Hi Dudley
Flexible switches are used because it eliminates a couple of wear and potential failure points - they are universal in railway turnouts these days, and I used to have an Electric Traction magazine from 1960 that had a news item that said the M&MTB was investigating flexible switch turnouts as used in, I think, Amsterdam.
Compared to producing castings and forgings, machining a length of rail would be pretty cheap these days with CNC controlled mills.
Tony G
> On 21 Aug 2017, at 1:38 pm, 'Dudley Horscroft'transitconsult@... [TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@...> wrote:
>
> Is there any real advantage in using these long, semi-flexible unpivoted point blades as against the old standard short pivoted and
> inflexible blades? It must be a bit more costly to machine such a length of rail to produce such a long taper.
>
> It is not as if trams take the corners at a high rate of knots - rather they still go around them slowly - the speed limit depends
> on the ability of passengers to remain standing rather than making a smooth transition to a curve.
>
> Regards
>
> Dudley Horscroft
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mal Rowemal.rowe@... mailto:mal.rowe@gmail.com [TramsDownUnder]" TramsDownUnder@... mailto:TramsDownUnder@yahoogroups.com>
> To: TramsDownUnder@... mailto:TramsDownUnder@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2017 6:16 PM
> Subject: [TramsDownUnder] The jinx strikes again [2 Attachments]
>
> > On 11/08/2017 5:44 PM, Mal Rowemal.rowe@... mailto:mal.rowe@gmail.com [TramsDownUnder] wrote:
> >>
> >> Mal Rowe - who seems to often come across minor incidents and wonders
> >> if he is a jinx
> >>
> > I'm getting a bit used to turning up and finding an incident!
> >
> > Today it was a 'slightly' derailed E at the corner of Spencer and
> > Flinders St.
> > http://tdu.to/6022_SpencerSt_19Aug2017.JPG http://tdu.to/6022_SpencerSt_19Aug2017.JPG
> >
> > I don't know if the car was intending to turn (as a football special) or
> > not, but it was just to the left of the actual rails - as you can see in
> > the marks adjacent to the rail at left in the second picture.
> > http://tdu.to/Points_SpencerSt_19Aug2017.JPG http://tdu.to/Points_SpencerSt_19Aug2017.JPG
> >
> > Soon after I noticed a line up of trams northbound on Queensbridge -
> > then saw a B being towed north by another B - no photo that time.
> >
> > Mal Rowe - building a reputation
> >
>
>
>