Hi, the above types of Points are great space-savers on MRR's in any language. Here in Britain, they are a lot less common nowadays than they were pre-WW2
I have yet to see one on the Tube Vids, but I notice that Peco have recently introduced #6 Double Slip in Code 83.
Q - Do American R/R's use Double or Single Slips - present day, please?
This just helps towards Layout-planning. Regards, Paul
"It's the South Shore Line, Jim - but not as we know it".
In general about the only place North American railroads use double or single slip switches is in the approaches to major passenger terminals. Elsewhere there was usually enough room to spread out the turnouts. Slip switches are maintenance headaches, especially if they were subject to heavy freight trains, and thoroughly despised by the track forces. As always, though, there would be rare exceptions.
John
Hi John,
Thanks for your reply, albeit as I suspected. I was intending to use a couple of Single Slip Points only and will probably resort to a bit of Modellers licence under the 'Prototype for everything Dept' - Paul
Hi Lazers
The US railways are just like every one else because slips are a maintainance headache.
They only use them when there is no possible alternative.
With modern simplification and streamlining of operations there is less and less need for them so every one is getting rid of them where and when they can.
Railway modelers use far more of them than the real ones ever did because they and three way points are such great space savers which in our case is always a big issue so if you need one to do what you want to do use one.
Just remember they are more finicky to set up than std points and must be dead level if its possible more dead level than a set of points if thats even possible.
regards John
They are almost REQUIRED on urban railroads where you have very limited space... :
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
The general problem with slip switches in contemporary rail is that is it not practical to use them for diverging at anything but low(ish) speeds. The sorts of rail technology (such as swing crossings etc) which allow higher speed diverging traffic are not readily adaptable to slip switches.
So, as service speeds become increasingly significant for rail as a competitive transportation mode (for both freight and passenger traffic), slip switches have fallen from favour - even in many rapid transit applications.
A slip switch will also eliminate an s curve. Instead of going from one main line to another then into a yard, you can now go directly into the yard.
Steve
I had not realized that Peco introduced its own double slip turnouts, so that is good to know.
As others have mentioned, the double slip is most often found in and around passenger stations here in the USA. I use a Walthers Shinohara double slip at the entrance to my passenger station.
The double slips are a bit complicated to operate in that they have four sets of points and require two separate ground throws to control them. I have set up a small control panel with LED lights to assist me in selecting the correct route. It is not exactly intuitive.
Rich
Alton Junction