# Build a crossover!!



## Fire21

Hey, this is a cool video. They need to cross the UP mainline, and have to build a crossover. Also, I've never seen a transfer table like they use at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hzQtnz2GuE


----------



## dave1905

Technically they aren't building a "crossover", they are building a crossing. From the looks of it they do that pretty frequently.


----------



## Old_Hobo

Actually, it was quite literally a cross-over.....


----------



## cv_acr

Yes but the term "crossover" means a completely different thing entirely.

A crossover is a pair of switches allowing a train to move from one parallel track to another.

A crossing (or diamond crossing or diamond) is two tracks crossing each other.


----------



## RonthePirate

Either description, it's amazing! So fast and efficient.


----------



## wingnut163

Fire21 said:


> Hey, this is a cool video. They need to cross the UP mainline, and have to build a crossover. Also, I've never seen a transfer table like they use at the end.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hzQtnz2GuE


Walters sells one like that.
and this one i think it needs to be called a cross over since the tracks are not connected as in a true crossing. and it is crossing over parallel tracks from on straight track to another.


----------



## Cycleops

How interesting. Thanks for posting.


----------



## longears

That was interesting! Thanks for sharing.


----------



## cv_acr

wingnut163 said:


> and this one i think it needs to be called a cross over since the tracks are not connected as in a true crossing. and it is crossing over parallel tracks from on straight track to another.


No, it's not. To reiterate/clarify, the term crossover refers to an arrangement of switches that allows a train to transfer between two parallel *side by side* tracks, not cross some other track at some angle.

This is a crossover (two of them):










This is a crossing or diamond crossing (actually, 4 of them): (Crossover would be an incorrect term to use)


----------



## Old_Hobo

How about "temporary independent crossover"....?


----------



## Fire21

I would think the term "temporary crossing" would be descriptive enough, since the loco is crossing a perpendicular track. In this case, it just happens to be crossing OVER the other track.

Or, we could just go along with longears and Cycleops, and say "That's interesting." :laugh:


----------



## cv_acr

Fire21 said:


> I would think the term "temporary crossing" would be descriptive enough


And a perfectly correct term.


----------



## Hot Water

Having been trough that entire interlocking many, many times over some 30 or more years, that crossing is actually a "moveable point crossing", in technical railroad MoW terms. It is definitely NOT a "cross over", as CV_acr explained above, with the photo of a "cross over".


----------



## Cycleops

Its interesting for me because in the UK the track and the trains are owned by different companies. It would have taken about ten meetings and discussions to get that to happen there!


----------



## Hot Water

Cycleops said:


> Its interesting for me because in the UK the track and the trains are owned by different companies. It would have taken about ten meetings and discussions to get that to happen there!


I always thought that, originally all the different/separate railroads in the UK were private companies. Then, I have no idea when, the whole railway system in the UK was nationalized and became British Rail. After many decades, the government finally figured out that the national railway concept really didn't work very well, not to mention that a HUGE bureaucracy had been created, so they sold off most of everything in order to get the government out of the "Railway Business".


----------



## Fire21

Cycleops said:


> Its interesting for me because in the UK the track and the trains are owned by different companies. It would have taken about ten meetings and discussions to get that to happen there!


Although the work itself was accomplished quickly, I bet there were a lot of meetings and studies done prior to it. Even in the corporate world, sometimes things move slowly. It would be interesting to learn just what it took to accomplish that.


----------

