During a recent visit to the AMITRAM museum line near Lille in France British Trams Online regular contributor Tony Sullivan viewed a double slip diamond point (photo provided below). Seeing this got Tony wondering whether any such point was ever used on UK lines and whether any readers of British Trams Online knew the answer? So it is over to anyone out there who can answer his question – please leave a comment in the comments section below if you can help.
The double slip diamond point seen on the AMITRAM museum line. (Photograph by Tony Sullivan)
Specialized trackwork like this would have to be at the crossing of two single-track lines, perhaps in a depot or permanent way yard.
This particular point is outside AMITRAM’s depot. I wondered about the use of such a point in the UK since the depots that I visited in the late 50’s and early 60’s either had a large fan of tracks leading to the various depot roads i.e Tenter Street, Sheffield or in some cases used a traverser. I think I am right in saying that many depots on the Continent had much larger yards and trams were much shunted around.