What would this be for ?

[bladesman123]

While out walking the dog on former BR/NCB land yesterday i found this and was just wondering what its for, it was next to a 4 foot piece of rail that the pikeys etc have gradually been chopping down since it was about 20 foot long, at first i thought someone had chopped a very thin (about 5mm) section of rail off as it is like an exact cross section of the rail but it isn't made of metal , its like it's made of carbon or graphite or something like that, you can scrape bits off it with a knife so it is quite brittle, does anyone know what this would be used for? (btw the land i was on was the former Orgreave colliery and coking plant which is now fully open to the public so no comments regarding trespassing etc)

http://s288.photobucket.com/albums/ll182/bladesman123/What is this for/

 

[Yew]

Could it be something to go in the joints of jointed track? If its graphite, it would ensure electrical conductivity of the track? Or maybe something to do with thermal expansion?

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Looks to me like an insulator that you would put between the rails where an IBJ is present to seperate the track circuits.


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[142094]

Not sure if colliery or coking plant sidings were that technically advanced - some of them still had steam shunters until closure in the 80s.

 

[Hydro]

It's an end post, the insulated piece that fits between two rails ends at an insulated block joint - this separates two track circuits.

There's nothing massively technically advanced about a track circuit (or in fact modern), industrial areas could well use them.

 

[142094]

It's an end post, the insulated piece that fits between two rails ends at an insulated block joint - this separates two track circuits.

There's nothing massively technically advanced about a track circuit (or in fact modern), industrial areas could well use them.

Might have been the end of BR limits and start of the internal sidings? I'm not sure how well advanced signalling would have been at Orgreave but in a lot of northern collieries it was very basic to say the least.