Quote: SouthernSteam Originally Posted by



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catchpoints One de-rails the other stops. See here for better explanation:



I've only ever known 3 occasions where people have put trains into sand drags. Twice the sand drag was at Philips Petrolium at Port Clarence, and the other time was in that sand drag at Goathland when a guard left a rake of coaches in the down platform there and when the brakes leaked off during the night, off it rode towards it. Funny thing is, the guard who was guilty of that is now a Thornaby driver and was responsible for putting one of the trains into the sand drag at Port Clarence as well.



I'm lucky in that I've never put a train over catch points, but I came very close one day while shunting at Grosmont shed. I was headed towards the tunnel, which has catch points at the station end of it, with a line of loco's including a Deltic and a few steam loco's, using an 03 Drewery loco. When I was handsignalled to stop, the weight of the rake of loco's together with the falling gradient and the greasy railhead conditions in the tunnel just kept me going further and further into the tunnel, albeit at very slow speed. I fought with the brake and the sands for ages and was well past the halfway point in the tunnel, which is about a quarter of a mile long, before I managed to bring the rake to a stand. Hairy stuff.



Cheers. Ewan. I recognised that sand drag in that picture on Wiki straight away. Its from the down platform at Goathland station.I've only ever known 3 occasions where people have put trains into sand drags. Twice the sand drag was at Philips Petrolium at Port Clarence, and the other time was in that sand drag at Goathland when a guard left a rake of coaches in the down platform there and when the brakes leaked off during the night, off it rode towards it. Funny thing is, the guard who was guilty of that is now a Thornaby driver and was responsible for putting one of the trains into the sand drag at Port Clarence as well.I'm lucky in that I've never put a train over catch points, but I came very close one day while shunting at Grosmont shed. I was headed towards the tunnel, which has catch points at the station end of it, with a line of loco's including a Deltic and a few steam loco's, using an 03 Drewery loco. When I was handsignalled to stop, the weight of the rake of loco's together with the falling gradient and the greasy railhead conditions in the tunnel just kept me going further and further into the tunnel, albeit at very slow speed. I fought with the brake and the sands for ages and was well past the halfway point in the tunnel, which is about a quarter of a mile long, before I managed to bring the rake to a stand. Hairy stuff.Cheers. Ewan.