Track Plans

I agree with you that many prototype lines use catch points at various places, but the need for catch points is dependent on the type of railway being modelled. For example in "Modelling the Industrial Scene' Plan 1, it is likely there would be a trap point on the connection between the turntable and the 'main line' unless the branch had been reduced to 'One engine in steam' status when it would not be considered necessary. Plan 2 and Plan 3, both being private works without passenger trains, are very unlikely to have catchpoints either; it would be most likely that trains are manouvered at slow speed without anything but hand signals and hand-operated points.

In 'Shaking the Box Part 3' - unless there steep gradients where it might be necessary to ensure a runaway train is stopped or the single line branch is not being operated as 'One engine in steam' then catch points could be omitted.

There is the practical consideration too that for many modellers, it adds extra cost and work which beginners in particular might not wish to get involved with.

Regards,
John Webb

Perhaps I am being a little picky but trap and catch points are not the same thing.

Sidings have trap points, which keep or trap wagons etc in the sidings unless a route out has been set by the signalman, or from the ground frame giving access to the sidings. Often a single lead with a short length of track leading into a sand drag or buffer in the past, but now usually just a set of B switches dropping the offending stock into the four foot and cess. Alternatively a lead giving access to a neck or siding past the connection to the mainline can be worked from the box or frame, and used to trap the sidings, rather than having switches just to act as a trap.

Catch points are or rather were as they are since the end of class 9 trains a vanishing item, found on running lines with a fair to steep gradient.
Their function was to catch and derail any wagons that had broken away from a train running up the gradient, that had started to roll back down the gradient in the wrong direction to traffic.