Railroad switches and how they work
Ya think that guy narrating is from the south?..(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Ya think? I couldn’t make it though the whole 8 minutes. Some mis-information presented, lots of “alternate” terms for the switch itself and some of the parts, plus he states that a closed switch can be run trough “trailing point” on a 1:1 (he doesn’t specifically say 1:1, but that is what the video is of) so long as it’s not locked. To my knowledge, if it’s not a spring switch, that will not work in the 1:1 world OR the model world.
Technically speaking Jon, you can run through a switch on the 1:1, but it bends the switch rod and it has to be replaced. Technically yes, but practical no. A lot of times railroads will claim that a switch stand isn’t a run through stand, but the manufacturer says it is. The reason the railroads do this is because the FRA mandates more routine maintenance with a “rubber switch”.
All I could think about, while he was standing between them shiny rails, was the train that might be coming up behind him during his narration
Craig Townsend said:
Technically speaking Jon, you can run through a switch on the 1:1, but it bends the switch rod and it has to be replaced. Technically yes, but practical no. A lot of times railroads will claim that a switch stand isn’t a run through stand, but the manufacturer says it is. The reason the railroads do this is because the FRA mandates more routine maintenance with a “rubber switch”.
That also depends on what direction the points are set, and if the points or switch machine are sprung. In a yard not far from here, a hogger in a hurry ran through a switch with the points set the other way. Since the rod was being pulled from the machine, and the machine wasn’t sprung, the locomotive basically tore out the switch. Since the locomotive and trailing cars were moving at a decent speed, the locomotive pealed one of the rails off the ties and the cars were accordioned up into a pile behind the locomotive. The railroad decided that the yard wasn’t used enough to rebuild that one track, so the yard had a missing track for years.
Spring switches usually have a blue sign next to them with SS, or something else, printed on them to indicate that they are spring switches.
Well there’s spring switches and rubber switches. A spring switch will pop back to its original position after you run through it. A rubber switch will just rotate the switch stand, and pop the points over.
You can only run through a switch if the points are set wrong… I recall once, a very young trainmaster insisted that a yard crew ran through a facing point switch. The crew desperately tried to explain to this young TM that it was impossible to run through a facing point switch. The exchange got so heated that the terminal manager had to make his way down to calm the situation down. At this point the Terminal Manager had to save face with his young TM, and agreed that the crew ran through the switch. Laughter from the experienced crew got so bad at one point that, the Terminal Manager threatened to call an investigation for insubordination.
well, if he was able to move the switch it might have helped his narration. no diagrams or pictures with circles and arrows, and with a papragraph on the back, it would have heped, or had someone to point to what he was trying to esplain.
@ 3:45, and 4:11 he is talking of the points, and to me it looks like that switch is spiked in the closed position. Or am I wrong? Is that spike just to the left of the right point not going to keep that switch from moving to the left on the slide plate?
Dave
I believe you are correct. That spike will surely keep that point from moving.
That’s pretty common, at least around here, for track that is unmaintained/OOS. If a move is required, the track department has to be present to remove the spike and walk the train onto the spur.
Mike Wlez said:
All I could think about, while he was standing between them shiny rails, was the train that might be coming up behind him during his narration
Are several of this flavor of article on this photography website; https://www.slrlounge.com/photographing-train-tracks-death/
Don’t Underestimate The Danger Of Railroad Shoots | Another Preventable Death By Train
By Holly Roa on March 11th 2017
Hey photographers, let’s take (yet another) moment to talk about something that comes up fairly often in internet discussions and usually causes a big argument – shooting on train tracks. It’s pretty common in the United States, and you can bet that when someone posts a photograph of someone posed on train tracks in any kind of photography group the following will happen: someone will pipe up “hey, that’s illegal and very unsafe!” to which probably a few different people will chime in, “you can hear a train coming from a mile away, you’d have to be some kind of idiot to be run over by one.” More and more people will join in from both sides, arguing ensues, the thread might be deleted or have comments disabled, and still the two sides can’t see eye to eye.
and https://www.slrlounge.com/4-reasons-shouldnt-take-portraits-railroad-tracks/
4 Reasons You Shouldn’t Take Portraits on Railroad Tracks
By Tanya Goodall Smith on November 10th 2013
Photographers are notorious for taking safety risks and ignoring laws in order to get the perfect shot. Trespassing onto railroad property to photograph people on tracks seems to be a common action taken by photographers in recent years. With an increase in pedestrian rail trespass casualties in the United States, Union Pacific and organizations like Operation Lifesaver, have been urging photographers to just stay off the tracks. Here are 4 reasons why you shouldn’t take portraits on railroad tracks…
Yes Forrest, we know, but without these people where would we find candidates for ‘The Darwin Awards’?
Yup. When we were riding on the Titusville and Oil Creek Railroad, when they stopped at the end of the trip out, they made an announcement to keep clear of the tracks, because they were going to do a switching move before heading back. We got off the train to watch the switching move, and I watched a dad and his son walk right up the tracks so they could take pictures of the move. They weren’t alone, there were 4 or 5 others that went with them. The conductor called out to them several times to “get out of there”. These “people” were standing on the track where the tank cars were going to be dropped.
Ya cant fix stupid.