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Wheel Chocks
Written by Laurence
Johnson
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For those of us
that do not have brakes
on each
of our cars, this handy little metal flagged wheel chock is really good. This
idea is not mine and for the life of me I cannot remember who to give credit to
for such a good idea. I’m an older fella with trifocal glasses and when walking
around my car on a not so sunny day as shown here on the left I end up kick or
tripping over my wheel chock. It is real easy to stumble over one when walking
into the train shed from the bright outside and the “photo gray” function of my
glasses haven’t made full adjustment.
(click images
to enlarge) |
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| I had just made a set of these yellow wheel chocks
for my railroad club and one of the club member’s asked if I would make a set
for him to use. This got me to thinking about who’s flag is whose, and me being
stumble footed I am suggesting an alternate design idea. Make the flag from
round stock! So I band sawed out a set of 2” long pipe sections splitting them
along one side plus some scrap straight rods and 2 1/2” sections of angle iron. |
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| After opening up the side cut in the pipe section
I hammered the rod flush and made a couple of passes with the wire welder
(stick welder works fine also). Why round Stock? Because it is the same size no
matter the viewing angle! |
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| And, if you
are real hand at welding, you can weld in a set of initials! |
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| Now this is getting into it. Round
flags with initials, why not different colors? Why am I not making my wheel
chocks to fit onto my groovy track as well as the Club’s profile track? I’ve
read that the railroads use the color of blue to make area for
maintenance and by the train rules, only the person who place the blue flag can
remove it! |
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| So here’s the collection so far! The
left one is mine and I have discovered that I can’t weld initials very well so
I just mark in the letters using a permanent ink felt pen. Yea it looks a bit
odd but it’ll fit any track out there! |
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| See the difference in flag shapes, the
left yellow is about not there and the other two are very visible! So next time
you are out in the shop and a puttering and needing a short time project, make
a few wheel chocks and give them to your railroading buddies as a surprise. |
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Author's Note
Since this was written, I've discovered that angle iron is not the best
shape -- the angle is too large.
After you have welded the rod into
the inside radius of the angle iron turn it around and squeeze the sides in
about half way. This'll grab the rail and make things stick straight out from
the rail head. |
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Written by Laurence
Johnson
©Discover Live Steam. This material may not be
published, rewritten, or redistributed without written
permission.
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