on the Tohoku Shinkansen. I believe the Osaka Shinkansen yard also uses them.

[Ewan.in.gz]

Oh, now I come to think of it, I have also seen the "Hayes" type (that would be bumper C in the Unitrack range) in the storage yards at Shinkansen depots!

[Mudkip Orange]

That is if the train isn't moving fast enough that almost nothing will stop it, which actually happened to a train running into Washington Union Station and putting a GG1 in the basement.

 

"It looks like it's smiling..."

 

[cteno4]

Good old silver streak! Not the best of the wilder movies, but at least on a train...

 

Jeff