Why a turnout frog is called frog?

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who used to work as a sub-contractor to conrail, repairing cracks in the x-shaped castings. When they are sitting all alone, with nothing attached to them, they resemble "frogs",...the 4 legs thing....

[BR60103]

Patrick:
The explanation I have has to do with horses. Check an encyclopedia, dictionary or horse book for a diagram of a horse's hoof and look for the part labelled "Frog". It looks exactly like the casting part of the turnout frog.
- David

[alangj]

GROAN!!!!!

Think about the "Nazca Lines" down in Peru, which are huge stylized animal-outline-shaped mounds in the deserts dating back to the 200BC-200AD time frame.

Alan

[Anonymous]

I agree with Alan that it looks like an out-stretched frog.
But, the whole thing is put together with ribits.

[alangj]

Don't have the specific Trains issue reference, but I do recall that sometime a few months ago, there was a Q&A series on this forum that dealt with the existence (somewhere) of an on-line archive of all Trains issues. If anybody has a "lead" on that info, it'd help with his question. Couldn't find anything helpful even in the Random House Unabridged Dictionary. However, IMHO, here's one possibility:

Imagine that you're looking straight down
at a frog, with the (switch)points "down"
toward your feet and the diverging rails
"up" toward the top of your head

With a bit (or more) of imagination, the
bulkiest part of the assembly (the actual
crossing) could be interpreted as the body
of a crouching frog (the animal), with the
flange guardrails that extend through and
past the intersection being the animal's
extended front legs, and the more compact
set of guardrails that extend a bit toward
the points as the tucked-under rear legs.

At least, that's my interpretation of the situation. Everybody else, feel free to chime in with any other suggestions.

Alan
Evergreen Park, IL

[Anonymous]

I can't remember in which Trains magazine I could find the explanation. If somebody knows why or knows when the story was published in Trains, please tell it to me.
Thanks