Maybe I missed something on this Metro/Freight train crash, but for both trains to be on the same track, one of them went through switches that were set against them without derailing. Is this possible?
No problem with a trailing point move. From frog to point if you don’t understand what a trailing point move is. Not healthy for the rods and/or power switch.
albal,
First off, [#welcome] to the forum! Good to have you aboard!
Secondly, this topic is already being discussed over on another thread:
How can a signal be missed?
You may want to just jump into the conversation over there…
Tom
Let’s simplify this a little. Imagine a section of double track going down to a single track: (The red closest to the A is the double track, the blue closest to the B is the single track) Let’s call the red track on the top main 1, and the red track on the bottom main 2. And we’ll call the blue track the single track.
A. ==========--------------- B.
If a train is going to the right from A to B, it is a trailing point move. If going left from B to A, it is a facing point move.
Now, let’s say a passenger train going from A to B on main 2 was supposed to wait at the switch (in the middle of the diagram, where the red and blue meet). A freight train going B to A was lined up by the dispatcher to go from the single track to main 1. If the passenger train doesn’t stop, it will “run thru” the switch. It will damage the switch, but it won’t derail, as long as the passenger train doesn’t back up! If he backs up, then it will probably go on the ground. Also, if he would run through the swtich and keep going forward, the next train going B to A would hit the damaged switch and most likely derail.
I hope that makes sense… it’s late as I type this.