On the isle of wight real one for this question,just how effective are the wooden boxes of stone found at many points along the line at stopping runaway trains?I'm going to guess they don't do much on rivet games version but what about the real isle of wight?
They're sand drags which are designed to bring a train going at low speed to a stop. Realistically, the train isn't going to be going faster than around 10mph as it hits the buffers as I'm pretty sure the Island Line is fitting with London Underground Moorgate Protection which will apply the brakes if the train is travelling faster than a set speed when approaching the buffers. Therefore, these sand drags should sufficiently slow down a train so it doesn't hit the buffers with much force, as a train hitting the solid buffers even at a low speed can cause significant damage (see the Cannon Street Rail Crash in 1991 as an example). On the mainland, sliding, friction buffers are used instead for new installations which slowly bring the train to a stop. Again on the mainland, trains can't approach the buffers at faster than 10mph as terminal stations are fitted with TPWS grids which effectively do the same job as Moorgate Protection.
