Talk:Railroad switch

Outside slip

As soon as I find an image of an outside slip I'll post a link. --7severn7 11:10, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

The use of this switch is in the second sentence, "An advantage over an inside slip switch is that trains can pass the slips with higher speeds." This unfortunately makes the dis/advantage list nonsensical as:-

1. being a form of diamond there are no parallel tracks
2. the slips are never going to be straight and therefore must be crossed at reduced speed
3. the crossing being crossed at full speed is true even of the inside slip. What that speed will be depends entirely on where it is placed.

With that in mind I would suggest the removal of the "scissors crossover" comparison as they would never (I think) be considered for the same layout (solution?). 101.98.22.129 (talk) 02:00, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Change Name of article to Railway Points/Railroad Switch

I think the article should have it name changed to Railway Points/Railroad Switch to reflect that it has different names in the birth place of the Railway and the Largest Railway network. With the Birth Place's name should come first because that is what they called for the longest and before the name Railroad came it was a Railway everywhere.--85.255.236.180 (talk) 11:13, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

I agree with user 85.255.236.180 that it should have both names on it. --I Like The british Rail Class 483 (talk) 07:50, 19 June 2021 (UTC)

I don't agree. Redirects, and adding other names in the first sentence, are enough. If we start with such changes, we'd have to do this with thousands of articles, and not only in the English WP. And finding the articles would not improve: Finding via Google etc. already works today (search for "railway points" in Google - it will show you this article prominently); and prefix searches (as in WP's search field) would only work for the first term, so we would have discussions about whether it should be "railroad switch / railway points" or "railway points / railroad switch". So there is no added value in this "alternate terms" suggestion. Last, I think this has been discussed many times ... should be easy to find the discussion. --User:Haraldmmueller 09:46, 19 June 2021 (UTC)

This proposal would violate Wikipedia's naming conventions. See WP:TITLEVAR and WP:OTHERNAMES for details. Indefatigable (talk) 16:16, 19 June 2021 (UTC)

What about calling it Railway Points since they were invited by Britain and should use British English. I Like The british Rail Class 483 (talk) 08:50, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Can we stop with this nonsense about "if it's invented by Britain, it should use British English?" That's not how things work around here and I'm sick and tired of British editors claiming ownership of everything. This is a global encyclopedia and we have carefully agreed upon rules about WP:ENGVAR. You don't get to change everything just because you personally prefer British English. This is not a MOS:TIES situation at all. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 16:03, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

I fully agree with Trainsandotherthings here. I was about to say something similar. — voidxor 16:21, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

I thoroughly agree. You can bet if it was an American invention any attempt to call it anything than the American name would invoke much squealing and keyboard warrioring aplenty.

The other commentators seem to live in an insulated US only world, a point to make is that "points" and "railway" as examples are used as terms in MORE countries than America and if you added up the territorial space, population etc the US would be dwarfed meaning that a majority of human beings on this planet DO NOT call it a switch, they call it a set of points. It is also signs of Americans trying to subvert and claim ownership of items and systems they did not invent, something that has occurred since James Watt was claimed to have purloined his works from an American who happened to invent it all years before, as we have seen with ASDIC, Radar, Jet Propulsion, the internet, WAN networking, the ATM as prime examples of where America claims to have invented but had in fact not one bit invented these things. We even saw in the recent film Oppenheimer the "US only" club at work, discarding not just British but many nations scientific work and collaboration at the Manhattan project and so a new generation will only think America invented the atomic bomb when in reality, America only contributed a smaller part to the whole project. America would not have even competed in the space race without first using lend-lease debt blackmail forced Britain to surrender not only much of its nuclear technology at that point but also the more unknown British space programme developed before WW2. Britain was years ahead of the Germans who had a pre-war space programme but post war austerity halted any further work and thus space exploration petered out until the Soviets launched Sputnik and America utilised Operation Paperclip captured Nazi's alongside the vast British knowledge of space vehicle design that saw the US even enter that race. 92.31.58.42 (talk) 11:02, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

Again, we go by WP:ENGVAR around here, not personal preferences. And we certainly don't squeeze two or more global terms into article titles. — voidxor 13:45, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Split into multiple pages due to its length

Mabey move the list of different types of points into a new page. I Like The british Rail Class 483 (talk) 17:05, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

The prose size is 6663 words, 39817 characters. Per WP:SIZERULE, it's not really necessary to split right now. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 19:11, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Ladder layouts

Ladder layouts are used on both yards and on mainlines so they should be in here. For example Clapham Junction is a Ladder which lets trains come off Latchmere curve and run on the Windsor or the South western mainline. Another reason is that it makes sense it be in Railway Points page. International Junction near to London Waterloo is a Ladder. There is other examples of Ladders in use on the national network and not in yards, which is what Marshalling Yards and Ladder track which both make it out to be that you will only find the Marshalling yards which is not true. https://sacuksprodnrdigital0001.blob.core.windows.net/sectional-appendix/Sectional Appendix full PDFs March 23/Kent Sussex Wessex Sectional Appendix March 2023 .pdf I Like The british Rail Class 483 (talk) 08:59, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

@I Like The british Rail Class 483: I think this would be more appropriate on Rail yard, even if there are a handful of examples on mainlines. It's mostly used in yards and is fundamental to the design of most yards. — voidxor 15:43, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Rocks

Mention if rocks kicked up by cars on nearby gravel roads might jam switches. Jidanni (talk) 07:26, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

@Jidanni: That may or may not be notable enough for inclusion here. Do you have a reference? — voidxor 23:41, 15 October 2023 (UTC)