Double Crossover?

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MasonJar

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I think Val (Spitfire) had a picture of one in the trackage at Toronto's Union Station. Try the Real Thing - Canada forum...

LoudMusic - a double crossover would be like an "X" between two parallel tracks, allowing trains to cross from one to the other, in either direction


Andrew
 
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LoudMusic

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Ah! See, I was thinking more like this. UP has a double crossover (or several, rather) near me. Kind of impressive looking in person.
 
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railohio

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Yes, but mostly no. They are only used where space is at a premium, namely in passenger terminals. They include an unnesssary and high maintenence diamond (crossing) in them that railroads try to avoid at all cost.
 
pooka2hot4u

pooka2hot4u

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the NYC subway system uses alot of those especially in the underground tunnels, where space is limited. to switch trains from local to express tracks
 
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railohio

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MilesWestern said:
Yes, the UP main I believe has one Crossing the BNSF(?) in Stockton, Ca.
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You're confusing this with a simple at-grade crossing. What we're talking about here is a way for trains to cross over between two parallel tracks on the same railroads.
 
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nolatron

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Brian Schmidt said:
Yes, but mostly no. They are only used where space is at a premium, namely in passenger terminals. They include an unnesssary and high maintenence diamond (crossing) in them that railroads try to avoid at all cost.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought. On my next layout plan (n-scale) I have double track mainline and the spot where I wanna put crossovers, well, like the real thing, space is at a premium. I could fit a single crossver in, but in order to let both lines access each other I dropped in a scale double crossover in it's place.

That's what got me to thinking if any of the major rail lines actually use one of them.

It's like in that thread I saw recently, where UP didn't wanna do a 90 degree crossing with a local railroad because of the maint. cost, instead they build temp rails weekly right over the UP mainline for the local's weekly setout.
 
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Russ Bellinis

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I think that a more common solution for the railroads to use is the overlapping crossovers where the trains can cross from one track to another, and either track can be used as a passing track. In Cajon I was doing some railfanning once and saw Santa Fe (before BNSF merger) stop one train on the right side track coming down, another train going up was parked on the right side track going up (opposite tracks from each other. The trains were about 25 yards apart with a crossover between them. Soon another Santa Fe came down grade on the same track as the train parked facing up grade, crossed over between the two trains and continued on. Once that train cleared, the switches were realigned and the two parked trains continued on their way.
 
brakie

brakie

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Brian Schmidt said:
Yes, but mostly no. They are only used where space is at a premium, namely in passenger terminals. They include an unnesssary and high maintenence diamond (crossing) in them that railroads try to avoid at all cost.
Click to expand...

Brian,Actually they are also used in yard throats as well and where ever one may be needed..The railroads have no qualms in using one IF needed..
The railroads will also use 2 crossovers.One left had crossover and one right hand crossover in instead of the double crossover.
 
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