Points and Crossings

Points and crossings are provided to help transfer railway vehicles from one track to another.

Important Terms

The following terms are often used in the design of points and crossings.

Turnout: It is an arrangement of points and crossings with lead rails by means of which the rolling stock
may be diverted from one track to another. The figure-1 shows the various constituents of a turnout.

Figure-1: Constituents of a turnout

Right Hand Turnout

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Masum Shaikh, Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, KUET, Khulna-9203
Parts of a Turnout
Points
Crossings
Lead Rail (Four Nos.)

Switch: A pair of tongue with stock rail with necessary connections and fittings.
Points: A set of switches as known as the points.

Points have the following components:

A pair of stock rails,
A pair of tongue rails,
A pair of heel blocks,
Two or more stretcher bars, and
A gauge tie plate
Slide chair

Tongue rail: It is tapered movable rail, connected at its thickest end to running rail.
Stock rail: It is the running rail, against which a tongue rail functions.
Stretcher bar: The bar which connect two tongue rails.

Details of Points

Crossing has the following components:

One splice rail and one point rail
Pairs of wing rail

Details of a crossing

Heel Divergence: It is the distance between the gauge faces of the stock rail and the tongue rail at the heel
of the switch.

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Masum Shaikh, Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, KUET, Khulna-9203
Number and Angle of Crossing

A crossing is designated either by the angle the gauge faces make with each other or, more commonly, by
the number of the crossing, represented by N. There are three methods of measuring the number of a
crossing, and the value of N also depends upon the method adopted.

Right Angle or Coles method

Centre line method
Isosceles triangle method

Centre line method (Used in U.K. and U.S.A)

Other Necessary Figures for Points and Crossings (Turnout)

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Masum Shaikh, Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, KUET, Khulna-9203
Sleepers laid for Points and Crossings

Through Sleepers Interlaced Sleepers

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Masum Shaikh, Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, KUET, Khulna-9203