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Buffer stop testing

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Chris M

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Annetts key

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The buffer stop being sturdier than the track is not uncommon where bull head or jointed flat bottom rails are laid on old wooden sleepers...
 

GB

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One could argue that the track acting in that way helped the buffer stop withstand the forces.
 

OldNick

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The energy has to be converted somehow. If the stops don't move then somethimg will. The flat car flexed too.

Of course you want the vehicle to stop, but transferring the force through the vehicle (and its payload/passengers) isn't always ideal!
 

AM9

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The energy has to be converted somehow. If the stops don't move then somethimg will. The flat car flexed too.

Of course you want the vehicle to stop, but transferring the force through the vehicle (and its payload/passengers) isn't always ideal!
Aren't there still compliant buffer designs still being deployed, e.g. the hydraulic ram types or those that have a ladder of multiple rail clamps that progressively slip their grip on the rails?
Maybe the rôle of buffers is different with universal application of approach speeds controlled by TPWS. That would imply that buffers are the last line of protection and consequently, the local damage to infrastructure (mainly track) is less of a consideration.
 

OldNick

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Aren't there still compliant buffer designs still being deployed, e.g. the hydraulic ram types or those that have a ladder of multiple rail clamps that progressively slip their grip on the rails?
I presume so, yes, but the video in the OP didn't seem to employ that.
 

Chris M

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There are videos in the links I shared of the friction type buffers that slide, and one that's a hybrid of that type and a hydraulic type.
 

snowball

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Readers of this thread may be interested in the 6-minute video of buffer stop tests in this post by "357" in the thread on the Kirkby buffer stop crash (post #286 in that thread).

 

philthetube

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Not the same thing but the buffers at Baker Street platforms 1 and 4 on the met used to be tested every week, by gently pushing a train up against them and pushing the stops in, These were water filled and water gushed out as they were pushed, I am sure someone can provide a better description.
 
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