Is This a Derail?

[Pensyfan19]

While I was railfanning yesterday at Mattituck, I found this odd piece on an abandoned railroad tie right next to the Love Lane crossing. Amy idea what this piece was used for, or... what it is in general? Based on the yellow paint, this might have been an old derail, but I'm not sure. That's all I could come up with for this thing.

[krispy]

Nothing there but a paint spot. Given that was once a siding, that yellow splotch may also indicate what was once a fouling point or some indication like that to the crew in the siding, but whatever it was is long gone. Now on the Island, some switches are painted yellow to indicate they are automatic safety switches, which means you can trail through them without re-aligning them by hand. So if they were sloppy when they painted it, that also may be the reason of your spot

A derail can be one of two things, either a thing that pops up and over the rail to route the engine or car off of the rail (and away from the main), often painted yellow, or a half of a switch (one set of points, as opposed to a normal set of two in a regular switch) which again routes the engine or car away from the main. The second one is usually found in an interlocking.



edit: can't cut & paste

[Teutobergerwald]

Mattituck have a team track?

[krispy]

Not now, but it did. You can see the remnant of it off of the west end of the passing siding

[nyandw]

Perhaps another style:

Bay Ridge Yard Derail to prevent "rollouts" July 6, 2000

[freightguy]

That may be a split derail. There was one at Jamaica Ash in Westbury and the Huntington north side siding, not sure if it’s still there. A piece of rail would just send the car to openly derail vs continuing down the straight rail and potentially entering the mainline.

[krispy]

Split derail - yes! I wasn't sure of the correct term for it, but that's what I referred to earlier with the "half a switch". I see these a lot in interlockings, although the other style (Wedge or derailer that pops on one of the rails) is used occasionally as well.