Turnout , Harmful space of turnout , Swing nose !

Turnout , Harmful space of turnout , Swing nose !

Turnout is an indispensable and important component of railway tracks. There are many different type of turnouts, but the most common one is still ordinary single turnout.

Ordinary single turnout, consisting of switch, connecting part, frog and guard rail.

When the wheel passes through the frog, there is a gap between the narrowest part of the two wing rails and the tip of the frog center, which is the harmful space of the turnout.

When the wheels pass through this point, it is possible to derail due to walking in the wrong frog groove (this is also the purpose of setting up guard rails )

However, the harmful space still limits the speed of trains passing through turnouts, which is very detrimental to the operation of high-speed trains. And the ordinary turnouts alone cannot eliminate it.

So, there was the "swing nose"

The main feature of the swing nose is that the frog center rail can be pulled. When we want to open a track in a certain direction, the frog center rail of the swing nose is closely attached to the wing rail in the same direction as the opening direction, separated from the other wing rail, so that the harmful space of ordinary switches does not exist.

Practice has proven, if eliminate the harmful space of the turnout , the training working is smoother, and the speed limit for passing through the turnout is relatively small.