Slipping (Railway Carriages)

[mattdaniels]

Was having a read up the other day on the old technique of slipping - where some rear carraiges on an express train are detatched when the train is moving and as the express goes through a station it is not stopping at, the guard brings the carriages to a halt. They can then form a local service on a branch line. This used to be done for example on the London to Brighton line, rear carriages were slipped at Three Bridges and formed a local service to East Grinstead.

Does anyone have any more detail / information / pictures on this? How fast would the train be going when the carriages were detatched?

Can you imagine it happening today, sounds like it has H+S Nightmare written all over it.

[mrmaggit]

The Great Western used slip coaches for years, IIRC it was the thirties before they stopped? You may find more info on there.

[black1]

yes they still use slipping today, only a few weeks ago near frome a cab from the trt slipped

off the train and was dragged under the train for a unkown distance damaging several foot crossings !

[W124Bob]

GWR used this for many years
http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r134.html

[mrloudly]

On a similar theme I watched a really interesting programme about rail distribution in the states, it would appear they use a similar system to "Sort" trucks for onward travel to different areas, amazing.

[LC2]

mrloudly said:

On a similar theme I watched a really interesting programme about rail distribution in the states, it would appear they use a similar system to "Sort" trucks for onward travel to different areas, amazing.

Used to be used in the UK too, called hump shunting, where wagons would be shunted over a hump and allowed to run down to the correct siding. Tinsley & Feltham were hump yards, I'm sure there were plenty more.

[Nickyboy]

mrloudly said:

On a similar theme I watched a really interesting programme about rail distribution in the states, it would appear they use a similar system to "Sort" trucks for onward travel to different areas, amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndryMwF41Kk

[mrloudly]

Amazing how they do it, specially for a non railroad type ;-)

[43034]

Nickyboy said:

mrloudly said:

On a similar theme I watched a really interesting programme about rail distribution in the states, it would appear they use a similar system to "Sort" trucks for onward travel to different areas, amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndryMwF41Kk

This is a great video to show hump shunting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nz-n49pIFQ

[mrmaggit]

Yes, but hump shunting and slip coaches are two totally separate things.

[texaxile]

loose or hump shunting is not allowed, anywhere in the UK. It went out of vogue when shunting poles became redundant, and fixed couplings and "buckeyes" adopted for attaching wagons and the HSE realised it was a good way to lose your legs. In fact, many freight wagons have "NOT TO BE LOOSE OR HUMP SHUNTED" written on them. Additionally, in order to loose shunt the air needs to be drained from all the wagons and they are moved as "swingers", you have no real means of stopping them unless you hit something or use a brakestick, which again, are now redundant.

Shunting wagons nowadays needs to be done by radio, hand signals, whistle or lamp instruction, vehicles need to be secured via a handbrake (one every 5 wagons) and the air drained out before adding more wagons. Couplings are removed manually by the shunter and stored correctly. Of course this doesn't happen in the real world, but for the purposes of any HSE reading, it does.