How do TRAINS STEER? | Switches 101

according to an Iron Horse news from back in the day, the 3 way stub is supposedly from the west side of Alpine Tunnel. Bob & Co. went up in the 50's and dragged it out. Back then there was still a lot of track in place still up there. Now how much of the rail in Golden is actually from Alpine is a question that I'm not sure anybody can answer but that's the story

I don't know this for sure, but I think perhaps the frog in the railroad switch is named after the frog in a horse hoof, not after the amphibian. The frog is a bit of soft tissue that is up inside the hoof, it makes contact with the ground when the ground is soft and is basically like the single fingertip of the single digit of a horse's foot, whereas the hard part of the hoof is the fingernail that wraps around it. The shape of the piece is pretty evocative and I think that the smiths that were hand making the rail hardware in the early days would have a lot of familiarity with horse hooves.

I was so confused because I only saw "how trains steer" not the switches 101, lol 😂

Hyce always stays on track with these 101 videos, never switching the subject unless at necessary junctions, and making his points very secure and clear, which really helps me learn all about subjects such as these, I Really enjoy it

It's so interesting to me to see the differences in standards and terminology. I'm currently training to be a train driver (dont know the peoper term sorry) in Austria, and there isn't a single term that translates directly. What you call the guard rail we call Wheel Steerer (Radlenker) if translated directly. The frog, which you said is sort of the heart of the switch, we call switch heart (Weichenherz), and the points, the moving bits, we call switch tongue (Weichenzunge). Incredible is also your systom of switch signalling. We just have arrows that point in the direction the switch is set to take the train.

Tram driver here. We use exclusively flop switches (by your terminology) for points, for diverging and converging routes. The idea is if we ever have to run reverse, we don't need to pre-set the points - we're in mixed traffic with cars - and we can just drive the tram. Our flop switches are designed that they can have the returning spring biased, to make them a set of spring points. It's the same mechanism, just the bias in the spring is adjusted. We use them for terminii, so that trams always leave on the correct track. Diverging points often, but not always, have a hydraulic motor attached for automatic operation; all points have a manual throw, operated by a big metal bar operated by the driver. Pushing against the hydraulic motor is... work, but completely managable. Trying to manually throw a spring-loaded set of points is a great way to have 'a bad day at the office'. Frogs are all of the flange supporting variety, but our heaviest vehicles have around 7.5 ton axle loading. They still wear out over time.

I remember in 2004 when 346 returned from having work done - the crew was so excited to run the engine they ended up going a touch fast thru the main switch near the boarding area. The Loco derailed and damaged the switch.....took a bit of work to fix it back up.

"Delay JCT" and "No Aqua" water tower. Wonderful names. XD

One thing you didn’t get to cover since you talked mainly about historic switches but modern switches can get quite large to allow higher speeds through the diverging leg. For example there exists 2 switches in the US rated for 125mph on the diverging leg, one on the Northwest Corridor and one of the Orlando extension of Brightline in Florida. These 125mph switches are so large that they need 5 switch motors to throw the switch, 3 for the points and 2 for the Frog.

Ah, I see Hyce switching it up now!

Nice work! You make this look so simple, as if it’s just you, one GoPro on a stick, and that encyclopedia you call your brain. All the planning, all the extra takes (and BNSF interruptions!), and all the editing must be a ton of effort. But after it all, you end up with a polished, but not TOO polished video, that really feels like you’ve taken each viewer on a personal tour. You’re on a good track here, Mark, highball!

There's the Abt’sche Weiche (Abt’sche Switch). It has no points or frog and still works 😁. Well is is only used on funiculars. The cars only have a double-flange on one side and the oder side is completely blind. Is a very neat system.

Always love the 101 videos. I've also seen a photo of a particularly "interesting" stub Y switch where it just had a single rail shared between the two tracks, and throwing it would rotate the rail about its center from one position to the other. Needless to say it just about broke my brain when I saw it, and I still see it sometimes when I close my eyes 😂

Spring switches are common on Japan's cape gauge lines, particularly at dual track stations on single track lines, that way the train always enters the same side of the station (usually the left side relative to the direction of travel). Most of these stations only have signals on each side for the intended direction of travel.

Fun Fact: The first steam locomotive to have a water sight glass (also known as a water gauge) was the Stourbridge lion, which was also the first steam locomotive operated in the US, Built by the Foster, Rastwick and Company for the Delaware and Hudson in 1829, being retired in 1834 due to being too heavy for the line. The locomotives naval transport cost the modern day equivalent to 80,000 USD

This Is why I get irritated when the news makes it sound like the train was at fault when hits a vehicle A train cannot swerve out of the way

So the frog number is the arccotangent of the acute angle between the tracks. Cool to see some of these "weird" trig functions in practical use! It sounds complex, but it makes it really easy to lay down where the rails need to go when your most reliable tools are measuring tape and a square angle. #10 is 5.71° and #8 is 7.12°, and establishing a 2° difference with just a protractor would be a nightmare to do in steel.

Something common on the rail lines in my area are spring frogs. The frog has a movable point that makes the through route a solid rail, and the only gap is for the diverging route that the flange shoves open. These frogs don’t allow light speeders track equipment and hyrails to pass through the diverging route so crews have to drive a spike in to temporarily open the frog. A different line in my area has 70 lb switches with NO heal blocks. They worked fine in the 1910’s when the RR was built. These days with heaver equipment…. Not so much.

Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and explaining it so well to people like me that have no idea about these things. I love how you don't make me feel bad for not knowing

Yeah I was so confused by the stub switch in RO. I mean it's backwards, that makes sense mechanically I suppose, but I wish the switch stand would look visually different from the normal switches, so I'd know at a glance whether I need to think backwards or not. Oh well. Thanks, I really enjoy you sharing all this great info. <3