TURNOUT FOR N TYPE RAIL

At present, there are about 58,000 sets of ordinary turnouts. Most of them, however are of antiquated designs, being based on designs worked out as early as 1925. As they have become inadequate, under the present train load conditions, from the points of track maintenance and train operation, JNR has been doing its best to improve them. Yet such improvements have been only partial; no systematic overall improvement has been made yet. But extensive research work to design turnouts capable of allowing high speed train operation has been done in the last 10 years, and has enabled us to understand, theoretically, how turnouts can be improved. So, JNR is pushing forward design and development of improved turnouts which can meet all possible requirements placed on them under present and expected future train loads, paying at the same time, attention to make them interchangeable with existing turnouts. Marked improvements are expected, not only in maintenance efficiency but also in transportation capacity, with the introduction and full-scale use of these new turnouts designed for N type rails.