dehusman The term "turnout" is used in the 1985 GCOR (virtually every class 1, regional and shortline in the US, west of the Mississippi, the 62 Canandian UCOR, the 68 US UCOR, the N&W, UP 1972, ATSF, SP and DRGW rulebooks just to name a few. What do all these railroads have in common? They use route signalling. The roads that didn't use the term "turnout" tend to be those with "speed signalling". Route signalling rules have "diverging signals", speed signalling rules don't. They ahve the same signals and the same speeds, just they don't name or define them the same.
The term "turnout" is used in the 1985 GCOR (virtually every class 1, regional and shortline in the US, west of the Mississippi, the 62 Canandian UCOR, the 68 US UCOR, the N&W, UP 1972, ATSF, SP and DRGW rulebooks just to name a few.
What do all these railroads have in common? They use route signalling. The roads that didn't use the term "turnout" tend to be those with "speed signalling". Route signalling rules have "diverging signals", speed signalling rules don't. They ahve the same signals and the same speeds, just they don't name or define them the same.
The Canadian roads all (well, those that actually have signals) use speed signals, and all the indications defined in the Cdn 1962 UCOR and later CCORs are based off speeds (Medium to Clear etc.).
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
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The switch/turnout, railroad/railway discussions come up at least once every year if not every 6 months. Not a big deal.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I hope this settles this issue...at least for this week.
Midnight Railroader dehusman Midnight RailroaderEvery time someone posts this, someone who works (or worked) an actual railroad says they never heard the term used in their career. If its someone who has worked in the operating department of a US railroad west of the Mississippi in the last 24 years then they don't have an excuse, for just one example (emphasis mine) : GCOR Rule 9.2.5 Approach Diverging (Indication): Proceed prepared to advance on the diverging route at the next signal at the prescribed speed through turnout. See the quote several items above from "grizlump."
dehusman Midnight RailroaderEvery time someone posts this, someone who works (or worked) an actual railroad says they never heard the term used in their career. If its someone who has worked in the operating department of a US railroad west of the Mississippi in the last 24 years then they don't have an excuse, for just one example (emphasis mine) : GCOR Rule 9.2.5 Approach Diverging (Indication): Proceed prepared to advance on the diverging route at the next signal at the prescribed speed through turnout.
Midnight RailroaderEvery time someone posts this, someone who works (or worked) an actual railroad says they never heard the term used in their career.
If its someone who has worked in the operating department of a US railroad west of the Mississippi in the last 24 years then they don't have an excuse, for just one example (emphasis mine) :
GCOR Rule 9.2.5 Approach Diverging (Indication): Proceed prepared to advance on the diverging route at the next signal at the prescribed speed through turnout.
I did, which is partially why I answered.
What do all these railroads have in common? They use route signalling. The roads that didn't use the term "turnout" tend to be those with "speed signalling". Route signalling rules have "diverging signals", speed signalling rules don't. They ahve the same signals and the same speeds, just they don't name or define them the same. Grizlump may have operated on a railroad that used speed signalling and may have just worked in the operating department so its possible that he never saw the term used. But that doesn't mean that it wasn't used by prototype railroads or isn't a prototypical term. And if you look in the engineering rules/manuals for even the roads with speed signalling they will use the term "turnout" because it is definitely a railway engineering term.
Is turnout a prototypical railroad term? Definitely yes.
Is turnout a term used by the operating department on every railrod? Definitely no.
Is turnout used by the engineering departmets on prototype railroads? Definitely yes.
dehusmanMidnight RailroaderEvery time someone posts this, someone who works (or worked) an actual railroad says they never heard the term used in their career. If its someone who has worked in the operating department of a US railroad west of the Mississippi in the last 24 years then they don't have an excuse, for just one example (emphasis mine) : GCOR Rule 9.2.5 Approach Diverging (Indication): Proceed prepared to advance on the diverging route at the next signal at the prescribed speed through turnout.
See the quote several items above from "grizlump."
colesdad bachmann #6 turnout, and a #6 switch should both be, and do the same thing. "make the train go over there"
They are the same thing. No "basically" involved.
markpierceMidnight Railroader That's because "turnout" is a model railroading term intended to keep people from confusing track switches with electrical switches. Nope. Railroad engineering departments and prototype rail-assembly manufacturers call the assembled track (points, frog, etc) turnouts.
Midnight Railroader That's because "turnout" is a model railroading term intended to keep people from confusing track switches with electrical switches.
That's because "turnout" is a model railroading term intended to keep people from confusing track switches with electrical switches.
Nope. Railroad engineering departments and prototype rail-assembly manufacturers call the assembled track (points, frog, etc) turnouts.
Every time someone posts this, someone who works (or worked) an actual railroad says they never heard the term used in their career.
So basically speaking, they are interchangable. A bachmann #6 turnout, and a #6 switch should both be, and do the same thing. "make the train go over there"
Thanks. I wasn't trying to start an disagreement. Just wanted to know if I could use one for the other.
Midnight RailroaderThat's because "turnout" is a model railroading term intended to keep people from confusing track switches with electrical switches
Actually it is a prototype term, you will find it in speed restriction rules, as in, "Do not exceed 10 mph through the turnout."
This has been argued ad nauseum many times before. For model railroad purposes they are interchangeable terms. For the prototype, they are both used but generally refer to opposite ends of a track device, the switch to the moveable part and the turnout to the diverging part.
grizlump9worked on several different railroads most of my life and nobody ever called one a turnout. turnout was used to describe the crowd at a funeral. no body ever said "he had a lot of friends, pretty good switch." also, i was never told to highball the turnout, i never ran through a turnout, the turnout was never wrong, i never dropped off to get the turnout. the lamp was never out on the high turnout. never saw a double slip turnout. and last but not least, we never were late because we had a lot of turnouting to do.
worked on several different railroads most of my life and nobody ever called one a turnout. turnout was used to describe the crowd at a funeral. no body ever said "he had a lot of friends, pretty good switch." also, i was never told to highball the turnout, i never ran through a turnout, the turnout was never wrong, i never dropped off to get the turnout. the lamp was never out on the high turnout. never saw a double slip turnout. and last but not least, we never were late because we had a lot of turnouting to do.
grizlump
The locating engineer (civil engineer) calls it a turnout. The main concern is providing a proper roadbed for the diverging track.
The operating types call it a switch - which actually refers to the assembly of points, pivots and throw mechanism that selects the route to be used. The obvious concern is, which way will a train pass through it?
Our British friends call the whole thing, "Points," thereby disregarding the rest of the assembly.
The cute little curlytop in the pretty pink dress refers to it as, "That thing that makes the train go over there..."
They're all referring to the same object.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with hand-laid specialwork)
What would be the difference between a RH turnout and a Rh switch. I'm using the Bachmann e-z track in HO.
Thank You.