Catch point

[Giggle pin]

I have just read a book on the tracks from Bangor to Amlwch. It looks like most passing loops were fitted with a set of catch points. Would the purpose of this be to stop trains following on the one just passing in the loop?

 

 

 

 

[Gordon A]

No. The purpose was to stop an in authorised move out of the loop onto the main line.

 

Gordon A

[The Stationmaster]

I'm not sure quite what you're talking about because I haven''t seen the book. However a video of the Amlwch branch does show a catch point tin the Up loop at Llangwyllog and a more recent video indicates what appears to be a  gradient falling towards Amlwch when approaching the site of Llangwyllog station from the Gaerwen direction while there appears to be a worked catch point on the single line just beyond the junction at Gaerwen which suggests there were some steep gradients on the branch.

 

The use of catch points in loops on single lines wasn't at all unusual when the loop lay at the foot of an ascending gradient and was normally accompanied by Instructions to the signalmen to ensure that points were left set towards that loop when a train departed from it into the section with the steep ascending gradient,  And of course they had to be within a loop otherwise they had to be worked (from a signalbox) which added cost and complexity.  Rather peculiarly when our local branch was singled in the early 1960s a catch point was provided in the Up Loop at the intermediate crossing station where there had never been one in double line days - there was indeed a steep rising gradient in the section but oddly it had not had a catch point when the line was double (although there was possibly one in earlier times - it had definitely gone some years before the line was singled) and the new one didn't last long either, for whatever reason.