Unusual Trackwork

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Mark Tatlow
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Unusual Trackwork

Postby Mark Tatlow » Tue Sep 19, 2017 10:26 pm

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:

_DSC0039 (5).JPG


_DSC0113.JPG


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

_DSC0150 (2).JPG
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Julian Roberts
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby Julian Roberts » Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:59 am

Very interesting Mark, thanks! :thumb

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

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grovenor-2685
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby grovenor-2685 » Wed Sep 20, 2017 11:08 am

Here's a rare example of a 3-throw switch in use on a running line complete with fpls and point motors.
Image
from http://thebrightonbranchofaslef.yolasite.com/brighton-re-signaling-1933.php
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Colin Parks

Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby Colin Parks » Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:34 pm

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?

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grovenor-2685
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby grovenor-2685 » Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:09 pm

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.
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Will L
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby Will L » Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:41 pm

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.

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grovenor-2685
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby grovenor-2685 » Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:57 pm

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.
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Armchair Modeller

Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby Armchair Modeller » Wed Sep 20, 2017 7:12 pm

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.

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Will L
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby Will L » Wed Sep 20, 2017 7:41 pm

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.

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Noel
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby Noel » Wed Sep 20, 2017 7:47 pm

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?
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Colin Parks

Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby Colin Parks » Wed Sep 20, 2017 9:28 pm

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

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Knuckles
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby Knuckles » Wed Oct 10, 2018 9:01 pm

Explain how this point works! :D

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.

20181010_105329.jpg
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PeteT
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby PeteT » Thu Oct 11, 2018 7:47 am

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).

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Guy Rixon
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby Guy Rixon » Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:01 am

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.

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Noel
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby Noel » Thu Oct 11, 2018 10:14 am

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

Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby billbedford » Thu Oct 11, 2018 10:17 am

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....

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grovenor-2685
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby grovenor-2685 » Thu Oct 11, 2018 12:52 pm

Knuckles wrote:Explain how this point works! :D

i take it from the smiley that you know the answer, it doesn't work. :)
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Knuckles
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Re: Unusual Trackwork

Postby Knuckles » Thu Oct 11, 2018 3:35 pm

Yup!

Unless PeteT is right. :shock:

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. :)
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