Spotting a railcar or consist

[cascaderailroad]

I am sure that it is the conductor (on the ground) that communicates with the engineer, and by his own guestimate judgement, he spots a rail car, just a tad past a clipping point, where other traffic will collide with a consist, and cause shunt damage ... However in Trainz it is hard to judge where this clipping point, of close clearance would be.

What type of marking on the rail, or ties, would be visually prototypical in Trainz ? I have thought of a blue flag, and a short 4 foot high wooden post that is marked with bright band of yellow/orange paint, or a RR tie that is painted with yellow/orange paint. Oftentimes at these spotting points there is a coil of trainline charging airhose, and a air shut off valve ... but I see nothing in Trainz to reflect these assets

Perhaps a short banded teleophone pole, or a bollard, spike, stake, would aid in precisely spotting a railcar exactly

I guess I could place a million Lampost Linda's, UK Driver ...

MWR (MonkeyWrenchModels) "Trackside Pedestrian Camera", "Trackside Signalman Camera","Trackside Lantern Camera", at these exact points (which is a great idear' as they have an interior cab view of railfaning passing trainz)
http://ac-monkeywrench-models.yolasite.com/components.php

 

[mjolnir]

In many places in North America these days, at the point where a railcar would foul the main (what happens at what you call the "clipping point"), there is a derail installed in a way, and at the point where it would protect the mainline from cars breaking loose and fouling the main. This is general (and perhaps always supposed to be) marked by a sign indicating the presence of a derail. A blue flag is not used for this purpose in North American railroading, as it indicates something entirely different, namely that the car(s) can't be moved because of the presence of maintenance of equipment people working on a car, perhaps to rerail it. Blue flags might also be used if the track maintainers are working on the track. I don't know how common the practice was, but frequently, in North America, where there was close clearance between a car and some other potential obstruction (like a building), one might find a "warning, close clearance" sign to communicate with switchmen, but in my experience, this was not always used.

BTW, I don't think I've ever seen a derail which was not (at some point in its life) painted safety yellow.

And I have seen on at least one occasion, two derails protecting the same track, spaced about 15 feet apart. This is not as absurd as it sounds at first. The siding serving an industry was at a higher elevation (by about 10 feet) above the switch to the main. The derail closest to the main was placed to derail a car, or engine entering the spur, to protect the cars and any workers in the spur from being run into by a runaway off the main. The derail about 15 feet further in was placed to prevent a car from the industry getting loose, and getting onto the main, and was set to derail the car away from the main, so all in all, it was not as absurd as it sounds at first hearing.

ns