I have been wanting to get pictures and post them to see if anyone had any information on how old these wheelstops were?
They are located on a deadend siding near the roundhouse in Martinsburg, WV. They are marked The Friction Car Stop, Cleveland Ohio. They are made of heavy steel and seems like they raise the whole truck wheel and all before they reach the stop. I would really appreciate and information anyone has on these. Sorry for the poor quality of the picture I have others if needed as it is a bad area to be in and I was in a hurry.
It seems to me Model Railroader had something not too long ago about wheelstops and end-of-track buffers, but I can’t remember which issue it was in. Maybe part of the Milwaukee project railroad, or the one before that?? Wherever it was, I do recall seeing one like this I believe.
Thanks for the reply! It has been there ever since I can remember and I am 60 yrs old now. My father used to take me and my brother to the roundhouse to watch the trains and action at the roundhouse.
We used to drive by this track on our way out and the bumper was just as rusty then as it is now. I think I’m going to try to make some for my layout when I get a chance.
I think that the premise of those things was that the first wheelset in the truck would roll over the lower sloped ends on the left to slow down the car. Then if the wheels contacted the larger ends on the right the whole stop assembly would slide. Sort of acted like a cushioning device. I believe that if you can take a close in-person look at the assembly, you’ll find that those heavy pieces are not solidly attached to the rails they’re on (with the possible exception of some rust).
Those are Breyley Friction Car Stops, and they date back at least to the mid 1920s, as they’re shown in the 1926 Railway Engineering & Maintenance Cyclopedia. Also, they were adopted as a system standard by the Santa Fe in Julu of 1929.
Their function was much as “maxman” described. The car stops were designed to slide along the railhead for a limited distance. The first wheelset of a car would ride up the ramp and drop into the depressed area. If the remaining momentum of the car or cut of cars made the car stop slide, the weight of the car resting on top would add to the friction resisting that motion.
People park there cars there all the time in fact one idiot about 20feet back from the stop had the rear of his van backed against the rail. CSX only uses the siding occasionally for storage when they have track work nearby. It seems like a shame when the railroad has to have cars towed in order to use their own track!
After reading your posts I went back and looked at some of my other photos and you all are right the wheelstop isn’t welded or bolted to the rail. These photos might give a little idea of how they are fastened to the rail.
Nice detail pictures. Makes me wonder how they got the things on the rails in the first place. The hook affairs that grip the track don’t look like they’re welded on. Maybe they had to slide them on from the end of the siding like an upside down rail joiner?
The friction car stop did slide onto the end of a rail. It was typically installed on short sections of rail at the end of a spur track – notice the joint bar in one of photos. With all the rust it would probably take a lot of force to get these old ones to move.
Thanks for all the information on these wheelstops, now I know a little of the history on them.
The city has the roundhouse open on some days and I hope to do another tour of some of the buildings that have been restored. It is hard to get enough light to take decent photo’s inside but maybe I’ll get lucky someday. There is a short turntable inside the roundhouse, looks to be about 40 ft long . It seems to be too short to be of any use but then back when it was built the cars and engines were way shorter than todays equipment.
