Septa snafu

[Hiroe]

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Presented without comment.

[davefoxx]

Clearly, the one on the left was winning.

DFF

[jagged ben]

There must be another turnout farther back than the one in the foreground?  Or maybe it's a double slip?

[nkalanaga]

Doesn't look unusual to me.  The photographer would be standing about where the points should be.  It also looks like there might be a crossing, maybe gravel, between the points and frog, which the photographer could be standing on.

But the crews have some explaining to do.

[mu26aeh]

I see a cartoon in my head, possibly the Flintstones, where Fred and Barney are both running to the door, yelling me first, no I'm going first, smacking each other all the way and they get to the opening and get stuck sammiched in the doorway

[wm-webb]

Double track?

[Tristan Ashcroft]

Doesn't look unusual to me.  The photographer would be standing about where the points should be.

Give a good long look at that switch:  The two separated sets of rails are where the photographer is.  The two overlapping sets of rails are under the MU cars.  The points are under the MU cars.  The question holds, what other track arrangement is going on here?

Also, where is this?  It sort of looks like Overbrook, but sort of doesn't.

[Wolf N Works]

Due to cut backs and shortages, we must share resources....

[Maletrain]

Give a good long look at that switch:  The two separated sets of rails are where the photographer is.  The two overlapping sets of rails are under the MU cars.  The points are under the MU cars.  The question holds, what other track arrangement is going on here?
...

I see what you are saying: the pairs of rails going from the photographer's position to the fronts of the derailed trains appear to be parallel (starting from the left) as left track, right track, left track, right track, which is not consistent with the expected left track, left track, right track, right track that would be there if it was two completely separated tracks under those scrunched MUs.

So, maybe it is a double-slip switch that allows trains in either direction to use either side of a passenger platform.

But, maybe it is warped perspective issues associated with a somewhat wide angle lens used to make the photograph.

I am leaning towards the double-slip explanation, based mostly on the width of the MU units and rail spacings right at the fronts of the MUs, where the perspective shifts should be identical for purposes of comparison.

[dem34]

Going to be honest it just looks like they went into a standard turnout at the same time. Especially with the arrangement of the overhead Catenary.

[Maletrain]

Going to be honest it just looks like they went into a standard turnout at the same time. Especially with the arrangement of the overhead Catenary.

I don't know much about over-head catenary, but it does look to me like the catenary on the left is splitting into 2 directions while the catenary on the right is for only a single track.  I am having a hard time reconciling that with the appearance of the track, where there does not seem to be another track to the left that the occupied track could have diverged from.

[nkalanaga]

Dem34:  That's what I see:  Two tracks, converging to one, and they both tried to leave at the same time.  Basically the same arrangement as the tracks on  the right side of the picture.  "Cornering" used to happen fairly often in yards, usually between two freight cars, when one is left fouling a switch.

As for the overhead, there may be ANOTHER turnout under the train on the left, which would give a total of three tracks.  That turnout would be hidden under the train.  In fact, it looks like the wires for both tracks split, so there would be four tracks, with a turnout under each train.  That would make sense for what appears to be a storage/maintenance facility.

If anyone knows where this is, it would be easy to answer on Google Maps.

[davefoxx]

I agree with @dem34 and @nkalanaga.  Don't let that frog confuse you.  Follow the flangeways in the frog, and it has to be that the points are under the photographer and the two trainsets have tried to occupy the same double track to single track space.  As pointed out in the previous post, it's "basically the same arrangement as the tracks on the right side of the picture."

DFF

[jagged ben]

I agree with @dem34 and @nkalanaga.  Don't let that frog confuse you.  Follow the flangeways in the frog, and it has to be that the points are under the photographer and the two trainsets have tried to occupy the same double track to single track space.  As pointed out in the previous post, it's "basically the same arrangement as the tracks on the right side of the picture."

DFF

Okay I had to stare at it again for a quite a while before deciding you guys are right.  However the points aren't under the photog, they are a few dozen feet behind the photog.

I think what confused me is a fisheye lens that makes it look like the stockrails at the bottom of the frame are diverging as they go towards the camera, and also makes them look closer to each other under the fronts of the trains.    Staring at the frog is actually what dissolved my confusion.

[Englewood]

Too bad you can't see which way the switch is lined. That would pretty much answer the question.