A New Geometry for Points

This is an idea I discussed with the late James Jessiman a couple of years ago and after a seeing a related thread on lugnet.trains about cross tracks I thought I ought to commit it to HTML.

The current points (switches) have a geometry that makes them very hard to use in many situations. Here are some examples with their ideal solution and the closest approximations that can be achieved with the current points design.

Example 1

A track that crosses over between two parallel tracks spaced at 16 studs, common practice on real railways. The first approximation is the most compact but the numbers do not work out well for integrating into layouts (the tracks are spaced at ~26 studs and offset by ~1.5 studs). The second has nice numbers (32 stud spacing and no offset) but is wasteful of space.

IdealApproximations

Example 2

A curved track with a straight siding. The first approximation is the most compact but makes it very hard to complete a circle because the track won't line up. The second approximation is simpler but again very large.

IdealApproximations

Proposal

Here's my proposal for a new set. The kit contains a left handed and a right handed set of points, a long curve and a short curve. The points are the same as the old ones but the branch only curves in one direction and is 36.87°. The curves are the same radius as the current curves but instead of 22.5°, they are 36.87° and 8.13°.

Putting two like handed points together gives you exactly the solution to example 1.

Adding the short curve to the points makes them 45° which means you can solve example 2 perfectly as well.

Adding the long curve in the other direction makes a standard siding just like the old points did. This means LEGO can stop making the old style and just make my new style.

Notes

The only real problem with this design is that the curves don't end halfway along sleepers as they do with the current design. So how will they join together without those little jigsaw type connectors? Either a new type of joint is required or the sleepers will need to be spaced differently.

I would prefer if the joints were compatible with the current design for maximum flexibility, but if moving the sleepers just looks too ugly then I'd settle for a new joint in much the same way that the monorail points have special joints. Obviously, a new joint would limit some configurations, e.g. you wouldn't be able to add a straight immediately on a branch but all the common configurations would work.