What protects the end of the track in a stub classification yard?

[nickelplate759]

 I'm laying down in a small classification yard - it's a stub yard (no room for anything else), with only four classification tracks.
What would typically be used to protect the end of the tracks, in the 1950s?   Probably not a fancy bumping post like you'd see in a passenger terminal, but I'm guessing something more substantial than what you'd see at a customer siding.

Any references?  Any Nickel Plate references?

[jpwisc]

Piles of ballast are very common.

[Doug G.]

George, you are laying down in a small classification yard? That sounds like fun!

Anyway, a lot of times, they used those clamp or bolt on (to the rails) stops with the curved-to-match-the-wheel curvature. I have seen old ties crossed and stuck in the ground, too.

Doug

[DKS]

[nickelplate759]

Hmm - Tomar makes those in N scale (other scales too).  Looks easy!

[nickelplate759]

I found  a picture of an NKP engine servicing facility where the Hayes - style wheel stops are shown.  They're painted yellow (color photo from the 1950s!). 
On the other hand, I also found a color picture of an 1950s caboose at Bellevue where there is a different style wheel stop, and they are painted red.

I haven't found any pictures of the end of any NKP yard tracks yet (apparently that's not the interesting part of a yard) but if I don't I'll just go with the Hayes.

[Point353]

The top photo, taken at Frankfort in the late 50's, appears to show a Hayes type bumper:



NJ Int'l also makes one in that style: http://www.njinternational.com/bumpers.htm

[nickelplate759]

Oops!  Not the Hayes style I was expecting.  I was thinking of the style that DKS showed a drawing of.  The one I found looks like this:
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But I was wrong about the color.  In this photo it looks red, not yellow.

[nickelplate759]

Over on the NKPT&HS group I heard from an ex-employee who had the answer!   He said in yards where he worked they used sliding wheel stops (curved on the side that faces the wheels), painted red.  So that's not the style in the picture (which wasn't in a yard).  Like the red ones in the picture of HO models by JL:

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Anyone know of a source for N scale?

<edit>
After closer reading of how he said they were used, what I think they had in the yard were things called "rail skates", not the wheel stops shown above.  He said that when the car rolled into them the wheels rode up on the "stop" (skate, really) and then the whole thing slid to a stop.

Wheel stops were used elsewhere, like on sidings.  The bigger bumpers were used where a car running off the end of the track might foul something, like another track.

Apparently the NKP's standard color for them was orange (not red), but the person who worked the yard remembers red -- hmmm.  Here's a modern one:



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[Doug G.]

The curved ones I alluded to in my first post have the curvature extending much further up and around to cup the wheel.  Painted yellow.

Doug