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Wheel Stop
Keeping on the Track!
(don't fall off the end)

 

Written by Laurence Johnson

 

I was looking for something better that just bolting down a railroad tie over my tracks to keep me from running cars beyond the end of my track and ran across some sketches of prototypical wheel stops.

They looked neat so out came the CAD drafting board and the results are shown here on the right. The pointy spade end is hammered into the ballast and the other end is clamped to the rail — this will work! Having groovy track I made two sets of plans and modeled both types of stops for each kind of rail: prototypical and groovy.

 

In making both of these wheel stops I wire welded one and stick welded the other — no problem either way. Shown above is the groovy stop ready for sandblasting and painting.

 

In making both of these wheel stops I wire welded one and stick welded the other — no problem either way. Shown above is the groovy stop ready for sandblasting and painting.

It takes longer to saw the parts to length and shape from steel bar stock than it takes to weld it up.

I don’t think is spent more that a total of three hours of shop time over several days in cutting, fabricating and painting. I gave mine one coat of aluminum paint and three coats of orange before calling it quits. Here are the scaled plans to build your own wheel stops.  Plans are either 11x17 (for a big printer) or 8.5x14 for a standard printer with longer paper.  wheel stop 11 x 17 paper.pdf wheel stop 8.5 x 14 paper.pdf *Please don't reproduce this stop for commercial sale without written permission.

 

Written by Laurence Johnson

Editors Note:  Information contained in this article is for reference only.  We at discoverlivesteam.com and our authors are not responsible for any loss that might occur from the practical application of ideas presented here.

 

HEY, Check out Laurence Johnson's CDs filled with cool blueprints: CAD Drawings for the Live Steam Hobby vol. 1 CAD Drawings for the Live Steam Hobby vol. 2 SALE  $10 off until 12-31-08

 

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