Single Point Switches - used for street trackage and streetcars

[frogpipe]

Posting this simply because I found it. Scroll down this page and you'll see some great shots of "Single Point" switches which were used for street tracks as well as many streetcar and trolly tracks.

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/nychtracks.html

I offer this as a reference for those building such routes.

 

[Klinger]

I see a derailment waiting happen! Clearly though, it worked. Flanges can be pretty picky when it comes to how they handle frogs without guide rails

 

[frogpipe]

They were only used at low speeds, so even if it picked the points, er, point, you could still stop before it completely derailed

As far as guide rails go, take a closer look, the gauge side of the track essentially has a continuous guide rail, so if the point is set diverging, the wheel flange will get pushed to the diverging route by the point capturing the BACK side of the wheel flange.

In any case, I know I've never seen that detail before, even though I lived in a city that had a ton of street trackage (Baltimore, where it was in use up into the 1980s in some places)

 

[mjolnir]

The McKinney Avenue Trolley in Dallas still makes use of single point switches; one can be seen at <http://goo.gl/maps/Zaaa5>.

ns