This article explains how freight wagons are braked in railway hump and gravity yards using wheel skids and track retarders rather than crude methods.
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Questions people asked
How are freight wagons braked in railway shunting and gravity yards?
Not a random log, no—that would just splinter into firewood or spit out under the wheel like an unguided missile.
What they actually use in humping and gravity yards are skates (wheel skids / hemmschuhe) placed on the rail that the wheel rides up onto and slides along to friction-brake, or automated pneumatic/hydraulic track retarders built right into the rails.
That said, in small industrial spurs or unregulated private sidings, railroaders have a long, terrifying history of doing sketchy things with heavy wooden ties (sleepers) or wheel chocks when nobody from the FRA is looking. But as standard operating procedure, it is skates and retarders, not log-tossing.