I can’t remember in which Trains magazine I could find the explanation. If somebody knows why or knows when the story was published in Trains, please tell it to me.
Thanks
Don’t have the specific Trains issue reference, but I do recall that sometime a few months ago, there was a Q&A series on this forum that dealt with the existence (somewhere) of an on-line archive of all Trains issues. If anybody has a “lead” on that info, it’d help with his question. Couldn’t find anything helpful even in the Random House Unabridged Dictionary. However, IMHO, here’s one possibility:
Imagine that you’re looking straight down
at a frog, with the (switch)points “down”
toward your feet and the diverging rails
“up” toward the top of your head
With a bit (or more) of imagination, the
bulkiest part of the assembly (the actual
crossing) could be interpreted as the body
of a crouching frog (the animal), with the
flange guardrails that extend through and
past the intersection being the animal’s
extended front legs, and the more compact
set of guardrails that extend a bit toward
the points as the tucked-under rear legs.
At least, that’s my interpretation of the situation. Everybody else, feel free to chime in with any other suggestions.
Alan
Evergreen Park, IL
I agree with Alan that it looks like an out-stretched frog.
But, the whole thing is put together with ribits.
GROAN!!!
Think about the “Nazca Lines” down in Peru, which are huge stylized animal-outline-shaped mounds in the deserts dating back to the 200BC-200AD time frame.
Alan
Patrick:
The explanation I have has to do with horses. Check an encyclopedia, dictionary or horse book for a diagram of a horse’s hoof and look for the part labelled “Frog”. It looks exactly like the casting part of the turnout frog.
- David
I have a friend who used to work as a sub-contractor to conrail, repairing cracks in the x-shaped castings. When they are sitting all alone, with nothing attached to them, they resemble “frogs”,…the 4 legs thing…