What happens when you have to many tracks..

[Amtrak77]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sv5FIeDaS4&feature=related

 

See video and tell what do you think?

What the hell?!  And I thought NYC trains had it bad!  have you seen there interlocking?

[Cricketer]

The YouTube quote suggests it's in Warsaw, Poland. Poland was one of the few Eatern Block countries which didn't use Tatra trams from the Old Czechoslovakia and instead used home built Konstal trams. 

And by the way the references to infrastructure and track plans are well made. A truly complex train station throat is always a work of wonder. 

[daveklepper]

We have them too!   Zoo interlocking in Philly isn't quite as complicated as it used to be, but it is comparable to the throat of the Koln (Cohlone) station.  Harold interlocking on the LIRR/Amtrak.     What really blew my mind as a teenager was the elevated East New York - Broadway Junction - Atlantic Avenue complex of the BMT, today simplified with one route now underground and entirely separate.   From the north you had and still have two tracks from the 14th Street Manhattan line with most trains continuing south to Canarsy, but (then) some diverted to Lefferts Avenue on the Fulton Street line.   From the east there were two three-track lines, one on Broadway, Brooklyn, most trains continuing to Jamaica, but some turning south to Canarsy, others (Lexington elevated that joined Broadway further west at Gates Avenue) out towards Lefferts Avenue (usually going only as far as Grant Avenue) on the Fulton Street Line.  Also from the east was the 3-track Fulton Street line itself with trains continuing to Grant Avenue or Lefferts Avenue.   The Broadway line continue to the east on Fulton Street East, three tracks becoming two.  The Fulton Street line continued east on Pitkin Avenue, two tracks, and the Canarsy Line south with its two tracks.   There is also still East New York yard, with yard leads connecting to nearly all other tracks.  All this was accomplished mostly with flyovers rather than flat crossings, but there were a lot of slip switches.  As a twelve-year old railfan this really blew my mind.   And the variety of equpiment.   Several varieties of wood and composite open-platform "gate cars."  The Fulton Street "C-Units", rebuilt gate cars into closed side sliding door cars with side sills to better fit subway-type platforms and metal diaphrams between the end two motor cars and the center trailer, usually on weekdays in trains of two units, six cars.  The standard BMT A and B-type steel 69-foot subway cars.  The five section per unit articulated lightweight cars built for the 14th Street - Lefferts service and also used to Canarsy.   The six track Altantic Avenue station is now only two tracks as far as I know, but Broadway Junction - Eastern Parkway is still two tracks on the upper level and three on the lower.  The simplification resulted from the extension of the Fulton Street subway, 4 tracks underground, under Ptikin Avenue, to Grant Avenue, where it captured the remaining elevated structure to Lefferts Avenue and otherswise replaced the Fulton Street elevated.  It also has a branch to the Rockaways, having usurped an LIRR right-of-way and bridges and structures, branching off the elevated structure at Rockaway Boulevard.   This ROW borders Kennedy Airport.

[cprted]

If you have never seen trains outside North America, you have no idea what complex track arraignments are. The average DB (German National Railway) trackplan for a major railway station resembles a bowl of spaghetti with diamonds and double slip switches everywhere.


Not to mention the fact that a busy railway station will see dozens upon dozens of trains coming and going every hour. To give you an example, between 3pm and 4pm today (local time), there are 82 departures from the Main Railway Station in Frankfurt, Germany.

[daveklepper]

The video is obviously of a recently relaid junction with new switches, and the vehicle is testing the installation.   A low speed derailment can be set right fairly easily, and then by investigating the cause, by looking carefully at the rails, ties, etc, the adjustments can be made to prevent further derailments, before adding surface pavement and completing the project.   Some welding up of too-large gaps at flangeways is a frequent method.   The vehicle looks like a Tatra K-5, which is typical for former East-Block (ex-Communist) countries.

 

Too many tracks?   Nonsense!   A very normal event.

[JT22CW]

There is no such thing as "too many tracks".  There are interlockings that are far too complex, though.

What happens when you have too many lanes on a highway?

 

[arkansasrailfan]

Hey! Is that Track 2? Or is 3? 4?!?! Nooooooo. It's a really sharp curve that is as good as a....siding

[chefjavier]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sv5FIeDaS4&feature=related

 

See video and tell what do you think?