I found this while looking for something totally unrelated…thought it was really interesting
The switch is located in Snaefell on the Isle of Man. It would be cool to model this.
underworld[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
I’ve seen pics of those on old mining tracks. Seems like their made for lighter, shorter wheelbase stuff. Makes you do a double take when you see one.
I think this is from a light freight line. I’ve got a bit of extra track…I think I’ll try one this week.
underworld[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
they are also cheaper and easyer to make, i have seen shortlines use them.
A similar system was often used on street car lines.
–Randy
rrinker where r u from i see you have the READING RAILROAD logo?
[%-)]
If you look carefully, there’s a shadow of a former point rail, so this appears to me to have originally been a normal turnout that has had one line permanenty disabled by removing the frog and a point rail.
Is that a shadow of a former point rail or was it made by the existing point rail being lined for the alternate route? Also the point rail seems to be hinged right at the frog. When I’ve seen a railroad take a route out of service, most of the time they pull up the points and frogs and just lay a solid piece of rail in place. They reuse the frog and points elsewhwere.
-George
Did a little research and here is a pic of the switch in use on the Snaefell Mtn Railway
-George
Okay, now I see how it works – the single point rail moves completely over from one rail to the other, and it’s hinged only on the end that would be the frog.
Nope. The switch I’m speaking of has two frogs, if you wil. The first frog is located directly across from the point rail and the second frog is in the normal position for a normal switch. This site has a diagram of it, but no photo. www.eastpenn.org/switch.pdf. Ken
I have often wondered why they don’t do this anyway. Would save on material rail and such.
It’s not DCC-friendly, that’s why! [swg]
Seriously, the throw distance is much longer for this kind of turnout than for a standard two-point turnout. That would require a much longer activation arm, and would be much more expensive to use a remote device to throw the turnout. Also, maintaining alignment would probably be more difficult.
Also, take a look at the angles involved. With that long throw, the diverging path is a sharp angular break of about 15 degrees. You would have to take this turnout very, very slowly.
Eriediamond,
The turnout you described is almost always found in pavement, in conjunction with girder rail (the kind with built-in flangeways.) Streetcar lines were big users, but they were also common along freight-only street trackage. They are self-lining when entered from the frog end, and the single point can be thrown with a tool that looks like a t-handled crowbar. Needless to say, they require serious speed restrictions when used under freight equipment.
As for the swing-point frogless turnouts, I saw LOTS of them in use in coal mine tramways when I was “minefanning” in Kyushu in the late 1950’s. The oddest was one that had been cut into a curved track from the outside. The “point” retained the curvature of the original curve outer rail, and the mating stock rail sort of bulged out before becoming tangent. Track gauge was 450mm IIRC, rolling stock was little 4-wheel mine carts and motive power was a matched pair of 0-5-0’s with a miner attached.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with swing-point mine tram turnouts)