Buffer stop
Encyclopedia
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Railroad car
A railroad car or railway vehicle , also known as a bogie in Indian English, is a vehicle on a rail transport system that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives...
from going past the end of a physical section of track.
The design of the buffer stop is dependent in part upon the kind of couplings that the railway uses, since the coupling gear
Coupling (railway)
A coupling is a mechanism for connecting rolling stock in a train. The design of the coupler is standard, and is almost as important as the railway gauge, since flexibility and convenience are maximised if all rolling stock can be coupled together.The equipment that connects the couplings to the...
is the first part of the vehicle that the buffer stop touches. The term "buffer stop" is itself of British origin, railways in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
principally using buffer
Buffer (rail transport)
A buffer is a part of the buffers-and-chain coupling system used on the railway systems of many countries, among them most of those in Europe, for attaching railway vehicles to one another....
-and-screw couplings between vehicles.
Types
Several different designs have been developed for buffer stops, depending on the coupling system in use.- Buffer stops with anticlimbers
- Buffer stops for a knuckle coupler (centrally positioned between the two rails)
- Buffer stops with traditional "buffers" on either side
- Hydraulic buffer stops
- Friction buffer stops (bolted down to the rail)
In rapid transit applications, hitting the bumper block is usually a very bad thing, because of the number of passengers involved and the confined space of the tunnel. Rapid transit systems have developed buffer stops that have built-in corrugated anticlimbers that engage and interlock with the anticlimbers on the car's end sill, which prevents telescoping
Telescoping (railway)
In a railway accident, telescoping occurs when the underframe of one vehicle overrides that of another, and smashes through the second vehicle's body...
of the cars during impact. These bumper blocks can be identified by their distinctive 'fins' appearance.
If there is extra room behind the bumper block, there is usually a sand or ballast drag that is designed to further retard a runaway train. One such accident occurred when a Northern Line train powered past the bumper block at Moorgate station in 1975
Moorgate tube crash
The Moorgate tube crash was a railway disaster on the London Underground, which occurred on 28 February 1975 at 08.46 am.A southbound train on the Northern Line crashed into the tunnel end beyond the platform at Moorgate station...
on the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
system.
Energy-absorbing
Due to its mass, a train transfers an enormous amount of kinetic energyKinetic energy
The kinetic energy of an object is the energy which it possesses due to its motion.It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes...
in a collision with a buffer stop. Rigid buffers can only safely cope with very low-speed impacts (i.e. nearly stationary). To improve stopping performance, a way of dissipating this energy is needed, through compression or friction. Following a buffer stop accident at Frankfurt-am-Main in 1902, the Rawie company developed a large range of energy-absorbing buffer stops. Similar hydraulic buffer stops were developed by Ransomes & Rapier in the UK.
Wheel stop
Wheel stops are used to stop slow moving trains from continuing down a level track section.Examples
- Raja Trains Depot in Tehran
- Stopping speed: 20 km/h (12.4 mph)
- Stopping distance: 20 m (66 ft)
Accidents
- 22 October 1895 – Gare MontparnasseGare MontparnasseParis Montparnasse is one of the six large terminus railway stations of Paris, located in the Montparnasse area in the XIVe arrondissement. The station was opened in 1840, and rebuilt completely in 1969...
, ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
– express train overruns buffer stop and falls into street below. - 1902 – Frankfurt am Main, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
– Serious buffer stop collision inspires development of Rawie range of energy-absorbing buffer stops. - 27 July 1903 – Glasgow St Enoch – 16 killed 27 injured
- 1908 – at the Top Points of the Lithgow Zig ZagLithgow Zig ZagThe Lithgow Zig Zag was a zig zag railway built near Lithgow on the Great Western Railway of New South Wales in Australia which operated between 1870 and 1910, to overcome an otherwise insurmountable climb up the western side of the Blue Mountains...
, a train failed to stop at the buffer stops, stopping precariously at a precipice over the valley below. - 1948 – diesel train through buffer stops at Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. - 15 January 1953 – Union StationUnion Station (Washington, D.C.)Washington Union Station is a train station and leisure destination visited by 32 million people each year in the center of Washington, D.C. The train station is served by Amtrak, MARC and Virginia Railway Express commuter rail services as well as by Washington Metro subway trains and local buses...
, Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
– Federal ExpressFederal Express (passenger train)The Federal Express was an overnight named passenger train run by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad between Washington, DC's Union Station and Boston, Massachusetts's South Station from 1912 to 1971. Train numbers on both railroads were 172 northbound and...
#173, pulled by PRR 4876PRR 4876PRR 4876 is a GG1-class electric locomotive located at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It was built in 1939 and was involved in the only accident to befall a GG1. In 1953, the locomotive overran the buffer stop and crashed into Union Station in Washington, D.C. after...
, overruns the buffer stop after its brakes fail. The locomotive stops in the concourse before falling through the floor. A temporary floor was built over it for the upcoming inauguration of Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. EisenhowerDwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
before it was shipped back to Altoona, PennsylvaniaAltoona, Pennsylvania-History:A major railroad town, Altoona was founded by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1849 as the site for a shop complex. Altoona was incorporated as a borough on February 6, 1854, and as a city under legislation approved on April 3, 1867, and February 8, 1868...
in three pieces for repairs. - 1970s – BART train went through buffer stops due to fault in automatic train operationAutomatic train operationAutomatic train operation ensures partial or complete automatic train piloting and driverless functions.Most systems elect to maintain a driver to mitigate risks associated with failures or emergencies....
. - 28 February 1975 – Moorgate Underground rail crash – 43 killed, 74 injured – buffer stop collision made far worse by large dimensioned dead end tunnel beyond.
- 13 April 1978 – BudapestBudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
– commuter train overruns a buffer stop owing to brake failure and crashes into the station building. 13 killed, 25 injured. - 8 November 1986 – Hua LamphongHua LamphongHua Lamphong Railway Station , officially known as the Bangkok Railway Station, is the main railway station in Bangkok, Thailand. It is located in the center of the city in Pathum Wan District, and is operated by the State Railway of Thailand....
, BangkokBangkokBangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
, ThailandThailandThailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
– 5 killed, 7 injured – buffer stop collision made by an unmanned train at a speed of 50 km/h. - 8 January 1991 – Cannon Street station rail crashCannon Street station rail crashThe Cannon Street station rail crash was an accident on the British railway system which occurred on 8 January 1991 at Cannon Street station. The accident killed two people and injured 524 others...
, London – 2 killed, 200+ injured – commuter train hits buffer stops. - 11 July 1995 – LargsLargs railway stationLargs railway station is a railway station in the town of Largs, North Ayrshire, Scotland. The station is managed by First ScotRail and is on the Ayrshire Coast Line, south west of .- History :...
– BR Class 318 EMU goes through buffer stops. - 26 October 2006 – Kuala Lumpur buffer stop accident – a Star LRT train goes through buffer stops at the end of a stabling area (turnback perhaps) and ends up dangling over street. The train appears to have been empty of passengers.
- 21 December 2009 – ZagrebZagrebZagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, CroatiaCroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
– commuter train number 5100 from Sisak CapragSisakSisak is a city in central Croatia. The city's population in 2011 was 33,049, with a total of 49,699 in the administrative region and it is also the administrative centre of the Sisak-Moslavina county...
crashed into the platform bumper. The cause was antifreeze fluid in the locomotive's braking system which had frozen due to the extremely low outside temperature (-22°C). Luckily, the speed of the train was only between 15 and 20 km/h. 60 people from the train (including train's engineer) were injured, 7 of them seriously. There were no injuries among people on the platform. The engineer leaned out of the cab window to warn people on the platform that his brakes had failed and that the train would crash at the end of the platform. - 25 July 2010 – Stavoren railway stationStavoren railway stationStavoren is a terminus railway station in Stavoren, The Netherlands. The station opened on 8 November 1885 and is the southern terminus of the Leeuwarden–Stavoren railway. The services are operated by Arriva.-Major destinations:...
, the NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
– A maintenance train collided with a buffer stop at the single-track terminus station. The train rammed a small shop, passed through it and stopped at the square behind it. Only two people were injured, out of four people on the train. The accident happened late at night, when passenger services had already finished. The cause is being investigated. - 2 March 2011 - San Francisco 4th and King Street StationSan Francisco 4th and King Street StationSan Francisco 4th and King Street or 4th and King station or Caltrain Depot is the northern terminus of the Caltrain commuter rail line that serves San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley, and is a major regional transit hub...
, San Francisco, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
- A CaltrainCaltrainCaltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the Santa Clara Valley in the United States. The northern terminus of the rail line is in San Francisco, at 4th and King streets; its southern terminus is in Gilroy...
commuter train failed to stop before hitting the buffer stop. Multiple minor injuries reported. - 8 May 2011 - Hoboken TerminalHoboken TerminalHoboken Terminal is one of the New York Metropolitan area's major transportation hubs. The commuter-oriented intermodal facility, is located on the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey...
, New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
- A Port Authority Trans-HudsonPort Authority Trans-HudsonPATH, derived from Port Authority Trans-Hudson, is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York City with Newark, Harrison, Hoboken and Jersey City in metropolitan northern New Jersey...
rapid transit train crashes into a bumper. At least 34 are injured, none critically. The cause is being investigated.