What's your Branch line Car Stop Like?


Trussrod

Well-Known Member
As many of you may know I'm modeling a turn of the century Rail line and though I had previously made up some heavy timber car stops in the form of an upright fence/barier with bracing I thought some different types might lend a different effect for different areas, especially readly seen sidings.

Right now I have two branch line siddings on the outside that I need to put car stops at. I'm after realism as it might appear on various old lines. I can remember seeing many years back in Canoga Park, on the West side of San Franando valley just a pile of dirt acting as a car stop for the wheels.

I'm considering using some ties piled up as a stop but wanted to see what others might be doing?

I'll ad some pictures as I make more progress.
 
David, my yard just has two ties buried at right angles in the dirt as car stops. A pile of dirt or ballast was also common. Before steel car stops, most were built of braced heavy timber. Given your era, I'd vote for timber car stops.
 
That good info and somewhat to my thinking too, I'm going to use several types to add interest as I don't want them to all be the same. I also imagine an old tie that had a couple of notches cut in it for the rail head to fit in could also be used when placed on top of another tie attadched to it. Just trying to come up with somedifferent ideas.

I do like the ballest/dirt pile too.
 
I use this type but I'm more toward the end of the 20th century.

PC170298.jpg
 
To save the cars from a concrete wall (or is that save the concrete wall from the cars):
normal_DSC00310.JPG


Normal "cheap" stopper:
normal_DSC01308.JPG


And the ties Jim was talking about:
normal_DSC00309.JPG
 
Hi Jeffery & Josh,

Thanks to both of you for your info & pictuires;

Jeffery, your right that the heavy Iron car stop is a little to new for my area but your picture is appreciated.


Josh, those were great pictures, did you take them? The two more modern Iron type of car stops are just that, too new for my era. But the Wooden cross buck design is interesting and the picture clearly shows how it was constructed which is appreciated as I wasn't sure just how that was constructed. I bet a couple lengths of rail could also be used in place of the timbers. this helps to give me more ideas, Great!

Also, the last shot shows just what a partially suken or filled in spur looks like along with all the weeds and debri around, adds a lot of interest and just what I'm looking for.

Btw, to add weeds that won't affect the rolling of your cars of engines but do bend and sway with the passing cars and trains you can use some soft synthetic fibers from a old piece of straight haired rug or mat. I've done this on a prior layout and it looks very real as the the wheels pass by.

Thanks again to both of you.
 
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I'm a big fan of the Tomar stops, both wheel and Bumpers. Here are the wheel stops, I don't have any shots of the Bumpers, but they are nice as well.
Only issue is they aren't as tight on MicroEngineering rail as they are on Atlas track. You can get around this by squeezing the bottom of them to fit the rail better and then CA it.
tomar_wheelstop.jpg
 
over the years (but not back quite to the turn of THAT century...) I've seen a lot of ways to stop 'em in real life: a pile of dirt, a pile of ties, a few well places old ties (never new ones!), a large dollop of concrete (seriously) as well as the usual "store-bought" types. A lot of older sidings are so covered in weeds that it gets hard to see where the rails end.

speaking of weeds, I use the taller ones to keep freely rolling cars on the sidings that may not be perfectly flat. They catch the axles and hold the car in place and look great. But they aren't so strong that cars can't roll past them when you position them with power .
 
Hi CIOR,

Thanks for the post but those stops are way too modern for my 1900's Turn of the Century RR.

Also as you already brought up I'm track by Railcraft, code 70 for the main line and code 55 for the spur lines so stops like those are way too big as code 55 is almost half the size of code 100. It's really tiny in compareson but the two lighter weight rails sure look proportional to the older 2-8-0 Consilidations etc.
 
Hi Ken,
Yes, I too can remember seeing what looked to me like a pile of dirt covering the rail end in much earlier times and possibly saw others that I didn't take note of for one reason or another. But I appreciate your mentioning the various styles as that's what I want to incorporate on my layout that is under construction and will have a number of sidings to various industries so the variety should be interesting.

Actually, I imagine that in most cases whatever was the most prominate material readly available is what was used and so ballast was probably readly available and wouldn't tend to wash away. I just had a heck of an idea for a very unique stop, if it works I post a picture or two.

Talk with you later.


The use of semi-stiff weeds to hold cars on sloping sidings is a very unique idea indeed and I may incorporate that if the situation arrises. That one way to set hand breaks on the cars.
 
I once saw an article in MR where Andy Sperandeo used a Tortoise motor that actuated a hunk of wire to catch the axle of a caboose on a portion that was on a grade that often has cabeese spotted on it. Not quite and end-of-track solution, maybe useful on a sloped track someplace.
 
Hi CIOR,

Thanks for the post but those stops are way too modern for my 1900's Turn of the Century RR.

Also as you already brought up I'm track by Railcraft, code 70 for the main line and code 55 for the spur lines so stops like those are way too big as code 55 is almost half the size of code 100. It's really tiny in compareson but the two lighter weight rails sure look proportional to the older 2-8-0 Consilidations etc.

David,
Something that I've seen in pictures of the line I model, when it was built, they would use boulders! I've seen pictures of coal dumped on the ends of the track as well.
Of course, old ties are a good common method, but I'm not sure when that started.
You might google up
Hayes Track Appliance Co
There is a ton of patent info on there with dates applicable.
Nice railroad reference too.
 
Ok guys, it's taken me awhile but here's a shot showing how I used some old ties, distressed & weathered, for a car stop on the Anglin Oil Spur.

Anglin_Oil_Piled_Tie_Spur_Bumper_-_Crvs_Exp_-_Reszd_605x403_DSCF5233.jpg
 
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Jim, thanks for alerting me, I thought you guys would be able to click on it and enlargen it to view it more clearly??

I wonder why it won't enlarge when clicked on?

I'll have to check into that!? If Willus or others know let me know kindly. The image is a Jpg of sufficent size so it should enlarge fine. I'm downloading the same as I do my other shots and lately they have all been enlargable as far as I know so this is odd.

Hopefully I'll get it corrected.
 



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