The drift in the TTTE thread to reilaway terminology reminds me of a
question:
Where does the term "frog", commonly use by modellers, come from?
MBQ
- posted 10 years ago
Railway terminology - frog
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- posted 10 years ago
It's the vee shape of a cloven hoof.
- posted 10 years ago
I always know points were the work of the devil
Jeff
Jeff
- posted 10 years ago
I don't know, but it's interesting to note that the term was also used
to describe the "point" mechanism on junctions in trolleybus wires.
- posted 10 years ago
It's a common crossing, which allows one track to "leapfrog" over another.
- posted 10 years ago
It's one of those terms that goes 'way back, the origins of which are
disputed. One of the suggestions is that it looks similar to the frog of a
horse's hoof.
- posted 10 years ago
By analogy with railway points/turnouts. Actually, frog should refer to
where the positive and negative wires cross. Also applies to tram wires.
- posted 10 years ago
Dunno but in North America it's the correct technical term for a "common
crossing".
- posted 10 years ago
It may have become commonly adopted in modelling before the UK and NA
terms for that component diverged wholly - when both terms were still
admissable on both sides of the Atlantic.
- posted 10 years ago
"Frog" is a lot easier to say, and to spell for the orthographically
challenged
- posted 10 years ago
It goes back to the early days of railways - I checked and was wrong
about it being the vee of a cloven hoof, it's the same shape as the
visible cartilage in the middle of a horse's hoof, In those days
everybody knew horses.
- posted 10 years ago
I'd agree, it is probably a term that has diverged from it origins.
My understanding is that modelers and trolleybus adopted the same term for track points and overhead wires because there is the similar technical function of crossing one pole with the opposite pole, albeit implemented in different ways. But where the term came from I've never heard.
Is there some old electrical term like frog switch ? (Not switch in the sense of rail points)
I used to think the term had some meaning on real railways for switches and crossings - since I joined the present metro environment I am the term is unknown. Thats not to say its not used anywhere, I just mean it is not known on the infrastructure I work with. Likewise - but digressing - the term feather for a multi white lamp route indicator is unknown, if it has an unofficial name, it is "harbour lights".
-- Nick
-- Nick
My understanding is that modelers and trolleybus adopted the same term for track points and overhead wires because there is the similar technical function of crossing one pole with the opposite pole, albeit implemented in different ways. But where the term came from I've never heard.
Is there some old electrical term like frog switch ? (Not switch in the sense of rail points)
I used to think the term had some meaning on real railways for switches and crossings - since I joined the present metro environment I am the term is unknown. Thats not to say its not used anywhere, I just mean it is not known on the infrastructure I work with. Likewise - but digressing - the term feather for a multi white lamp route indicator is unknown, if it has an unofficial name, it is "harbour lights".
-- Nick
-- Nick
- posted 10 years ago
as an unofficial name, it is "harbour lights".
OTH, frog could have something to do with this company
-- Nick
OTH, frog could have something to do with this company
formatting link
is this chickens and egss - the company named after an item it
cast, or did it cast them with their name on and people then called
the castings frogs ?-- Nick
- posted 10 years ago
True enough but I just I happen to have the other halfs elderly cousin
here so I'll so I'll ask her what she called em. --------- Frogs she
says . Former conductress on Bournemouth Trolley buses,
she is now using a Corgi model and a cocktail stick to demonstrate too
a much younger relative how she maneuvered the booms.
G.Harman
G.Harman
- posted 10 years ago
So nothing to do with playing leapfrog, then?
- posted 10 years ago
The world needs more elderly relatives like that.
Nick
Nick
- posted 10 years ago
On the Bradford system, most of the overhead points were operated by the
conductor pulling a handle attached to a cable on a traction pole, which
mechanically pulled over the spring-loaded frog. At some busy locations
where routes diverged, a power on/power off detector on the overhead
would change the points electrically when required. There was also a
manual pull in case this didn't work. The crews hated having to pull out
those long bamboo poles from under the chassis if they could help it.
At some turning circles on wide roads, e.g. Thornton Road, a string of lightbulbs like Blackpool fairy lights was hung to guide drivers around the curve at night.
At some turning circles on wide roads, e.g. Thornton Road, a string of lightbulbs like Blackpool fairy lights was hung to guide drivers around the curve at night.
- posted 10 years ago
I had a cousin who was a frog too, but he croaked.
- posted 10 years ago
Which sounds like "frog" may have been the original term for that
component of pointwork (I must check some of my waggonway texts..[1]),
and that whilst it persisted in NA and in modelling, for some reason it
was replaced by a cumbersome and new-fangled invented term in UK usage.
[1] A memory stirs that "frog" was indeed used as a term in the early years of the 19th century, at least. I will look tomorrow to see if I can find evidence of it earlier. Lewis, I suspect, will be the place to start..
[1] A memory stirs that "frog" was indeed used as a term in the early years of the 19th century, at least. I will look tomorrow to see if I can find evidence of it earlier. Lewis, I suspect, will be the place to start..
- posted 10 years ago
Is it perhaps an item that has traditionally been cast as a single
piece across the pond, but traditionally fabricated or at least cast
in separate parts over here - which means the name might not have
applied ?
-- Nick
-- Nick
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