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1. Corporate Induction
2. Railtrack Zone
3. Electrification and Plant Appreciation
4. Plant Maintenance
5. Maintenance Planning
6. Track Design
• Estimating
• Surveying
• Basic Design
• Curves
• Deficiancy and Cant
• Gauging
• Track Inspection
• Clearance analysis
• Center and End Throw
• Buffer Locking
• Stepping Distances
• Design Proceedure
• Evaluation
7. Vehicle Systems Design
8. Manufacturing
9. Track Renewals
10. Electrification Testing and Commisioning
11. Electrification Design and Construction
12. Overhead Line and Track Renewals
13. Career Directed Experience
 
14. Links

Buffer locking

Buffer locking, again, comes from the presence of horizontal curves and is where the buffers of individual carriages get caught with each other. Fig XXX shows what can happen. The locking of buffers occurs if there is not a curve transition between two curves. That is, the chance of this happening is when a negative and a positive curve have been joined together with no straight piece in between. This is known as snaking.

Two formulas for different circumstances can be applied to determine if buffer locking will occur. These are as follows:

Where all of the symbols are explained in Figs XXX, with the exception of Re.

Re is the equivalent radius of the two curves

The values of B should not exceed 300 mm. If a figure above this value were found, the track would have to be redesigned or slued.