Track bumpers ?

[nucat78]

(Sorry if this is a double post - my browser burped)

This isn't a bumper but there's a BNSF spur in west Aurora, IL that has the rails bent inward with no bumper. I guess that's enough to stop a car from rolling off.

If you want a prototype reason to omit a bumper here and there, there it is. Although maybe the rails are bent inward for some other reason.

[MisterBeasley]

Evergreen makes styrene I-beams. I use their product number 284. I've bought a lot of these for my subway stations and tunnels. You could cut short pieces of these, glue them together in a tee-pee configuration, and paint and weather them. Alternately, you could combine these with short pieces of rail.

Use your imagination. Sooner or later, you may discover that you've become a scratchbuilder. [:D]

[claycts]

Our Rivet counter is getting pictures of the bumpers used on the Central New Jersey in 1950's and we will scratch build them. YEA RIGHT!
I will use modified atlas and the Walthers WHEN they get them in stock again!!
For now we are using 63 push pins on the sidings, yards, etc. Not very prototype BUT they will stop anything even at full throttle, (DON'T ASK)[:I]

[Bob grech]

Here is pic of one of the 9 track bumpers used on my layout. They are easy and inexpensive to make. The bumpers were made using scale 10 x 12 wood (cross member) and 8 x 8 wood (vertical and rear supports). The wood was weathered with alcohol and ink then detailed with (Grandt Line) nut/bolt castings.

[ham99]

I use the Walthers end-of-track bumpers. The look much better than the Atlas models. However, I have cut some of the Atlas bumpers off of their bases and glued them to regular track. That looks much better to me.

[tomikawaTT]

Track bumpers come in a variety of flavors:

Vital stop, to prevent a plunge into the Tomikawa - massive 'concrete' block with a flat 'steel' impact plate at coupler height. (Track is used by locomotives during engine changes.)

Important track, but not supercritical - Walthers EOT bumpers. (Single ended classification tracks, end of the switching lead, freight house and team tracks.)

"Soft stop" track - catches brake failures before the beginning of a long downgrade - a mound of ballast 250mm long (20m in 1/80 scale) over the rails in front of a Walthers bumper.

Storage spurs, especially on the private short line - a tie or two chained to the rail two ties from the end, or a pile of ballast.

One glance and even a casual visitor can tell that it's more important to keep steam locomotives out of the river than to keep the far end of some odd piece of near-scrap non-revenue rolling stock out of the dirt.

Chuck

[tstage]

I'm with Bruce. The Walthers Hayes track bumpers are a good deal for the money:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3511

I paint mine a grimy black and glue a couple pieces of 10 x 10" dimensional wood sections on the bottom.


[Click to enlarge)

This makes them easier to move them around, they stay in place, and they REALLY work, like their prototypes.


[Click to enlarge)

Tom

[MisterBeasley]

I like the Walthers ones. They come in a pack of 12 for about 10 bucks. They're just black plastic, but I paint mine first with cheap black acrylic (to flatten the plastic gleam) and then I give them a thin rusty wash. I put a black-and-yellow diagonal zebra stripe on the pad of some of them, just for variety.

[Anonymous]

I also have the Atlas Bumpers attached to the track. Try this, tape the track and spray paint the black plastic with a can of brown primer. I'vd done this to all of my bumpers and what used to look toylike actually doesn't look too bad right now.

[Anonymous]

I have the Atlas style that are built on the track.
They are totally non-prototype as far as I am concerned, and will buy or make some realistic ones.

[jbinkley60]

Do folks have a favorite track bumper for spurs ? Do you even use them or only under certain conditions ? I have a bunch fo the Atlas plastic ones that snap in between the rails but they aren't the most realistic looking bumpers. I know Lifelike and other make lighted ones but I am not sure if they are of any value or work on DCC.