"New" turnout design

[nkalanaga]

The folks at Loughborough University, England, have issued a press release on "A breakthrough in fail-safe rail track switching".
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/enterprise/repoint/

After looking at the animation on this page
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/enterprise/repoint/technology/
it looks very familiar, but with some rather complex additions.  It may be of interest to high-speed rail systems, but I'd have to wonder how long it would last under North American freight trains, and how many freight roads would want to spend the money on it.

Anybody here want to try modeling it?

For a direct link to the animation,
http://www.youtube.com/embed/gaZEff1RAoU

[trainforfun]

Hope they did not charge too much for this "new" design , this is old stuff , I have seen pictures of very very old turnouts with a similar design .
With this design forget about "spring switch" where a train can go thru a turnout that is not thrown for the right route .

Look at this one I found , not a 3 way but very similar !!!!!

http://sunnyfortuna.com/railroad/images/2000/dec.jpg

[railnerd]

Stub switches aren't anything new, but it seems like the novel part is the rail which lifts and drops into the route, locking the position. 

-Dave

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I really don't see the appeal, especially because it means a 100% chance of derailing if coming from the other direction.

[trainforfun]

Well said , very dangerous .

[jmarley76]

I really don't see the appeal, especially because it means a 100% chance of derailing if coming from the other direction.

Or what if it malfunctions in transition to another position? That would be equally bad...

[jagged ben]

Or what if it malfunctions in transition to another position? That would be equally bad...

The heart of their claim to have a better switch is their assertion that this can't happen.

[jmarley76]

The heart of their claim to have a better switch is their assertion that this can't happen.

Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong....

[nkalanaga]

Jeff:  I agree.  Once this thing is in position, it can't move, because the rail ends interlock.  But all it would take is a stray piece of ballast to keep the rail from dropping in to place.  The train might not derail, but the vertical misalignment would cause quit an impact, probably breaking parts on both the track and train.

As several of you have said, at least you can run through a misaligned point-type switch and all you wreck is the switch!