"Andy Kirkham"
Nothing uncommon in that.
Even on single lines, every effort was made to avoid facing point access to goods yards and other non-passenger carrying lines. Trailing access to goods lines from the platform loops on single track was almost standard practice.
-- Cheers
Roger T.
Home of the Great Eastern Railway
IIRC, at the end of the single track branch from castle Douglas, the station terminus at Kirkcudbright had its engine shed behind the platform, and access was from a lead from the run round loop which crossed the main on a diamond to get to the shed. Something like this
------ ---------- Shed | / ------ / XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX PLATFORM XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
------------/--------------------------------------------------| \ / / ----------------------------------------------------------|
NB Kirkcudbright is pronounced 'kirkcoobray' - a very nice wee town in south west Scotland.
Jim.
Facing points diverge, trailing points converge. This is irrrespective of direction of normal traffic but related to direction of train travel. They were maintained as trailing on dedicated fast routes as speed restrictions were applied to facing points. Anyone who was thrown from his bed on a Glasgow "sleeper" when passing through Stafford would have appreciated that in the late 60's!
It was not the way a set of points works that was the question. It was "How do you operate a railway line without having facing points in either direction of travel."
The answer is simple - you do not. It is impossible to take a diverging route with out going against the points. But you can have more than one track, dedicate such tracks with respect to direction of traffic, and minimize the number of facing points that trains moving in the prefered direction must encounter. When viewed from that perspective, the issue becomes quite clear.
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