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Trackside Warning Signs
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"Limit of Shunt" boards are Fixed Signals and the property of the S&T NOT warning signs... Speed Restrictions, Mileposts (and 1/4 - 1/2 - 3/4 - indicated by one, two and three spots or horizontal stripes) are Pway responsiblity (That's MoW). It occurs to me that I don't know for certain who dealt with "Catch Point" warning posts... P Way I think. <br /> <br />"Catch Points" were sprung points (switches) set to be open to derail anything running away downhill against the normal direction of travel... on DOUBLE lines... anything running right direction up the grade pushed them shut to run safely through. Once past the catch point anything that broke away would run back as far as the catch point where it would be tipped off... better than running back into another train. They remained in use until all trains became fully fitted with automatic brakes sometime in the mid 70s. There is still a warning board in place on the Down line from Birmingham on the approach to Stafford... nobody's nicked it or scrapped it because it's about 8' tall and must weigh at least a ton. It's MASSIVE. <br />I have seen pictures of an automatic catch point on a single line in Scotland. This was not the effect of the local brew... A single line section had a severe grade so the catch point was provided... within a length of gauntletted track. In either direction sprung facing pointsdirected the train through the left hand route (Like the C&NW we run on the correct side :-) ). At the end of the short length of gauntletted track trains simply pu***hrough back onto the single track. Down hill the track was unswitched, up hill it included the catch point. <br />I think I recall one other example??? <br /> <br />I don't know whether you had anything similar in the US. <br /> <br />I've seen articles on derails and have a couple of kits. <br /> <br />Rather than derails at the ends of yards (and other locations) we almost always used "Trap Points"... these could be a single switch blade normally open to tip anything trying to escape off in the most safe direction. They were often two blades. Some led into sand traps and others were the entry to shunting necks... but that's a whole different set of stories.
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