oldpway.info Details of:

"1900 British and Colonial Points and Crossings Drawings"

The "1900 British and Colonial Points and Crossings Drawings" are 42 plates from the 1900 International Railway Congress report, Worthington_1900, by W B Worthington, on "British Railways Points and Crossings". This was Report 2 for Section 1 Question III of the 1900 International Railway Congress. The drawings show the points (now usually termed switches), crossings and rail sections used by a number of British and Colonial railways.

For an explanation of the IRC see IRC_article.

Information from these drawings was published in the article, Bate_1999, "Pre-Grouping Points and Crossings" by Ernest M Bate, in volume 16 no.10, pp.405-7, of the HMRS Journal, April-June 1999. When that article was written, the source of the drawings was unknown and the date was estimated as circa 1905, but they are now known to be 1900.

The drawings accompany a long written report, Worthington_1900 (Details of report), which analyses how points and crossings were designed in 1900, when every company had their own design for all parts of the permanent way, including the rails, joints, points and crossings. Plate 33 summarises how check rails and wing rails were commonly designed and plates 34 to 37 show possible designs for junctions. oldpway currently only has a full copy of the French language version of the report and a part copy of the English language version.

The drawings on oldpway are high resolution (600 dpi) scans made from the published IRC report (French version). Plates 13 and 14 (for the GWR) had a strip missing due to the book binding. This strip has been recreated from photos of a different set of the same drawings that in 1974 were kept in the Permanent Way Drawing Office of the British Railways Eastern Region Chief Civil Engineer, in Hudson House, York.

The drawings mostly give details of points (now usually termed switches), crossings, diamond crossings, check rails, rail sections and crossover junctions.

These drawings are free to copy and use for any purpose, but please credit oldpway as the source.

The files are pdf format. When viewed at 100% size, they are the size of the published drawings. The overall sizes vary between 12" wide by 10" high and 28½" wide by 10" high. The drawings include very small details that are best viewed at 400% size. The scans are black and white lossless high resolution (600 dpi) so can be enlarged to 800% before pixels become obvious. If any details are unclear at high resolution please contact oldpway so the original drawings and greyscale scans can be examined.

Prints scaled to fit A4 are mostly usable, but A3 is better, and larger prints or zoomed in screen viewing are needed to read small details and dimensions. All plates have had borders added, which are marked with an inch scale so that the original size can be seen on enlarged or reduced prints. The size of the border is printed at the bottom right corner and the oldpway file name is printed at the bottom left corner.

The following table is a duplicate of the list on the oldpway drawings page. It details all the drawings, gives links to view them on-line, and includes the rail weights in lbs per yard. The page numbers, III/153 to III/192, are the page numbers in the French version of the 1900 IRC Proceedings. III indicates that this concerns Question III that was considered at the 1900 Congress.

PlatePageFile LinkRail Description
1III/1531900pc_pl01_CalR_pnts View90lbs Caledonian Railway. Points. Crossover junction. Rail sections.
2III/1541900pc_pl02_CalR_xings View90lbs Caledonian Railway. Crossing. Nose. Diamond crossing.
3III/1551900pc_pl03_FR View88lbs Furness Railway. 12’ 0” Points and stock rails. Crossing showing standard check rail for all crossings 1 in 2 to 1 in 10½. Rail sections.
4III/1561900pc_pl04_GSWR_pnts View90lbs Glasgow & South Western Railway. 22’ 0” Points and stock rails. Rail sections.
5III/1571900pc_pl05_GSWR_xings View90lbs Glasgow & South Western Railway. 1 in 8 crossing. Plan of splice rail crossing. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. Nose sections.
6III/1581900pc_pl06_GCR View86lbs Great Central Railway. Crossing 1 in 8. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. 24’ 0” Points and stock rail. Rail section.
7III/1591900pc_pl07_GER View85lbs Great Eastern Railway. Crossing 1 in 8. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. Elevation of end of point. Rail sections. 15’ 0” point and stock rail.
8III/1601900pc_pl08_GNR View96lbs Great Northern Railway. Crossing 1 in 8. Enlarged plan of crossing. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. 15’ 0” Points and stock rails. Rail sections.
9III/1611900pc_pl09_GNRI View85lbs Great Northern Railway of Ireland. Crossing 1 in 8. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. 12’ 0” Points and stock rails. Plan of crossing splice rail. Rail sections.
10III/1621900pc_pl10_GSWRI_pnts View83lbs FB Great Southern & Western Railway of Ireland. 15’ 0” points and stock rails. FB rail sections.
11III/1631900pc_pl11_GSWRI_xing View83lbs FB Great Southern & Western Railway of Ireland. Crossing 1 in 8. Detail of Check rail. Detail of 1 in 8 Crossing. FB rail sections.
12III/1641900pc_pl12_GSWRI_diax View83lbs FB Great Southern & Western Railway of Ireland. Diamond crossing 1 in 9. FB rail sections.
13III/1651900pc_pl13_GWR_pnts View95lbs Great Western Railway. 14’ 0” points and stock rail. Rail sections.
14III/1661900pc_pl14_GWR_xings View95lbs Great Western Railway. Crossing 1 in 8. Enlarged plan showing position of blocks in 1 in 8 crossing. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. Plan of splice rail of crossing. Method of holding down crossing point. Rail sections.
15III/1671900pc_pl15_HBR View88lbs Hull & Barnsley Railway. Crossing 1 in 8. Plan of Splice rail of crossing and position of blocks. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. 12’ 0” Points and stock rails. Rail sections.
16III/1681900pc_pl16_LYR_pnts View86lbs Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. 24’ 0” Points and stock rail. Rail sections.
17III/1691900pc_pl17_LYR_xings View86lbs Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Crossing 1 in 8. Plan of splice rail of crossing. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. Rail sections.
18III/1701900pc_pl18_LBSCR View95lbs London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. Crossing 1 in 9. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. Elevation of end of point. 14’ 0” points and stock rail. Rail sections.
19III/1711900pc_pl19_LNWR_pnts View90 & 103lbs London & North Western Railway. 20’ 0” Points and stock rail. Rail sections.
20III/1721900pc_pl20_LNWR_xings View90 & 103lbs London & North Western Railway. Crossing 1 in 8. Enlarged plan showing position of blocks in 1 in 8 crossing. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. Rail sections. Wing rails.
21III/1731900pc_pl21_LSWR View87lbs London & South Western Railway. Crossing 1 in 8. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. 13’ 6” points and stock rails. Checking junctions. Details of checking junctions. Rail section.
22III/1741900pc_pl22_NBR View92lbs North British Railway. Crossing. 16’ 0” points and stock rails. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. Plan of crossing splice rail. Rail sections.
23III/1751900pc_pl23_NER View90lbs North Eastern Railway. Crossing 1 in 8. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. Diagram and table of wing rails for various angles. Sectional plan of splice. 18’ 0” points and stock rails. Rail sections.
24III/1761900pc_pl24_CSRcan_pnts View80lbs Canada Southern Railway. 15’ 0” points and stock rail. Elevation and plan of rail brace. Detail of connecting rod no.1. Rail sections.
25III/1771900pc_pl25_CSRcan_xing View80lbs Canada Southern Railway. No.7 Crossing. Offset check rail for slip switches. Standard check rail.
26III/1781900pc_pl26_CSRcan_sprx View80lbs Canada Southern Railway. Plan of spring crossing and details.
27III/1791900pc_pl27_NSWRaus_pnts View80lbs New South Wales Railway. 15’ 0” points and stock rails. Rail sections.
28III/1801900pc_pl28_NSWRaus_xings View80lbs New South Wales Railway. Crossing 1 in 9. Detail of splice of 1 in 9 crossing. Detail of check rail. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. Rail section.
29III/1811900pc_pl29_NSWRaus_sprx View80lbs New South Wales Railway. Plan of Spring crossing. Details of spring crossing.
30III/1821900pc_pl30_NSWRaus_swtx View80lbs New South Wales Railway. Switch crossing.
31III/1831900pc_pl31-32_LYR_wheel View86lbs Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Curved road. Rails and wheels.
32III/1831900pc_pl31-32_LYR_wheel View86lbs Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Straight road. Rails and wheels.
33III/1841900pc_pl33_check_rail View Check rail and crossing wing rail. 1) As generally constructed. 2) Used by L&NWR and GWR.
34III/1851900pc_pl34_junction View Junction. Best Possible Junction.
35III/1861900pc_pl35-36_slip_xover View Slip Road. Cross Over Junction.
36III/1861900pc_pl35-36_slip_xover View Crossover Junctions.
37III/1871900pc_pl37_xovers View Crossover Junctions.
38III/1881900pc_pl38_GTRcan_pnts View80lbs Grand Trunk Railway. 15’ 0” points and stock rail. Elevation and plan at point. Rail sections.
39III/1891900pc_pl39_GTRcan_xings View80lbs Grand Trunk Railway. Crossing 1 in 10. Crossing 1 in 10 (detail). Crossing 1 in 5.4¼. Crossing 1 in 5.4¼ (detail). Diamond crossing 1 in 5.4¼. Details of support.
40III/1901900pc_pl40_BBCIRind View69 & 82lbs Bombay, Baroda & Central India Railway. Crossing 1 in 8. Enlarged plan showing positions of blocks in 1 in 8 crossing. Diamond crossing 1 in 8. 15’ 0” points and stock rails. Rail sections.
41III/1911900pc_pl41_VRaus_pnts View75, 80 & 100lbs Victorian Railways. 15’ 9” points and stock rails. Elevation of point rail. Rail sections.
42III/1921900pc_pl42_VRaus_xings View80lbs Victorian Railways. Crossing 1 in 8.7. Part elevation of 1 in 8.7 crossing. Rail sections. Crossing 1 in 8.7 (detail). Crossing 1 in 8½. Diamond crossing 1 in 8.61. Diamond crossing 1 in 7¾. Check rail.