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A buffer stop or bumper (US) is a device to prevent railway vehicles from going past the end of a section of track.
The design of the buffer stop depends in part on the kind of couplings that the railway uses, since the coupling is the part of the vehicle that the buffer stop first touches.
The term buffer stop is a British term as railways in Britain use buffer and chain couplings.
Energy absorbing buffer stops
The large mass of a train, even at low speed, transfers a large amount of energy in a collision with a buffer stop. Ordinary buffer stops cannot cope. What is needed is some way of dissipating this energy, as through hydraulics or friction. Following a buffer stop accident at Frankfurt-am-Main in 1902, the Rawie company developed a large range of energy-absorbing buffer stops. Similar hydraulic buffer stops were developed by Ransomes and Rapier in the UK.
Alternatives
Lower cost alternatives to a buffer stop include sleepers fixed to the rails, or a pile of dirt.
Warning lights
Buffer stops often have a fixed red light associated with them.
Accidents
- October 22, 1895 – Gare Montparnasse, Paris, France: express train overruns buffer stop and falls into street below
- 1902 – Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Serious buffer stop collision inspires development of Rawie range of energy-absorbing buffer stops.
- 27 July, 1903; Glasgow St Enoch, 16 killed 27 injured
- 1948 - diesel train through buffer stops at Los Angeles
- 28 February 1975 - Moorgate Underground rail crash, 43 killed, 74 injured - buffer stop collision made far worse by dead end tunnel beyond
- 8 January 1991 - Cannon Street station, London; 2 killed, 200+ injured - commuter train hits buffer stops
- July, 1995 - Largs - electric train went through buffer stops.
"Buffer stop"