Well, this thread wound up drawing a pretty good turnout. The first day or two everyone ignored it. That's quite a switch.
Your worst fears may be realized. What you thought I was done? I'm not after the last word because on this subject there is no last word. Habits are hard to break and easier to justify, well...just about anything you want. While somethings changed, nothing changed at all. Proving once again that we are in a rut and stuck with how things turnout. Will, we ever learn? No! Not a chance, even in Death Valley. But look at the fun we are having. We are? When my crew arrives and prepares for a evening of operations on the H & P. It is a "Switch," it's always been a "Switch" and always will be a "Switch". We flip toggle switches to give clearance to a particular block. To provide power from a particular transformer A or B. The word clearance is used. I need clearance on M1, to M2. We throw toggles to clear the electrical path and Switches to allow a train to run out and onto the main. After departure the Switch is then closed. The Switch jobs prepare, ready and make up their train to get out and Switch the industries. The Switch-men direct the engineer on the various Switch moves. The Switch-men unlock the switch locks, with a switch key and throws or aligns what else? A Switch. The yard herder's will clear a local to set out freight cars using, "Switch 1 no, Switch 2 no, Switch 3 yes." You can still hear that on your scanners. Then realign the switch back to the main when we are done, doing what else Switching. All in the tradition of the Rails (U.S.of A. Railroad Employees). Most nights go well until some unsuspecting visitor, unfamiliar with operations slips up and calls them the dreaded "T" word. Are you going to run through this turnout? It's almost unanimous and almost simultaneous, he will hear in response, "We run through a switch," And there's no Turnout Man. We have one member who makes Switch Stands on his layout and they are operated by a choke cable. They operate just like the real Switch Stands. They aren't Turnout Stands. Only, a Toy Train Enthusiast would call them, well whatever they want to call them. "I'll call them what I want toooooo!" Can be heard at Train Clubs, train shows and private toy train layouts. What? I've heard them. Usually the remark is directed towards me. Sigh! For the "T" word enthusiast...well... it's only okay on his or her layout. Well sort of! They can pretty much get away with it anywhere they are. I'm tempted to say, As Red on the 70's show would say, "DA's" Grin! Courtesy of LAFF. That just might be offensive so I won't. So while some things have changed, nothing's changed at all. It's your layout you make the rules, you set the standard, you decide how to run it and what colloquial lingo is appropriate. If you've forgotten, it's all about the fun we can have. You only can define what that fun is. See Signature.
Rick, you do realize you are lapsing into the same zone as "rivet counters"? The whole I'm right and you are wrong thing. I have an engineering degree and 37 years on a real railroad, I know real railroads use both terms, so I really don't care whether you call it a switch or a turnout. Not that big a deal, on my layout I'm not going to gang up on anybody that uses either term.
First, thanks for your help and support here. You did what? You aren't alone. I have a friend who worked for the Engineering Department, for Santa Fe, now retired and he refers to the whole of the mechanism as the Turnout. In reference to Installation. But when he describes how his foot got caught in the "Switch" well, he wasn't happy and he calls it an expletive I can't use here "... darn Switch". Rivet Counter? Me? Do you think? Nothing wrong with Rivet Counters. Those who prefer authentic operations. You know those guys and gals. Yes I'am, one of those and not ashamed of it. Perhaps on a different level. I would think that should make me right but it I suppose it doesn't. I heavily lean toward rivet counting as I prefer to run as authentic a Model Railroad, as I possibly can. With some deviations or hypocrisy. I will need to duck and run for cover but I'm not a Toy Train Operator. Here it comes. Although, you won't believe what they are doing these days. Pretty nice stuff out there. With a little more detail, they will end up crossing over into Model Railroading. No argument with you as this is a very old subject in my family of Rails. Getting closer to home. I had a uncle who worked for the Santa Fe Engineering Department and one who was a Yard Master. I heard the two arguing this very issue of the "T" word versus "Switch". My uncle the Yard Master asked why can't you call it what we do a, "Switch"? It would make it easier to communicate. Explained this way. The Engineering Department referred to the whole of the mechanism while Rails, only need to refer to it as the movable part of the "Switch". Thus we call it a "Switch." One other: An Architectural Engineer and his layout. When installing track and yard ladders he and I refer to the whole of the mechanism as a Turnout. During operations it's a Switch. I hope you won't mind if I stick with the early traditions of the Rails. That would be the crux of any argument I have. Even to these ears the "T" word, as used by most in the hobby still sounds foreign, to me. Usually, miss-used. It is a choice thing after all and don't I wish we'd adopt... well it should be obvious. We won't. We will continue to miss-use both and the model railroad wig wags of our day will lead the way. You won't as you know better or know the difference. I hope. I had to way to much time on my hands this morning. Waiting for a neighbor who works at night to get her sleep-in. Don't want to wake her up to early. She lives in the apartment below me. Good neighbor and I want to keep it that way.
I've used "The T Word". Every single time I have, I was discussing wiring remote control model railroad switches, and I did it because talking about turnouts and toggles made it easier to communicate, for obvious reasons. Calling both types of switches "switches" during those conversations could be more entertaining to the casual observer than Abbott and Costello discussing baseball, but seldom help the modelers accomplish their goals. I have nothing but respect for switchmen and other Old Rails. But model railroaders are our own Engineering Departments, and therefore have issues most Old Rails do not share.
See what I mean. The issue of a toggle switch versus a track switch. There's the oldest excuse in the book. Confusion in the Model Railroad world of Abbott's and Cosetllo's. Nice way to put that. I do agree and although many of us in the hobby understand the difference, many don't. This is true. Deviation from the real world the 1:1 foot scale to the Toy Train World, is significant. No question or argument there.
I have never seen this 'Railroad Fairy' who magically transforms a turnout into a switch once its installed. Do you have pictures ??? Is this her... http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ytkcFgb8zMQ/U-NH53EHchI/AAAAAAABYnI/IKH8gA7hSko/s1600/pixie+dust.jpg
No, the points (blades in the UK) are the movable parts of a switch. Here is a portion of the "OR" aka Operating Rule Book, Rules 181, 182, 183 & 184. Click on the photo for the full image. Yes this is from an official rule book.
That's not true. My friends in the UK call them points and the moveable portion of the points is called the blades.
The track ferry is a joke. George couldn't resist that. Even if he wanted to. Listen to Rich S. and know "The word Turnout" has more to do with Europe.
No...not really.We are disagreeing...somewhat jokingly....but the debate/discusion is real. It's not something anyone is going to come to blows about. It's really not anything that will be earth shattering and make a convert out of anyone about verbage. It's just good...clean entertainment with some education thrown in. I never knew that the points are called blades in the UK.
The "Throw Bar" and the "Throw Bar" is connected to the "Switch Stand". But even in the prototype world, railroads cannot agree on what the piece of track work is called. Some call it a switch, others do call it a turnout. According to the MOW supervisor at the location where I work, the "Turnout" is the diverging piece of track work, so that adds a little more confusion to the subject It's the same old problem, slang and terminology differentiated from one railroad to another. Some railroads called the 4-8-4 wheel arrangement "Northern's" While others called them "Dixie's" and the NYC wanting to be different from all of the rest called them "Niagara's" This carried on into the diesel era which is it, a "Switcher", a "Shifter" or a "Goat"? Where I work a SW1500 or MP15DC is known as a "Shifter".
