From: nilknocgeo@earthlink.net   
      
   "Charles Ellson"  wrote in message   
   news:csuot9toui5a2uuokiu924r7vkicmkts6n@4ax.com...   
   > On Sat, 2 Aug 2014 00:46:58 +0000 (UTC), David Lesher   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >>John Albert  writes:   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>>Yes, George, they still use them.   
   >>   
   >>>Blocks, or chocks.   
   >>   
   >>>After you tie down a piece of equipment with the hand brake,   
   >>>you find something (wheel chock, or just a piece of wood)   
   >>>and wedge it between the wheel and rail.   
   >>   
   >>Is there such a thing as a chock that is bolted to the rail; and   
   >>restrains a consist, not just a sole car?   
   >>   
   > I've seen devices on television programmes (in German marshalling   
   > yards and/or sidings ?) like a pair of scotches hinged longitudinally   
   > so that they rest on the railheads when in use which should hold a   
   > fair number of vehicles; out of use they swing down on to the   
   > sleepers. They were similar to some derailers but designed without   
   > that function in mind.   
   > I don't recall seeing a more mobile version (i.e. something suitable   
   > for carrying on a locomotive) but even a basic wooden scotch which   
   > isn't secured to the rail has been observed to put up a fair bit of   
   > resistance when I watched someone trying to move a train without   
   > removing the scotch first. On roughly 50% of occasions, carrying such   
   > devices (the heavy duty version not the Mk1 piece of wood) on a   
   > locomotive will guarantee they are at the wrong (uphill) end of the   
   > train anyway; the amount of metalwork to be moved probably won't do   
   > the crew any good either (before worrying about lack of daylight,   
   > weather etc.) so in the end you're back to securing individual   
   > vehicles. The traditional "fail safe" is a hand brake but plan B could   
   > be something that depends on a locking/pinning action rather than   
   > clamping a wheel/disk; if it is easier to apply than a handbrake then   
   > there is also less incentive not to use it.   
      
   I guess, from what you write, even a good-sized tree branch would work some   
   of the time.   
      
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