Remote Switches/Turnouts

[ehill2]

What is the difference between a number 5 and a number 6?  as in the Wye switches?

[guslcp]

The number of the turnout (the wye is a turnout) indicates the "sharpness" of the diverging route.  These numbers are inversely proportional.Thus, a #4 switch is "sharper" than a #5. A #5 is sharper than a #6, and so on.
The proper name for these is "turnout", but "switch" has been used for so long that I doubt it will ever change.
Hope this helps.

Gus.

[AGSB]

Basically it's a ratio of how far along the through track you have to travel to get a 1 inch separation between the inside rails of the through track and diverging track.
It's all explained here here on page 3.

[electrical whiz kid]

Gus;
I had been told (by someone who knows better than me) that the turnout is a term for the whole assemblage.  The "switch" is the device that actually directs the travel to one convergence or another; the mechanism is, of course, that part which is actuated, either by hand, electric, or any of several other means.
SGT C.

[jward]

from my experience working on the real railroad, turnout is the engineering department term. the operating department people almost never used the term, preferring the term "switch".  the movable parts were called the points or switchpoints.

as for the frog numbers, I believe they are the arctangent of the frog angle, for those who know trigonometry. this number can be accessed on any scientific calculator by using the inverse function along with the tangent function. or you can use the reciprocal of the tangent.

[Len]

I'm with Jeff on this one. If you look at a list of railroad job descriptions you'll find "Switchman", but not "Turnout Man".

I grew up next to a New Haven yard, and the only time I ever heard the words 'turn out' used had nothing to do with switches. It'd generally be the night shift foreman yelling to someone on his crew, "Run down to Mama's and turn out the morning crew." "Mama's" being a local eatery with a morning shift waitress men tended to linger over their coffee to watch.

Len

[guslcp]

Gus;
I had been told (by someone who knows better than me) that the turnout is a term for the whole assemblage.  The "switch" is the device that actually directs the travel to one convergence or another; the mechanism is, of course, that part which is actuated, either by hand, electric, or any of several other means.
SGT C.

So...Like I said, turnout is the proper name for this device...

Gus.

[electrical whiz kid]

Yeah...right...
SGT C.

[ebtnut]

I don't have any trig tables handy, but the turnout/switch number is also a reference to the ratio of the divergence of the rails through the frog.  A number 4 turnout diverges 1 foot for every 4 feet of length, a No.6 diverges 1 foot in 6 feet and so on.  Just for reference, the prototype guys look at a No. 8 as a very tight turnout.  High-speed main line crossovers may use No. 20 turnouts. 

[jward]

I don't have any trig tables handy, but the turnout/switch number is also a reference to the ratio of the divergence of the rails through the frog.  A number 4 turnout diverges 1 foot for every 4 feet of length, a No.6 diverges 1 foot in 6 feet and so on.  Just for reference, the prototype guys look at a No. 8 as a very tight turnout.  High-speed main line crossovers may use No. 20 turnouts. 

trig functions are the ratio of sides to a central angle in a right triangle. the central angle here would be the frog. the two divergent legs of the frog would be the "adjacent" and "hypotenuse" and the spread of the rails the "opposite"....the tangent is the "opposite" divided by the "adjacent" and is the ratio of spread you described. the frog number is the reciprocal  of that ratio, thus the inverse tangent, or arctangent.

[West Bound]

Here is everything you ever wanted to know about RR switches. - John West  
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ISTsEVhLXazr_lW56LUy9SJ4_96NGPcgeKF-9AnKkMM/edit

[Hunt]

The switch vs turnout premise of JS Geare article is debunked by any technically accurate Mechanical Railroad/Railway Engineering text.

In the real world, when the context is track work the switch is a component of the turnout.  Commonly the switch is comprised of the movable parts of the turnout.  When real railroad people that I know speak of the switch they are referring to the movable parts of a turnout. Thus are correctly using the term switch.

Bachmann correctly labels its track product a Turnout.

[Hunt]

more...
Click Here for an example of an illustration of turnout and switch used in the real world.

[rogertra]

Yes, "turnout" is the correct, technical, engineering term for the track component.  I won't argue with that.

However, real railroaders,  verses the guys who sit in offices and wear suits, you know, those guys that actually work on the trains, in the yards, in all weathers, call them a "switch".  My collection of rule books all refers to them as a "switch" and when I worked as a locomotive engineer, we all called them a switch.  "Line the east switch for the siding."

Only place I saw them referenced as "turnouts" was in "Model Railroader" and "Railroad Model Craftsman" and that, they stated in the 1960s and 1970s, was to avoid confusion over electrical switches, used to control the DC power blocks (No DCC back in them days).

It's the same as people incorrectly calling a "Lamp" a "Light Bulb" when technically a "light bulb" is a lamp.  Yes, they advertise them as "light bulbs" so the unwashed masses know what they are and to avoid confusion as "light bulb" is the common name for a "lamp".  Same as in rules books.  They call a "switch" a "switch" to avoid confusion as "switch" is what railroaders call them.  Even the MOW guys, those guys that get their hands dirty building and maintaining the things, call the whole thing a "switch".

So, to me, they are a "switch" and if it's good enough for the guys on the railroad who do the dirty work and if it's good enough to be used in the rule books, then "switch" is good enough for me.

I'll leave "turnout" to the guys in suits and model railroad magazine editors.

Cheers

Roger T.

[Hunt]

Yes, "turnout" is the correct, technical, engineering term for the track component.  I won't argue with that.

However, real railroaders,  verses the guys who sit in offices and wear suits, you know, those guys that actually work on the trains, in the yards, in all weathers, call them a "switch".  My collection of rule books all refers to them as a "switch" and when I worked as a locomotive engineer, we all called them a switch.  "Line the east switch for the siding.". . .