Fahrzeuge und Gleisbau:Weichen/en

Turnouts

Turnouts on light railways are divided into two general types: stub-turnouts and point-turnouts. Beside that some special constructions exist, however those are not to be used with locomotives.
The stub-turnouts were common in the beginning of the railroad age, but eventually were replaced by point-turnouts.
On point-turnouts two different types of points are used. The basic style is made from a piece of rail, simply milled to a bevel on one end to form the point. The more elaborate style is milled from steel bar-stock, and thus named milled-block-point. This latter variety is preferred when locomotives are used. The fixed end is normaly pivoted on the heel. Very seldom used on light railways is the fix-bolted point, that makes the point and closure-rails bend when setting the switch.
For the frogs both varieties, bolted from rail-pieces and cast, are used equally.
To set the turnout any kind of ground-throw or lever may be used. Best experiences have been made with standard gauge ground-throws, for their weight provides secure alignment of the point with the stock-rail.
The construction of the turnout differs in no way from that of simple track. On tight switch-radii and the use of wood-ties tie-plates can help to hold the trackwork in gauge. Turnouts also can be prefabricated in the shops for ready delivery to the construction site. In this case the use of jacks is advisable, while mounting turnouts on the spot in most cases can be done by hand.

Special Trackwork

Buffer-Stops
Buffer-stops are simply built by raming old ties into the ground and dumping an earth-pile behind them. Also some more ties can be ramed to the side and the rear end of the pile, keeping the size of the pile smaller. The earth-pile has one major disadvantage, the rotting of the ties is furthered by the earth, so that this type of buffer-stop can't expect a very long life-time. Another design calls for old rails or iron-shapes to construct the buffer-stop. Since light railways in general are equipped with center-buffers, it is sufficient to use a strong wood-beam, i.e. an old tie, as buffer on the buffer-stop.

Turntables
On light railways only the most basic styles of turntables are used. Due to the short rolling-stock diameters of about 2m (6' 7") are sufficient. The equipment is always turned manualy. Two major designs of turntables can be found. The first only is equipped with a turn-plate on which the cars are pulled hard to turn them. The second has a swivel-plate with rails crosswise welded on it. This variety is also available with a cast swivel-plate. The bearing is either by swivel-pin and rollers as on trucks or by a ball-rim.

Traverser
Traversers are used for parallel movement of single pieces of rolling stock. They can replace switch-arrangements in front of engine- or carsheds. On light railways they are as usual manualy operated. Depending on the car-length and -weight they run on two or more rails. The traverser usually runs in a pit, although special designs allow for operation on the ground by means of short ramps.

Rerail-Equipment
Rerail-equipment is only suitable for light equipment, especially for cars. Rerail-equipment comes as so-called "Patent-Drehscheibe", climbing-switch, rerail-frogs or rerail-wedge. The "Patent-Drehscheibe" mainly was used to connect storage tracks that diverge at a right angle. Climbing-switches where used to connect "flying-track" to the main-line. With the exception of certain brands of rerail-frogs this equipment is not suitable for use with locomotives.