# Is a Switchback not a 2 legged Wye ? !



## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

If you look at a switchback tail track as a leg of a wye leading to a switch where 2 routes sprout from but have no route bridging them once they separate and go their own way, don't we thus have, in all, a 2 legged wye, like a wishbone ? 
Sorry if this is in the wrong category. Plus I'm only ideating food for thought here, positive that many will disagree. 
Just wondering what you think..Is it a valid cept ? Or, there can be no 2 legged wye; that it's only a V ?
Thanks, M


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## mesenteria (Oct 29, 2015)

The tail is an extension of either route through the turnout one takes to get to the tail. So, the only additional 'information' consists of a diversion from the first route when leaving the tail. THAT would be where the two legs of the wye happen. Even so, all rails stay on the same side of each other, and they don't double back around a loop, so there's no reversing taking place.


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

A wye is a triangular turning track. It's the RR version of a 3-point turn.

No, you can't have a 2-legged wye as it doesn't fit the definition of a wye.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

I am totally at sea on the track plan you describe.

First, I think of a 'switchback' as a track plan that enables a train to ascent a
steep slope by going upward and forward thru a turnout, throw points and
train backs upward thru another turnout and so on back and forth until it
reaches it's summit. Are you saying you have this that is connected
to a wye so you can turn the train around. If not, it would sure help if
you could give us a drawing of your idea.

Don


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

Don, no he's straight up asking if that can be considered a "2-legged wye without the 'third leg' to turn it into a triangle".... apparently thinking somehow the tail track has anything to do with what's considered a wye....

The answer is NO, it's not a wye. By definition cannot be a wye.


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## 65446 (Sep 22, 2018)

Thanks gents. Was in a kookie mind set, an existential cloud when I poked that one up !!! Just felt like tossin' a Spaniard in the Works' (wrote one John Lennon !)...
*cv-acr, exacly ! *And of course a V is not a Y, and that's that !!
~ It is similar in one fashion, though:
Since there is a tail on the stem of the V for a train to enter, with same switch thrown, the train can now reverse direction like into the 2nd leg [as if in a Y], only loco is now pushing instead of pulling....
Thus, a V configuration with a tail track on the points-end of a V is a switchback, *not* a 2 legged Y !
*Yes*, it simply be a *switchback*, ain't it ? !
Thanks again, *M*


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