Quote from: Doneldon on April 03, 2011, 07:35:06 PM
FOR ANYONE WHO'S READING THIS: Why are we so careful to call track switches "turnouts" and electrical controls for turnouts "switches" when we call switching layouts "switching layouts" but not "turnouting layouts?" Or am I just picking a fight?
-- D
A fair question and one that needs to be answered from time to time to remind new people about old terminology.
Talk to the railroaders who buy and lay full size track work. They will tell you that a switch is part of a turnout. A whole turnout consists of straight and curved stock rails (the outside rails that go right through), a frog (where the inside rails meet and cross,) guard rails (to prevent derailing at the frog,) point rails (that move side to side to direct traffic to one route or the other,) straight and curved closure rails (that connect between the point rails and the nearest end of the frog,) and extension rails (that connect to the other end of the frog. The switch consists of the movable point rails, the switch rods (that join the point rails together to keep them in gauge and to make them move at the same time,) a mechanism of some sort for moving the points, and a throw rod to connect the mechanism to the point rails.
Now talk to train crew and ask how they send a train one way or another. They will tell you they "throw the switch." They do NOT throw the turnout! It takes a large crane to lift a turnout, let alone move it, but a man can move the point rails using a switch stand, the levers in a switch tower, or an electric motor driven switch operator. The latter can be activated to throw the switch from hundreds or even thousands of miles away.
Bottom line, the track appliance that comes in a neat package is properly called a turnout. The part of it that you see move is properly called a switch. When you are building your layout, you install turnouts. When you run your layout, you throw switches.
Jim