What is a wye?
Right of way?
Maintenance of way?
and that white sign that is seen on the side of the tracks that just has a “w” on it?
Wye – a “Y” shaped track layout (if one is looking at it in plan view) consisting of three turnouts and three legs, used to (1) turn locomotives and trains, (2) commonly as a connection at junctions enabling a locomotive or train to choose either route from any entrance without requiring a reverse move.
Right-of-way – the land corridor used by linear land uses such as railroads, pipelines, power lines, highways; the term refers to the legal preference that such uses have over ordinary uses through right of eminent domain. Railroad rights of way are commonly 100’, 200’, or 400’ wide; much narrower in urban areas where the railroad has sold off adjacent land for industrial use, or obtained a narrower ROW originally due to high land cost.
Maintenance-of-way – the categorical term used to describe all maintenance of the fixed physical plant of the railway: track, structures, signaling, tunnels, and bridges.
W post or sign – Whistle Post; placed at a regular distance in advance of a road crossing, tunnel, large bridge, or other place where warning is deemed necessary for safety; the post instructs the engineman to sound the whistle according to the railway’s operating rules.
RWM
Funny thing is the “Wye” doesn’t really look like a “Y” when viewed up close. It is more of a triangle. True it is three tracks meeting and from a distance it is a “Y” (or maybe a “T”), but the term “Wye” is akin to the Greek alphabet “Delta” (triangle) character, a track coming off of each point.
On the whistle board - an MX added means there are multiple crossings in a short distance.
some railroads use the actual whistle pattern marked vertically on their whistle posts:
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It’s called a “Y”, or wye because if you are standing at any one leg, and looking at the other two, it appears from your point of view that you are standing at the bottom leg of a Y…