Turnouts in Railroads with flexible moveable Rails. 249 
down in the curved form which the rail is to assume in the turnout. 
Tf it is thought that the chairs on this part of the rail will work out 
of place, they may be bolted to it, or secured in some other manner 
by guides on the seats. The two moveable rails of a turnout should 
then be connected by two or three stiff coupling bars to give them 
permanence, and preserve the proper distance between them. 'The 
rails may then be worked by a vertical lever of a suitable length. 
This lever with a ball placed upon its top will serve as an index to 
persons travelling the road, by pointing out the position of the move- 
able rails, that the cars may be stopped in time if the rails are not 
right. 
The results of some calculations for rails of different lengths, will 
now be given, together with the length of a turnout for each kind of 
rail. ‘These calculations are made fora double track of railroad, the 
distance between the rails of each track being 4.75 feet, and the dis- 
tance between the inner rails, including the width of each rail, five 
feet. But as railroads in general, do not differ much from this in 
outline, the length of a turnout will not be affected much by such 
difference. 
The following table will be understood from the explanation given 
therein. 
Radius of |Length of movable|Deflection at endjAngle of crossing|Feet of straight) Length of 
curvature |rail not includingjof rail in decimals|plates and sine of|line inthecen-| turnout in 
in feet. that part in the of a foot. are at each end of|ter of turnout. feet. 
heavy chair. ‘ turnout, in feet. | | 
310. 15 feet. | 0.36 7°|\37.78 40 ie TEs 
300. 16 0.36 71°\42.65 35 120 
400. 17 0.36 7°\48.75 30 128 
410.28, 17 0.35 7°|50.00 29.6. | 129.6 
450. 18 0.36 1°\54.84 23 133 
500. Le) 0.36 7°\60.93 17 139 
se 20 Ce ier Osn Ut lo, | 
In the above table fractions of a foot have been omitted in the 
last two columns, the object being to give sufficient information in a 
tabular form, from which a comparison of the advantages, and disad- 
vantages may he made for turnouts with moveable rails of different 
lengths, and arcs of different radii. An angle of 7° has been adopt- 
ed in this table for the crossing plate. Increasing this angle would 
shorten the turnout but little. It is hardly necessary to mention that 
the plan of the turnout proposed here, is that of an inverted curve, 
with a piece of straight line in the center. 
Vou. XXVIII.—No. 2. 32 
