Facing and trailing

Facing and trailing are terms used to describe railway turnouts (or 'points' in the UK) in respect to whether they are divergent or convergent. When a train traverses a turnout in a facing direction, it may diverge onto either of the two routes. When travelled in a trailing direction, the two routes converge onto each other.

History

In the early history of railways in Britain, when signalling and interlockings were primitive, and staff were inexperienced, facing turnouts were a hazard, because they could switch a train travelling at high speed into a slow speed divergence or dead end. Facing turnouts were therefore banned, except when absolutely necessary. Facing turnouts cannot be avoided on single lines and their crossing loops.

With the widespread availability of electrically interlocked signalling in modern times, the rule against facing turnouts has been relaxed.

Diamond crossings

Fixed diamond crossings (with no moving parts) count as trailing points in both directions, although in very exceptional circumstances such as propelling a train in reverse they can derail wagons as they bunch up.

So-called switch(ed) diamonds, which contain two stub turnouts in disguise, count as facing turnouts in both directions and are also known as moveable angles (UK).

Double junctions

Double junctions are now configurable in a number of different ways, whereby the number of facing and trailing turnouts vary.