On April 4 I rode the Sprinter, the new passeneger rail service that runs on the former ATSF Escondido branch in southern California. BNSF (and SDIV) still operate freight trains in the late night/early morning hours on most of the original route.
In the short stretch of track between the Escondido Sprinter terminal and the end-of-track a couple block further east, there is a double derail - see pic. I don’t recall seeing double derails before - how common are these?
Back-to-back, single-split switch, power-operated derails? Not common at all. It’s designed to prevent movement in both directions, whereas typically a derail is installed to prevent movement in one direction. Note the freight cars tied down on the main track just beyond.
RWM
I never seen this before. Where would put this by? Railroad Yard? Hubs?
I would think that such an installation would be in situations like the Sprinter or NJ Transit’s River Line operation and would mark the line of demarcation when the light rail equipment is in service and each type of equipment has to be kept on its own side of the line.
I think CSSHEGEWISCH has it right. CP AVO may indeed be a demarcation point.
The absence of control point signals in the photo confused me. But, when I clicked on the photo, the picture became large enough to see the dwarf signal on the left in the background.
(Great enlightening shot, by the way, MP57313! Keep them coming. K.P.)
With the exception of when the Local comes to service the plant beyond the derails, then both are lined for movement so the local can do it’s work. The rest of the time the derails are in the derailing position to prevent cars from rolling out of the industry into whatever kind of operation is on the other side of the derail, it also prevents that operation from running into the plant in error. A rather unique control point.