Transfer table
A transfer table, also called a traverser (especially in the U.K.), is a piece of railroad equipment. It is similar in function to a turntable, though it cannot be used to turn equipment around. The table consists of a single length of track which can be moved from side to side, in a direction perpendicular to the track. There are often multiple tracks on one side of the table and a single or multiple track(s) on the other.
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Uses [edit]
Yards [edit]
They are often found in yards with locomotive maintenance facilities. The table allows a shed with multiple stalls for locomotives or carriages to be served by a single track, without the need for a number of points which could take up a much larger area. Traversers were also used at metropolitan terminus locations where space is at a premium - such as at Kew and St. Kilda railway stations in suburban Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; both these traversers worked only two tracks.
Terminal stations [edit]
In Europe there were traversers at the end of terminal tracks at Birmingham Moor Street Station and at the former Gare de la Bastille terminus in Paris. These were installed to enable locomotives from arriving passenger trains to be released onto the adjoining track. These traversers had three parallel tracks on the table so that, whichever of two possible positions the traverser was in, an incoming passenger train on either track would not be faced with a void.
The Port of Felixstowe has installed in 2013 a nine-track traverser as part of its new North Terminal. This was done as ordinary points could not be fitted within the space where there is a need to handle 35-wagon trains of shipping containers.[1]
Rack railways [edit]
Some railway systems like the Locher rack system do not allow installation of a normal switch and in such cases transfer tables are used instead, as on the Pilatus Railway. But most use regular turnouts.
Roller coasters [edit]
Smaller traverses are also frequently used on roller coasters to switch out trains.
Monorails and maglevs [edit]
Traverses are used on monorails and maglevs.
Combined turntable and traverser [edit]
In rare instances, the turning features of a turntable have been combined with the lateral motion features of a transfer table. Examples of such installations are in use in Asia.
An example of both pieces of equipment was in use up until the 1970s at the Collinwood Yards in Cleveland, Ohio. It allowed a single turntable to serve a linear train shed.
Preserved examples [edit]
Didcot Railway Centre, UK, has a traverser for transferring items of coaching stock between the roads of the carriage maintenance sheds.[2]
The National Tramway Museum at Crich, in Derbyshire, England has a traverser allowing the restored trams to be moved between depot roads.[3]
Pilatus Railway has a lot of functional traversers as its rack railway system does not allow regular switches.
Traversers are common on ridable miniature railways to access the shed and maintenance facilities. In this case there may be a desire to reduce the number of points required, or—in the case of raised track with overhanging carriages—to still allow switching with the same restrictions found on a saddle-beam monorail.
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A steam locomotive rides the transfer table between buildings in Santa Fe's San Bernardino, California, shops in March 1943.
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Sydney monorail depot with its traverser at the front.
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The two row transfer table in Pilatus Railway, one edge also serving as a passenger platform
References [edit]
- ^ Scotchman, Iain C. (May 2013). "Felixstowe doubles rail capacity". Modern Railways (Key Publishing) 70 (776): 76.
- ^ Baldry, Mark.Traverser. Accessed 2 Feb 2011.
- ^ BBC Online, All aboard!, retrieved 2008-06-18.
