Where oh where are the switch points?

[Fred W. Schneider III]

I apologize for being flippant about a query on Friday questioning where
switch points on single point switches were generally placed.

The more I thought about that, the more it seemed like a good learning
experience for me.  One of you pushed the right button.   Just like a
typist cannot remember the order of the keys on a typewriter (I can bang
out up to 100 WPM but cannot think where the "H" key is), I can run
streetcars but cannot remember the switches.  But I can remember to look
if the point is closed and not open.  I simply cannot remember what the
practice is at Arden but I'm qualified to run every car there!

First of all, I called Ed Miller in Pittston, who labored as a trolley
motorman in Washington DC from 1948 to 1952.  Ed was very emphatic that
switch points are always on the inside of a curve.  To emphatic, in
fact, for my blood because I never believe there is a 100% standard.  I
later found a rare example of a outside point switch that was gone
before Miller arrived on the scene.  I also was told that there was one
double point switch at Union Station.

Next I called Russ Jackson.  I have always admired Russ for is ability
to mentally absorb engineering facts and trivia, remember them, and spit
them out years later in rational order.  He may be in car design, but he
knows track geometry, wiring, overhead, substations ... a remarkable
person.  He has the only 100 gig brain I ever met!   I started, as one
must do with Russ, by proving you have already done some homework.  In
spite of having several dozen railway engineering texts at home, and one
covered some of the bsics for track design, none mentioned standards for
use of track switch points.  Russ admitted that he did not have all the
A.E.R.A. standards, if indeed there were any in this specific area.   He
did remember, however, that most "for whatever reason" (he thought 85%)
of street switches had the moveable point on the inside of the curve.
He did acknowledge that there were exceptions, such as Los Angeles and
Pittsburgh which he thought favored placing the point on the outside of
the curve.  Russ felt there might not have been an industry standard but
possibly a standard for individual properties.  He felt that there could
be some argument that dirt in the switches caused less trouble if the
point was on the inside of the curve (the shorter of the two radii).

Russ did note, however, that placing them on the inside on curving
ladder tracks into car houses could require very short points (2 feet
long for example) and result in more derailments, and that outside
points would have been better in those instances.  See the new Elmwood
Shop in Philly and Muni Metro Center as examples.

All of the girder-rail switches in the Baltimore Streetcar Museum (a
total of seven) have the point on the inside radius.  Ray Cannon, who
heads up our track department at BSM, claims inside was the Baltimore
Standard.

Next I started looking at pictures ... I went through about 500 8x10s
(admittedly a very small part of the collection) and found only 28 in
which one could clearly see the location of the point ... there aren't
too many cases where the photographer looked right down the rails!!!
Out of those 28, there were 7 with points on the outside of the curve
and 21 on the inside radius.  While this shows 25% favoring the outside
compared to Russ Jackson's beliefs of 15%, my study is certainly not a
truly random sampling nor is Jackson's memory but they are strangely
consistent.

                                                        Number Inside
Number Outside
    Washington
6                            1
    Pittsburgh
7                            4
    Johnstown
2                            1
    Allentown-Bethlehem
1                            1
    Chester - Wilmington
3                            3

What you see here is proof that there may not have ever been an industry
standard but there was a preference.

You might find interesting the fact that the inbound lead to Glenwood
Carhouse in Pittsburgh had the point on the inside while the outbound
lead into the same carhouse track had the lead on the outside of the
curve.  Why the lack of consistency?  Perhaps because it placed the
latch mechanism case and its covers in the devil strip in both
directions and reduced paving costs?

By the way, German practice is to use two moveable points ... really
great when you want to train and go thundering through an intersection
at full bore.

So I rest my case, that there is, in fact, no case.

Have a great Monday.