Switch or Turnout?

[GP-9_Man11786]

I have been involved with trains since the second grade and had never heard the term "Turnout" used until I started reading GR in 1998. Which term do you guys use?

[tangerine-jack]

Makes no difference really. The term "switch" is more correct, the term "turnout" was created in the indoor model RR world to differentiate between a RR switch and an electrical switch. Now in the garden, it depends on if you have powered rails or not as to which term you would use I suppose. Not that it really matters because the phrase " [censored] the train derailed at the switch" is seldom mistaken to mean that the train ran over a 12v DPDT electrical switch which would have no buisiness at all being on the track, let alone in such a position as to derail an 80lb train.



[oX)]

[Train 284]

I usually just use switch, since I have to explain track components to other people. Becomes a habit I suppose!

[Train 284]

Points refer to the blades at the bottom of the switch, the baldes, if you will.

[Anonymous]

I said switch, due to that was the term my dad taught me at a young age.

[Capt Bob Johnson]

I normally use switch. Many towns here on Delmarva Peninsula are named for switches located nearby. As in "Walston's Switch" Haven't ever heard of "_____ Turnout" as a town name! Oh, how bout Minnie Pearl's "Grinder's Switch"?

I had figured that turnout was a phrase brought over from Europe. I know a lot of our friends from the isles call them points, but to me the points are the ends of the movable part of the whole switch unit that move to direct a train from one set of tracks to another!

[BudSteinhoff]

Switch has always worked for me.
Most people understand switch but not many understand turnout.
Bud[8D]

[Anonymous]

at last you Americans have done something right, not much mind you but Iguess it is a start.

You have actually recognised that their are opinions and terminology in the English speaking world outside your own, which is pretty isolated.

I am taliking about the use of the word "points'

Rgds Ian

[tangerine-jack]

Yes, Ian, we sometimes screw up and recognize there is a world out there. Why just the other day I was in the garage checking on my gudgeon pins with a torch when I noticed my battery earth wire was loose. I also noticed my mudguard was rubbing on the pannier so I used a red coloured fibre washer as a spacer to fix it, but the tyre was flat by that time so I gave up and watched the match on the telle.


[oX)]

[RhB_HJ]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tangerine-jack

Yes, Ian, we sometimes screw up and recognize there is a world out there. Why just the other day I was in the garage checking on my gudgeon pins with a torch when I noticed my battery earth wire was loose. I also noticed my mudguard was rubbing on the pannier so I used a red coloured fibre washer as a spacer to fix it, but the tyre was flat by that time so I gave up and watched the match on the telle.
[oX)]

Jack,

What Ian isn't telling anyone is the distinctly different language Downunder. [;)][:o)][;)]

Now, I'm not referring to his writing style - that is a completely different ball game! - but rather to the distinct lingo in Oz, not to mention the distinct dialects. You start up there in Queensland - he isn't even far enough north to qualify as unique, too close to the NSW border - and work your way south to Tas and then west to W.A.
I'm a telling you I was surprised they didn't have an ear-tuning shop at major railway stations for the tourists.[:o)][}:)][:)][:D][:D]

BTW guys, I call it a turnout. Years of belonging to operating groups have taught me that it will always be the incorrect switch that gets thrown.[;)][:)]

[Tom The Brat]

We only do it to confuse people [:-,]

[piercedan]

Now that is a switch, I had a poor turnout for my openhouse. [:D]

[Big_Boy_4005]

Not being from the British Empire for more than two centuries, points are the moving part of the track divergance device being discussed.

Of the remaining choices, I use them interchangably.

The difficulty with the word switch in a modeling context is, there are also electrical devices that go by that name, so turnout is perfered.

For real railroading in North America it's just a switch.

[John Busby]

Hi all
Switches them things on the control pannel you know them things you control the railway with.
Sets of points them things that allow the train's to change tracks.
[:-,]
Stone the crows can't you people speak English[}:)]
Yes we speak a different language Down under [:0] its called English
[swg][swg][swg]
regards John

[Capt Bob Johnson]

Any way you cut the mustard, we all seem to muddle through and get our trains round the track once in a while. Yours might run through the points, somebody else's through the turnout, and mine through the switch; but isn't it odd that they all do the same thing? I like the term divergence device, but it does take a long time to get out as the train is approaching it and you are trying to get the grandson to throw it, er, switch it, or, turn it to the other track, ah, point it in the other direction!

[FJ and G]

just don't fall asleep at the switch; however else things may turn out.

[emipapa]

As a former employee of the NYNH & H RR we always called them switches.
Ron
[:)]

[Anonymous]

Points.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Yes, well on this side of the pond we speak the American dialect of English. Some terms need translation.[swg]

Bogies, sleepers, wagons, carriages, vans, points, etc.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: I have been involved with trains since the second grade and had never heard the term "Turnout" used until I started reading GR in 1998. Which term do you guys use?

points

[Anonymous]

On a 1:1 railroad, it's definitely a switch. Switch key, switch lantern, switch points, switch frog, split the ** flaming switch, ad nauseum. Plus yard switcher, switch crew, switch list - a picture unfolds.

As Tangerine Jack mentioned, it was the model camp that created the moniker 'turnout' to make explanations of how to control switches with switches a tad bit less confusing.

But even the 1:1 fraternity can get confused as to whether a certain track configuration is a crossing or a cross-over.

[Capt Bob Johnson]

It's all a matter of semantics.

[Tom The Brat]

QUOTE: just don't fall asleep at the switch; however else things may turn out.

I think I get the points!

[tangerine-jack]

Boot or trunk? Bonnet or hood? Torch or flashlight? I don't speak or write English, I use American. It is a more advanced form of the primitive English still spoken in Europe. An exceedinly heady blend of Dutch, English, French, German, Arapaho, Chesapeake, Towanda, Chinese, Spanish, Swahili and a thousand other languages brought from all corners of the globe to forge the most advanced civilization on the planet.

So if you say "points" I know what you are talking about. Same if you say "switch" or "turnout" or "brolley" or "barbie" or "fish-n-chips" I will understand the primitive dialects of your country and easily decipher the meanings because your language is but a mere root of mine.[;)]

So as Capt Bob said:

QUOTE: Originally posted by Capt Bob Johnson

It's all a matter of semantics.

[oX)]

[John Busby]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Big_Boy_4005

Yes, well on this side of the pond we speak the American dialect of English. Some terms need translation.[swg]

Bogies, sleepers, wagons, carriages, vans, points, etc.

Hi Big Boy 4005
Just for those who are not engaged in a bit of across the pond good natured leg pulling and really don't know there might just be someone.
I haven't forgoten the first time I got a US model publication it took a while to take in some of the different names for things

Bogies = trucks
sleepers = ties
wagons = freight cars
carriages = passanger cars
vans = box car, but can also be a caboose depending on context used

Points well thats what this topic is about.
We may at times be divided by a common language [B)] and some pretty ordinary spelling at times( mostly mine[:(]) but at least we know what we are on about in the end[:D]
regards John

[tangerine-jack]

Right-O, John, I got my wakeup call when I bought my first Triumph, took me a week to figure out a mud guard was really a fender, and a torch was not a flame making device, but a light making device. I'm glad I didn't follow the manual right away when it said to "peer into the petrol tank with a torch", now that would have been an interesting linguistic explaination at the emergency room!

All in fun, my primitive speaking friend, all in fun![:o)]


[oX)]

[Big_Boy_4005]

Bravo John, I'll bet you didn't realize that qualifies you as bilingual in the train world.[swg]

That short list was just what came quickly to mind.

In London if you ask for the subway people look at you funny. To them a subway is a pedesrtian underpass below the road (If I'm not mistaken). Underground or tube will get you to a train.

I actually learned much of my train "English" from watching the adventures of Thomas The Tank Engine, and perhaps some from the Walthers, Lego, and LGB catalogs.[;)]

[Tom The Brat]

I've read too much "Narnia" and grew up watching "The Double Decker Bus" on Saturday Mornings[:-,]

[Anonymous]

If you people can't agree I'll graciously allow you to use the Dutch word "wissel".

[Kiwi Down Under]

Interesting, is it not. Proper English speaking countries ( UK, Australia and New Zealand) all call them points... we also drive on the proper side of the road... perhaps that a point to remember,

Tony.