Does anybody know of plans for a siding bumper made out of ties? I have need for several and scratch building should be easy.
Here’s a prototype one that I found on the Trainboard site: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/944/EndOfLine_Tehachipe.jpg
I just used a stack of ties against a pile of dirt (small piece of foam). If you plan to use it for end unloading, leave a coupler pocket to eliminate the gap between car and top tie.
Have seen them as simple as to ties crossed with their ends burried in the dirt each side of the tracks.
Good luck,
Richard
Probably the absolutely simplest is crossed ties. One end of each tie rests on top of a rail, the other end goes under the opposite rail and is buried in the ‘ballast’ (which, in the case of the unused end of a spur might simply be country dirt.) Where they cross, they might be held together with a single bolt through both, or a length of chain spiked to both.
The problem is, this is not magnetic coupler friendly. The fake air hose will stub its toe on the center of the ties long before the wheels get there.
Another. possibly better, design puts the ties vertical just inside the rails, with a ‘goal post’ across and two more pieces braced back to the rear. The cross timber can be raised above the coupler or be put at the same level as the coupler.
There is a prototype for a pile of ballast dumped on the rails. The BNSF did that at the east end of a length of former CRI&P main line used for car storage in Amarillo. On one of my several trips past it ten years or so ago there was a covered hopper high-centered on the pile. A little more push and it would have taken a dive onto a public road through where a bridge used to be…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with ballast-over-rail safety sidings)
Most of mine are of the pile o’ dirt type, but they’re not coupler-friendly if you’re a slap-dash kind of operator.
Wayne
I made my own using wooden toothpicks, which are the same size as HO scale ties…
If you bury the ties just enough – or cut them off at an angle, since they don’t really need to be buried in scale – that can lower what’s in the center enough to clear the coupler’s trip pin. In fact, I’ve got to do such an install today and I’ll try to get pics.
Here it is. The ties aren’t really buried, just cut at an angle and CA-ed in place. You’ll have less than half a tie, as if it’s that long, it will hit car steps, etc.
But when it’s short enough and angled carefully, it clears the steps, trip pin and even airhose/gladhands.
Placing each side at alternating tie spacings is probably more prototypical, but here I was press for space and wanted a nice even stop.
I use various bumper styles depending on the track.
This simple stop is wooden ties cut to length so the postion left above ground didn’t look too long. I ensured the installation would clear trip pins.
I found the following statement in a Rail America document (http://www.nrcma.org/download.cfm?ID=28033):
“Consideration should be given to allow adequate space between the last car spot and the bumping post to allow the car to be coupled into without striking the bumping post.”
So if the fake air hose is close enough to stub its toe, you are not operating properly.
they also have real operating brakes that keep the car from moving when being coupled [;)]
A properly weighted car with properly operating couplers will couple without having to be chased down the track until it hits a bumper.
It’s always good to try for that, individual results may vary. The prototype’s instruction seems to assume some small car movement. On the spur I installed the stops on today, two passenger cars just allows clearance at the turnout end. Wish there was more room there to imitate prototype practice, but I can live with the compromise of spotting the car against the bumper. Then it’s sure not going to be rolling away, too[:o)]