What is this tool used for - just out of idle curiosity?

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

I was rather puzzled, at BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains), while idly wandering around on the platform, waiting for my train home, to note this piece of kit - the shaped block of wood, painted yellow, with a broom handle stuck into it:

[inspector_blakey]

It's a wheel scotch. Stick it under the wheel of a vehicle (making sure you put it on the downhill side, of course  ) and it won't roll off anywhere. When shunting one has to be careful to ensure that all scotches have been removed to avoid an embarrassing crunch and potential low-speed derailment as the vehicles you're moving pull away...

Why there's one on the platform at Temple Meads I couldn't say for sure, unless it's one of the many precautions that's taken if a fitter is attending to the underneath of a train.

[JayMac]

I also thought it was some kind of 'chock', but I was struggling to reconcile it with the hi-tec windscreen cleaning kit!

[inspector_blakey]

It amused me to note the other day that Amtrak have exactly the same high-tech windshield cleaning arrangement on their platforms too.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for your answers!

Yes, I thought it had to be something to do with chocking wheels on trains - but:

- It doesn't appear to have ever been used, in terms of any damage to its profile;

- It's surely the wrong diameter for the wheels on a Voyager;

- The broom handle (unless it's detachable) would make it unusable at its location on the western end of platform 8 - assuming that the 'down' slope is towards the dip under Bath Bridge.

Hence my bewilderment. 

[Super Guard]

Chris you're over-thinking a bit there mate 

[moonrakerz]

- It's surely the wrong diameter for the wheels on a Voyager;

No one has told them that modern trains have smaller driving wheels than steam ones !

[paul7575]

I've seen one of those chocks being used as a scraper on a windscreen before now...

Paul

[inspector_blakey]

No one has told them that modern trains have smaller driving wheels than steam ones !

I wouldn't be so sure. That actually looks like a pretty standard radius which I know from personal experience fits nicely under the wheels of a mark 1. The wheels are a lot larger than they look from the platform when you're crawling round on the ground next to them.

[moonrakerz]

No one has told them that modern trains have smaller driving wheels than steam ones !

I wouldn't be so sure. That actually looks like a pretty standard radius which I know from personal experience fits nicely under the wheels of a mark 1. The wheels are a lot larger than they look from the platform when you're crawling round on the ground next to them.

King    - 6' 6" (Castle even bigger !)

HST^▸ (High Speed Train)     - 3' 4"

[inspector_blakey]

Sorry, should have made that clearer... I'm well aware that steamers have bigger drivers than HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) (and never mind that GW^▸ (Great Western) rubbish, an A1 has 6' 8" drivers...) My point was that the radius on that scotch looks about right for coaching stock wheels, rather than a steam loco (don't suppose they have much call for wheel scotches for Kings at Temple Meads these days).

[JayMac]

I would've thought that the radii of any scotch doesn't have to match the wheel radius exactly. As long as it is not too sharp a curve it should be suitable for a fair range of wheels.

[caliwag]

You are all wrong...it may look like it has something to do with wheels but it is in fact a progressive bucket tipping shoe...this one a bit of a bodge job but based on an LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) design (diagramme PBT...07/6498-71).

Records show that over 77000 thousand were produced, mainly at Doncaster works, between 1927 and 1936 when production stopped, or was transferred possibly to the quieter works at Tuxford (the old Dukeries works taken over by the GC^» (Great Central Railway - link to heritage line)).

There was a response to a question in Railway Magazine's The Why and the Wherefore about this in the early 50s...possibly 53/54 as I recall. A Mr S T Range was apprenticed at Doncaster works and recalls getting a special mention in the LNER journal for his suggestion that the handle be fixed to the side rather than the "top".

Obviously health and safety now prohibits bending activities so a top mounted shoe is imperative to avoid litigious claims on our cash-strapped, yet operative-friendly TOCS...not that the LDECR were not a caring outfit!

I am indebted to the author Mr Maurice Dull (Forty eight years in charge of incidental supplies, BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) Eastern Division, Goole) for his assistance in this research and would encourage you all to add to your library his superb pamphlet "Progressive receptacle tippers and shoes...1927-1951" published by the Incidental Objects Publication Co who, as I recall, are still based in the old station buildings in Long Clawson and Hose on the marvellous GN and LNW jnt.

Good luck in your further researches

[Phil]

Oh, nicely done, sir! *claps*

[moonrakerz]

never mind that GW^▸ (Great Western) rubbish, an A1 has 6' 8" drivers...

.............a Castle was actually half and inch bigger than that .............