Saw something a couple weeks ago and wish I had a camera. I left Americus, Ga. and went through Vienna to get to I-75. I had to wait on a train that had just set out a couple of cars and as it rolled by there was a special car that had a complete switch in two sections on it. The switch was mounted on a frame that ran the length of the car and had large (4 ft dia) hand wheel that appeared to rotate this frame. The switch was positioned so the ties were vertical and had the point and frog part on one side of the frame and a straight section on the other side of the frame. Now what was kind of funny is that a week later I was traveling through Waycross, Ga and crossed a bridge over tracks leading to a small yard. Looking over the bridge I saw what I think was the same switch I saw on that special car, laying on the ground beside the lead to the yard. From the bridge it looked just like someone was building a layout and had a turnout laying there ready to install. I thought, darn, they build the real thing like we do our models! There is a company in Fort Wayne, In. that I haul rail and dunnage lumber into that makes switches and cross overs and what ever else. I’ve seen the finished product hauled out by truck and flat cars and gondolas loaded with “sectional” straight track which I assume is used for temporary trackage to get by wrecks or other needs where temporary trackage is needed. Just thought I’d share this with you. Ken
I read in and OLD trains mag that Union Pacific did this too.
Most major U.S. railroads are using pre-fab turnouts instead of making their own nowadays. A tourist line that used to run here in southeast Arizona used pre-fab turnouts to install a run-around siding.
I’ve mentioned in several threads about brass rail that brass rail flex in 39 scale foot lengths can be used for, “Prototype snap track,” used wherever some quick and dirty tracklaying is required. The same applies to NS flex.
Maybe I should recycle my one Atlas dead-frog #6 as a panelized turnout awaiting installation. I sure can’t use it in the working tracks - several pieces of my motive power can’t span the (insert perjorative adjective of choice) plastic frog.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with live-frog specialwork)
Reading this brings to mind something I saw one day when I was waiting for a train to come through Leesville. I saw something far down the track that had two headlights. Hi-rail truck I thought. No, it was moving way to slow and was kicking up a lot of dust. Ballast spreader then? No new ballast had been put down that I knew of. After about twenty minutes the vehicle got close enough that I could make it out. It was a front-end loader mounted on hi-rail wheels. It was faced backward with a thirty foot length of track tied by one end to the loader blade, hence the dust. It brought the track section all the way up to the depot and dropped it. The operator took the chains loose then drove the the loader to the nearest crossing to get off the track. He then brought the loader back along the track and pulled the section clear. He then left, presumably to take the loader back to whereever he’d gotten it from. It wasn’t long before two trucks showed up with 4 guys each. The descended on the track section and tore it apart.