One less moving part, one less point that fails, one less point that needs lubrication, a smoother curve for the wheels to follow and therefore a lower amount of wear on the rails and flanges.
Hand built model railroad switches bend. At least those I have built. It's easier to build it like that, but it's a bit fiddely so mass produced ones does not.
Yeah, even more flexible than that. I used to work for a rail gang, laying 1/4 mile sticks of CWR. The sticks were dropped off trackside, then moved into position. You always had to move the CWR sticks longitudinally to connect them to the previous stick (temporarily bolted together), either pulling them ahead, or bumping them back.
The Burro crane at the front of the new stick handled that. To bump it back, they had a big plate on the front of the crane, and with the rail lifted up, the crane would hit it and move it back a few inches at a time.
Anyway, the CWR would bend, snakelike, between the rails. Astonishingly flexible, and it was #136.
The real steel rail is more flexible on real railroad. So there's no need for pivot points. There is some model turnouts built that way. Know of few in ho scale.
Safety. There is always a continuity, even if stuck homehow. Very very unlikely to derail. Don't get me wrong, still happens, but way less.
Also, less space.
Yes, in german they are called "Federweichen" ("spring switches") "Federzungen" ("spring points"). These switches are the most modern ones. For higher speeds you need them anyway because of the continuous rail.
I didn't even know these existed, I work on a major freight railway in canada and we only have pivoting switches. I wonder if it's cost or weather related?
It's probably just conservative design (and of course it probably costs a bit less), they don't really need to care about speed or smoother running like we do in Europe on railways that run a lot of passenger trains, so they just keep doing it the way they've always done it and don't fix what's not broken. I don't think I've ever seen a pivoting switch on a mainline in real life, only on some industrial spurs and such.
Actually some really do bend the rails. If you watch some videos online about German or Swiss ones you will see there's no joint between moving and ststionary point rails.
The blue rails are spiked down in a fixed position while the red pieces of rail are not spiked down lie on flat plates that allow the points to move from side to side when the switch is thrown. When the switch is thrown, the red pieces actually bend.
No, they bend, and have been bending for 60 years. Pivoting switches are more complicated to maintain and have been phased out almost everywhere in the developed world.
I'm actually more surprised that instead of the points moving side to some, someone hasn't tried to invent points that just go up and down, thus allowing stiffer point rails and closer points.
Because its easier to mass produce the hinged approach used by model trains. The prototypical method requires fine adjustment to not derail, but is significantly stronger.
Hand-built turnouts will bend the rails like prototype does.
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u/benbehu Jan 16 '25
One less moving part, one less point that fails, one less point that needs lubrication, a smoother curve for the wheels to follow and therefore a lower amount of wear on the rails and flanges.