From: nilknocgeo@earthlink.net

"Charles Ellson"  wrote in message
news:csuot9toui5a2uuokiu924r7vkicmkts6n@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 2 Aug 2014 00:46:58 +0000 (UTC), David Lesher
>  wrote:
>
>>John Albert  writes:
>>
>>
>>>Yes, George, they still use them.
>>
>>>Blocks, or chocks.
>>
>>>After you tie down a piece of equipment with the hand brake,
>>>you find something (wheel chock, or just a piece of wood)
>>>and wedge it between the wheel and rail.
>>
>>Is there such a thing as a chock that is bolted to the rail; and
>>restrains a consist, not just a sole car?
>>
> I've seen devices on television programmes (in German marshalling
> yards and/or sidings ?) like a pair of scotches hinged longitudinally
> so that they rest on the railheads when in use which should hold a
> fair number of vehicles; out of use they swing down on to the
> sleepers. They were similar to some derailers but designed without
> that function in mind.
> I don't recall seeing a more mobile version (i.e. something suitable
> for carrying on a locomotive) but even a basic wooden scotch which
> isn't secured to the rail has been observed to put up a fair bit of
> resistance when I watched someone trying to move a train without
> removing the scotch first. On roughly 50% of occasions, carrying such
> devices (the heavy duty version not the Mk1 piece of wood) on a
> locomotive will guarantee they are at the wrong (uphill) end of the
> train anyway; the amount of metalwork to be moved probably won't do
> the crew any good either (before worrying about lack of daylight,
> weather etc.) so in the end you're back to securing individual
> vehicles. The traditional "fail safe" is a hand brake but plan B could
> be something that depends on a locking/pinning action rather than
> clamping a wheel/disk; if it is easier to apply than a handbrake then
> there is also less incentive not to use it.

I guess, from what you write, even a good-sized tree branch would work some
of the time.

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