The lip coach, whist it operate up into the 1950s, seems to defy one of the basic principles of railway safety: block working. In normal operation trains are passed from block to block by the signal man with the block behind the train being marked as safe. But if a train sheds a coach essentially at random how does the signal man clear his signals? __________________________________________ David C Brown 43 Bings Road Whaley Bridge High Peak Phone: 01663 733236 Derbyshire eMail: dcb.home@gmail.com SK23 7ND web: www.bings-knowle.co.uk/dcb *Sent from my etch-a-sketch* On 28 October 2017 at 23:34, wrote: > > Back in my youth British mail trains had a sytem for picking up mail ba= gs > > without stopping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DUN9GxmtfX90 > > Surely this could be adapted to pick up passengers :-) > > > > > > I've always thought could be done with trains, whether commuter or > > > long distance, would be to have a self-powered train car at each > > > station. People wanting to get on the train would board this car. > > > People on the train who wanted a particular stop would get into the > > > last car. As the train approached the station, the last car would > > > disconnect and roll into the station. The car that was in the station > would > > then catch up with the train and join it. > > > Passengers not wanting the next stop would move into the rest of the > > > train. What slows trains down, in my opinion, is all the stops. This > > > would avoid that delay. > > I surprised David didn't mention that British railways (back in the days > of steam trains) had what were known as 'slip coaches' which did almost > exactly this. The last coach on the train would be uncoupled and then a > guard on the slip coach would apply braking to bring the coach to a halt = in > the station. Once everyone had got off the local shunting engine would mo= ve > the coach into a local siding. I never saw them in operation, just seen > descriptions in books. I don't know how the coaches were picked on the > return journey, which had to involve a stopping train, I guess it would b= e > possible to load the coach on a side platform, then when the train came > along couple the full coach to the train. > > There was a certain amount of danger to the process of slipping a coach > from the train, and a considerable amount of skill on the part of the gua= rd > to uncouple the coach at the right place and then get the braking just > right to stop in the platform, especially in some of the pea-souper fogs > that abounded in the UK back then. I was reading a piece recently where t= he > guard on the slip coach was describing exactly this problem. If you didn'= t > stop in the station then no-one knew where the coach was, had it not > uncoupled, had it not made the station, or had it had some other problem? > Any of these could result in a blocked line which had the potential to > result in a significant accident. > > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .