Scalefour Forum

From time to time I am sure many of us come across some unusual trackwork; perhaps share it?

Here are a couple from me taken last week at Scunthorpe Steelworks. First up a tandem turnout in flatbottom rail:





And here are checkrails immediately in front of the toe of the switch (as did the earlier tandem turnout):

Very interesting Mark, thanks!

Are these A switches? Maybe normal terminology is not relevant... Interesting stretcher bar TOU...

Here's a rare example of a 3-throw switch in use on a running line complete with fpls and point motors.

from http://thebrightonbranchofaslef.yolasite.com/brighton-re-signaling-1933.php
Regards

Does anyone know why the slide bases (chairs?) on the switches in the foreground in Mark's photo of the tandem at Scunthorpe have unequal lengths? Have parts been used which were just what was to hand perhaps?

Colin

Your suggestion is probably correct, although its difficult to envisage any purpose to the long ones which seem to allow for a much greater throw than is needed.
Regards

Colin Parks wrote:Does anyone know why the slide bases (chairs?) on the switches in the foreground in Mark's photo of the tandem at Scunthorpe have unequal lengths? Have parts been used which were just what was to hand perhaps?

I see what you mean but I rather think this is a perspective effect (or spherical aberration?) caused by being near the corner of the shot. I think they are actauly the same length, particularly as the oiled area swept by the switch blades is the same on all four visible slide chairs.

Will,
Look at the first set of switches in the tandem. There are 16 visible slide chairs and 4 of those are distinctly longer than the others for no logical reason.
Regards

Longer slide chairs were necessary in some (if not all?) true 3-way turnouts, at the blunt end of the point blades. Possibly not for tandem turnouts though.

grovenor-2685 wrote:Will,
Look at the first set of switches in the tandem. There are 16 visible slide chairs and 4 of those are distinctly longer than the others for no logical reason.

Your right Keith, afraid I took the word "foreground" too literally.

Will

The space around the tracks [note the bridge pillars in the middle photo] suggests that the layout was once much more extensive, so were the slide chairs recycled from dismantled track?

Sorry, I should have been more exact in posing my question Will, but that tandem's slide chairs look distinctly odd. It is almost as if someone randomly used a mixture of 00 and P4 components!

Colin

Explain how this point works!

I get the impression it is somewhat point...less.

Was at the Black Country Museum today and was rather amused by this half baked impression.

It is supposed to be a stub point, though why it has standard switch blades escapes me (or possibly them, but there may be a prototype they copied).

Lots of slate quarries used double flanged wheels on their waggons, which can cope with less than perfect gauge track:

on wikipedia,of that at the Welsh slate museum:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_switch#/media/File:Stub_switch_at_Welsh_Slate_Museum.jpg

The Americans seem to have used stub point switch blades but with a standard common crossing arrangement at times (as does the 3 way point on the Ffestiniog, one time at Porthmadog and currently in Minffordd yard).

If it were a proper stub turnout for double-flanged wheels, it would have a pivoted section of rail in place of a common crossing. This one cannot have that as there are too many other rails in the way. It's a theatrical fake* of a conventional turnout when only one road is supposed to work.

* My father, who was a professional scenery-designer, used the phrase "theatrical fake" as a term of approval for something simplified that looks right when viewed from an auditorium. In this case, the audience is too close for that approach.

The foreground rail joint where the line starts to curve away is fishplated as well.

Colin Parks wrote:Does anyone know why the slide bases (chairs?) on the switches in the foreground in Mark's photo of the tandem at Scunthorpe have unequal lengths? Have parts been used which were just what was to hand perhaps?

Colin

Probably just what was left in the lego box when they built this turnout....

Knuckles wrote:Explain how this point works!

i take it from the smiley that you know the answer, it doesn't work.
Regards

Yup!

Unless PeteT is right.

Just down the track they had another one, a proper one with all the essential rails. I know speed and cheapness is an issue for something that doesn't need to work but only provide visual reference but they could have at least bothered to do a convincing job. Being a museum with a goal of preserving the past one would think accuracy to have importance in all areas by default.

I'm not whining here. Just find the whole thing amusing.