Re: Switch Questions
Author: Bruce Kelly
Date: 12-27-2007 - 10:26
A few years ago, UP abandoned a few miles of its ex-SI track through downtown Sandpoint, Idaho, and began using a piece of BNSF's ex-GN main line. This track sharing runs from approximately Boyer west to Dover. At Dover, where the BNSF and UP tracks are parallel, a new connection was made. There had been an older, abandoned GN-SI connector at Dover, but it was on a curve, beneath a U.S. 2 overpass. Anyway, when the new connector was built, it had the "main line" UP traffic taking the "diverging" switch position at Dover, while the daily job off the POVA (which uses the ex-GN west of Dover) took the "straight" switch position. A few years later, the connection was reconfigured so there's a dog leg in it. In essence, the UP trains now negotiate a graceful S-bend to transition between the BNSF and UP trackage, and mid-way through the S-bend is a switch that has to be lined "diverging" for movements on and off the POVA.