I came across this photo of a Wabash tower in Litchfield, Ill. and thought about the layout of the switch-point derail. If I were the operator I'd sure be nervous with that arrangement. Seems to me it would send the train on a path headed right toward the tower!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/12297124894/
[edit: somehow a link to a different photo got pasted in. The above link should take you to the proper photo that I was refering to. Sorry!]
Of course, even without the derail, any wreck at the crossing would probably wipe out the tower as well. Hazards of the job!
[edit II: In doing a little digging I found this article about a wreck of the I-Cs Green Diamond at the same location, 2 mi. south of Litchfield in 1947. The tower is in two views. Check out all the locals surveying the damage! Sure, that would be allowed today! ]
http://www.sj-r.com/article/20090806/Blogs/308069924
"The crash occurred at Winston Tower just south of Litchfield where three train lines came together. The northbound “Diamond” struck a westbound Chicago, Burlington and Quincy freight train. The Wabash railroad also crossed the CB & Q and this point.
Enjoy... Ed
Are you talking on the left? Sure that's a derail and not just one side of a track heading off that way? The picture cuts off just about where the left rail would be.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
is the 3rd rail in the photo there to attempt to prevent a derailed train from running off the embankment?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/12296722715/in/set-72157640471385906/lightbox/
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
Yes, that's what that guard rail is for. If you don't need both, why built both? Its really common on the DC Metro. Stations only have a guardrail on the right side to keep trains for riding up on the platform in an accident. The tunnel wall takes care of the other side!
Hopefully that extra rail would contain something being deliberately derailed. The only other choice would have been to point it at the other main, which could make a bad choice (not stopping at the red signal that surely would be displayed if the derail was locked closed) into an even worse choice as the derail flung the offending train directly into the path of one coming the other way. If the train does go all the way off, most of the interlocking on that side of the tower would certainly be destroyed, and you'd be risking the lives of the head end crew and the tower operator. If the train was derailed off to the other side, you'd be risking the lives of the train crew, a potential oncoming train crew, and if the oncoming train were a passenger train - a lot of lives. Worst case would probably be if the power on the left track was already passed and the derail sent the offending train right into the side of a passenger train. So - pointing to the tower is really the best option here. Best chance to stop a runaway without hitting another train on the oncoming main and, with all that rodding and the tower to plow through, might just keep it from intruding into the crossing line as well.
Those tower operators would stare in the face of danger everyday. (See the photos in the above link to the Green Diamond wreck there in 1947) I remember three wrecks near me that either involved the tower or came pretty close.
B&O at Sterling, Ohio 1/11/1965 http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/bldg/sterling.html
50 years ago this week!
NYC at Ashtabula, PRR coal train couldn't stop. I don't recall the date.
NYC at Waterloo, In. June 1, 1957 derailed cars rested right up against the wood tower but didn't knock it down.
I spent a night in the PRR's Rochester Pa. tower and it sat on the outside of a curve and when you saw those trains coming at you it made you cross your fingers.
Dangerous work, indeed.
I agree that the arrangement of that derail in the photo is the "lesser of two evils."
Ed
If the route is lined then the derail is not in derailing position and everything is fine.
If the route is not lined then then the derail is in the derailing position. If the route is not lined then that means it could be lined for the other route. If there is a train on the other route then any scenario puts the tower in jepoardy from being hit by the pile up of the trains.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
As close as the derail is to the diamonds, I assume that trains would be approaching slowly - unless the design engineers were willing to accept a massive pileup (whuch would probably spill over onto the diamonds as well as leveling the tower.
A locomotive on the ties at 10-15 mph would probably stay on the ties. It might even stop short of the diamonds - but not with a really heavy train pushing it.
That derail, in that location, would give the railroad's lawyers the ability to say, "Well, we tried..."
The prototype I follow would have used a switch, and a short spur buried in about a hundred tons of ballast stone.* And it would have been right at the home signal, not close to the lever frame.
*Note that the typical train was, and is, only about 300-350 tons. A US example would need a longer spur and ten times the weight of gravel.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Chuck,
According to this article the Green Diamond was approaching at 70 MPH.
Of course, without an actual track diagram we're just trying to guess at what the engineering department had in mind. There's no derail on the left-hand track and we are on the rear of a passenger train, running the opposite direction. The I-C crossed the Burlington here with the Wabash bisecting both.
Usually the railroad that first wanted to cross another had to build, maintain and staff the tower. Today it looks like the Wabash is gone but the old I-C and CB&Q are still there.