From: ce11son@yahoo.ca

On Tue, 5 Aug 2014 08:46:37 -0400, "conklin"
 wrote:

>
>"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.
>
In the right place it probably would (but only "probably"). I can't
see it getting past the relevant approvals body though. ;-)

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