Affected	Turnout T830 (Branchline after Angel Camps).
Description	Derailment due to gap, point not closing properly.
Summary Fix	Spiked in-place
Started	2024-07-29
Status	Temporarily fixed. Turnout is still not functional.

Description of Issue

The branchline Amtrak train is a back-and-forth shuttle. It has been derailing in a rather unusual way lately on its way back to the station:

That’s a pretty unusual situation. The issue is not with the turnout as seen above, but the previous/following on at T830.

The branchline features complex dual-gauge turnout, being both standard gauge and narrow gauge. The single track splits into a siding at turnout T830 when arriving at Angel Camp. However the curved closure rail has been broken and missing on that particular turnout at least since 2015, even if not more -- which means the turnout is essentially unusable.

Screenshot of a 2015 cab ride video showing the broken point on T830.

Back in 2019, the throwbar on this turnout started shifting, and the gap was opening in the top switch rail -- engines or cars were derailing as they were mistakenly trying to take the diverging direction. I addressed that in 2019 by spiking the turnout throwbar. Apparently the issue started appearing again:

As the branchline train backs up towards Angel Camp (right), the rear truck of the lighted coach is mistakenly pulled on the diverging track and derails.

Description of Fix

The turnout is non-functional since it’s missing the lower curved closure rail -- without it, the wheels are pulled up by the upper main curved rail, but the bottom wheel is not aligned properly with the frog, and trucks typically derail and short on the turnout. It’s actually very rare to see a truck make it entirely on the divergent path without shorting anything.

Since the turnout is non-functional, the 2019 fix was to spike the throwbar, and today’s solution is the same one:

The new spike was installed by Orion. It’s actually a small nail rather than an HO-sized spike.

Fix time: ½ hour.

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