Two sets of Hydraulic Buffers, by Ransomes & Rapier Ltd., Ipswich, England -1927 installed at Kalka Railway Station.
A buffer stop or bumper (US) is a device to prevent railway vehicles 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 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 principally using buffer-and-screw couplings between vehicles.Due to its mass, a train transfers an enormous amount of kinetic energy 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.
Two sets of Hydraulic Buffers, by Ransomes & Rapier Ltd., Ipswich, England -1927 installed at Kalka Railway Station.
A buffer stop or bumper (US) is a device to prevent railway vehicles 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 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 principally using buffer-and-screw couplings between vehicles.Due to its mass, a train transfers an enormous amount of kinetic energy 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.