As a certain engine once said: "That's what buffers are for, to stop engines from crashing."

i mean for me the best for shock absorbing (IMO) is just a strechy rubberband stretched across the tracks with a bit of travel for the train

Thanks for testing my buffers 😊 As you said the soft springs are probably the best for low speed collisions. And these buffers definitely work best when your tracks are attached to baseplates. I was secretly hoping for some slow mo footage, but I guess it would be quite a lot of effort.

It looks like grey springs would be good in a yard, for lower speed collisions, and yellow might be good for mainline derailers, or long yards where you might crash an entire train, not just an engine. :)

I love that the whole track layout moved an inch or two across the floor with each impact. Those buffers looked really neat too.

Realistically speaking, launching two big diesel locomotives at full speed would separate the buffer stop from the track in real life too. The track will be separated too, the first engine would also derail catastrophically, and many things in its course would be separated too. So, the first test was pretty conclusive in fact!

Thanks for the appreciation. Nice video. I've tested all the springs during construction and only the grey one was good for the trains. The red and yellow springs were too hard and dragged the entire track behind them..

As always, very nicely done - this is an interesting topic, for sure. And congratulations on reaching 6 thousand subscribers - well deserved.

I have a few 4.5v and can explain how the signal works! There's a small button on the bottom of the battery box which works as a circuit breaker. The signal fits between ties on the tracks, and the red bar at the base is either lifted or lowered depending on whether the signal is up or down. When the signal is down to stop the engine, the bar will be up, which the circuit breaker button runs directly into. While the signal's up the bar is lowered and the battery box rolls right on by without touching it. You may already be aware but the small red stand you got also interacts with the battery box: It is affixed to the outside of the track and the triangular wedge will collide with the 3-position switch, reversing the direction. (Or, if your batteries are low or too much weight etc, it will simply collide and go to neutral, stopping the engine) I believe I had recorded a video demonstrating both of these, but never uploaded it. If you like I certainly can upload one though!

All these cool switch points and the engine is moved between the tracks via the mighty claw instead

Nice test! 🙂 What I find annoying about Lego sizes is the dire need for 1,5 diameter round tiles at least... 1 is usually too small for buffers, 2 mostly too large for buffers, headlights, etc. One solution I found was using the small train wheels 50254 - they are not ideal shape-wise but nicer size-wise. (note: these new 50254 ones have notched holes - if you want the wheel to roll better , look for the old 2927 featuring round holes.) Also, you can get proper single buffers, produced in the 1970s and 80s, under Bricklink "buffer".

If you dont have shock absorbers, could you try using a long axle with bush 3713 or 4265c to act as friction energy dissipation. it would need reset after impact, but multiple spaced bushes could be used to gradually absorb big impacts. In theory.

try the ones from the container crane on rebrickable they use the grey springs and they look like real buffers

I knew it was wort watching the whole video! The cameo appearance at the end was golden.

Love it, imma use these on my tracks!

That was a neat buffer, thanks for the show and tell 😘

Maybe try out some of those 2909 shock absorbers. They can be had with up to "very hard springs" and they have more than 1 brick of movement. For a heavier train these might be what is needed.

I would say this is the best way to think about it. the energy of the impact is the same in all cases meaning what matters is the amount time the impact takes (impulse). (the longer the time the lower the force that can break things IE th track or the train) This means that the spring that makes the train stop the slowest while not bottoming out is the "best" (F = -kx) thus there will be a different optimal spring for each train mass and speed (kinetic energy) you would have to do more analysis of the trains that use the tracks to pick a spring that suits the most use cases possible. i loved getting to think about this. hopefully i'm not wrong but if that's the case i get to learn something. PS i know this is lego and it doesn't really matter but oh well

I think the grey (soft) shock absorber is best, it makes a smoot stop without bounce back

13:45 if only there was some sort of build we could put at the end of the track that would stop the train from traveling off the track...

Track separation can be fixed by adding ballast. It is expensive, but it looks better and improves strength and durability. I ballast according to the PennLUG standard using fewer parts than they do, but any sort of ballast works. I like the use of the harder springs. But I wonder if the more intricate MOC 8-wide trains we build would fare better with the use of the softer springs.

You should have a three spring buffer so it will hit soft and then harder if it hits fastee

So I'm guessing American/Canadian locomotives would have a Knuckle coupler Absorber since we don't use buffers At all.

I hit the Like button because of the cat.

it's from set 60198 from 2018.

Do you mostly buy on Bricklink? It seems like you buy often and the shipping would get expensive to me. Just asking in case my assumption is off.

Also they are a little bit old it's on the processes of building and due to I don't have any wave modeling it online

The set was 60198 freight train

Hey mate i was wondering where you buy all of your lego bricks from?

Your lucky you have 60052. That's my fav trian. I really want that

These Buffers reminds me of Thomas the Train 🚂🚃🚃

У прямых рельс KAZi стабильно критически-большой люфт. Они отлично подходят для кривым путей большого радиуса. =)

at 3mins straight you brought a old 1990 lego train stop unfortunatly you canot use it whit the tracks of lego has now only whit the tracks where you have the old 4pieces tracks you have to out toghetor and then click on it on another straight or curved track. like i sayd that 1 is purely made for the battery powerd & track version form that lego era after a while they even added another track piece that what the powerd rail in the center from that moent on you needed a different type off stop