Can someone please explain what’s going on here? A new [switch] installed on the CSX Sanford Sub at the S. Orange Ave. overpass south of Taft, FL leads right into the bridge abuttment. Also, there appears to be no frog. I’m confused[%-)].
Is it a derail?
Well I sure dont see a Frog either, however I believe I see a large Rat to the left of the 3rd column.[swg]
Split point derail for the siding.
Thanks Ed.
Now please tell me what purpose this device serves and where they’re typically found. Why would CSX want to derail a train into a bridge?
(1) You do want to derail a car into or foul the main track.
(2) most likely the derailed car is gonna stop way short of the bridge (unless somebody is shoving blind and a dimwitted engineer is not watching the throttle or the ampmeter.
Gravity works. (apparently a CTC power derail protecting the interlocking plant)
im guessing you ment to say
(1) You do NOT want to derail a car into or foul the main track.
Might be where a siding once was.
Gary
It’s a derail.
Perhaps a derail to stop runaway freight cars, but that’s a weird location for one.
Trackwise, that’s a good, logical location for the derail, and it’s properly installed, but I still would feel a lot more comfortable if there were more room between what’s left of the siding and the abutment!
I don’t see a rat, what 3rd column?
are you kidding?
Split point derails typically are found protecting main lines…installed at the ends of sidings, industrial spurs and storage yard throats that have access to the main line.
The purpose of the split point is to guide an errant car off of the rails and onto the ground before it fouls the main line.
It also protects the spur, siding or throat from cars entering a plant or siding from the main line…imagine that siding is used to store tank cars full of chlorine or LPG, and one of them rolled free…which would you prefer, for it to roll far enough out that it can be cornered or clipped by a passing train on the main, or would you prefer it to end up with its lead trucks stuck in the ballast pointed towards the fence just past the derail?
The reason it is located where it is?
Because moving it farther back would compromise the siding length, and because anything rolling free in the siding and over the derail would be moving at a slow speed, so slow it will never reach the bridge abutment or retaining wall, unless, as Mudchicken pointed out, the crew were asleep.
It is CTC controlled, as is the main line, so the crews working in the siding have to have permission and a signal to exit the siding before hand, and the derail is interlocked with the signal they will have to have before they can exit the siding, so the odds of a crew shoving over or out the derail are quite small.
Remember PRR had one installed at gunpow interlocking (may have had a frog) AMTRAK removed it and MR. Gates of CONRAIL overram it and caused one of AMTRAK’s worst wrecks. Tracks went from 3 to 2 there I may recall.
I just noticed–the derail was apparently thirsty!
I realize I’m losing the end of the siding in the shadow of the bridge, but doesn’t it take a pretty good dip there before the switch?
I’m not doubting your word, but I’m curious. How would Amtrak have the authority to remove the device if it was Conrail track? Or do/did Amtrak own that piece of track?
Here are some more photos taken from the same spot showing the new dwarf signal and siding being constructed. I think that this was built for the rock plant in the distance on the last photo. There is also an industrial spur that used to connect to the mainline. It can also be seen in the last photo.
This siding drops quite a bit from the mainline making it difficult for me to understand why the derail was warranted.
I don’t know the reason they used that kind of derail there, but we have a similar one added on the track near the power plant at Homer City, PA. It’d just send the car into the hillside if it went through the derail. What I don’t get is why do they construct a switch instead of installed a derail? The line here used to have derails on it before the rehabilitation, but they removed those…
Frogs cost money. MC can probably tell you how much.
Displacement derails (I think that’s what they are called) are not always effective - a little speed will carry the wheels right over them.
defintinly a derail. on the Little Rock trolley system, on each expansion joint there is a joint that looks like a derail but has already been stated above.