I'll lump a couple of subjects together under this "general" thread. FIRST and most important, I'd like to think all of the people who worked so hard (it showed) to put the convention together. It was the first one I have attended. God willing it will not be the last. I was presented with a couple of great door prizes, one of which was a copy of Joe Collias' FRISCO POWER. Conversation turned to page 34 which is dominated by an old Preston George photo of the wye at Lamberson (where the helpers were turned) near the top of Winding Stair Mountain on the Central Division, Arthur Sub, at mp 480.0. For some reason (must be the medicine I'm taking, couldn't be age) I could not remember the name of the switch type shown. Returning home I rediscovered that it was a Wharton. They seem to be rather unusual but not entirely unknown in early FRISCO service. Lamberson wye appears up through the 1950 ETTs but is absent by September of 1952. In Building and Repairing Railways (1903) a Wharton is described in the following manner: "The Wharton Switch is designed to leave the main line rails unbroken at the switch stand, but a frog is used where the inside rail of the side track crosses the main line rail." The main characteristic is an unbroken main rail which was an attempt to reduce the danger of a derail. Several years ago this switch was discussed in an exchange of emails among some interested individuals and one fact which came to light was that one of these Wharton switches was also used in Fort Smith "on the 2nd passenger track along Garland Ave. to the Union Station." Were these more rare or more common than I realize? Does anyone have another FRISCO example? John
I was privy to the Winding Stair discussion, and I have looked at and wondered about that switch on page 34 over the years. It's good to finally know what it is. I'm still a little fuzzy on how it works... it would appear that when the switch is thrown, the conventional point on the right side of the switch is against the rail as normal, but the "point" on the outside of the switch would rest against the outside of the unbroken rail on the left; at least the cutaway base and mild kink in the outside point makes me think that. A locomotive approaching from the straight side of the switch would have to climb over the unbroken rail as the outside point would force the flange up and over, and the interesting guard rails at the conventional point on the right would keep things from going astray. It appears that this switch would only work for trailing point moves from the straight side (or left, however you want to look at it). This would be OK for a wye that was just used to turn helpers... they could always follow the same pattern so there would never be a need for a facing point move on the left - straight route. Any trains going through the switch to the right would glide through as if it wasn't even there. I'm assuming that the right hand diverging route is the mainline. If all this is correct, it would limit the switch's application to a very specific set of parameters: the need for only trailing point moves on one route, coupled with the desire to avoid derailments and speed up traffic for facing point moves through the other route. Is all this supposition correct on my part? How was traffic routed through the Wharton at Fort Smith? More information, Please!
A little searching on the internet turned up this webpage on the Wharton: http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/railway/wharton.htm It describes the Wharton operation far better than my ramblings and assumptions.
