3-rail prototype track

Give us a link to the other site,we'll render an opinion....joe

https://ogrforum.com/t...ns-heres-another-one

Here's the screen capture:

My theory is it's a guard rail prior to entering track pan territory to prevent a prematurely lowered scoop from crashing into the end of the pan.

Rusty

Actually I think the South Shore line of the New York, New Haven & Hartford (now part of the MBTA Greenbush line) is closer to being a prototype.

Wikipedia article on the Greenbush line:

"Between 1896 and 1899, the South Shore was electrified from Braintree to Cohasset with an unusual center-of-the-track third rail. However, the third rail was dangerous at grade crossings, and the South Shore returned to steam-only service in 1902."

Were there other lines like this?

Rusty, your theory sounds reasonable.

Bill, thanks for posting.  Until I read the link and a sub-link, I didn't realize that South Station had lower level balloon tracks, never used.

I'm not sure of the proper term but it is a "guard"rail leading into/out of a track water pan. It prevents the water scoop from getting wiped out on the ties. 

There's a 40-foot section of track in Redlands that has a center-mounted guard rail across a small drainage culvert. I posted a photo years ago as "the track of the Hirailus Gigantus,long thought to be extinct". As they say, there's a prototype for just about everything you'd find on a model railroad.

The London Underground (subway system) has the largest mileage of real railway track with a center rail. Actually it's a four-rail system: the center and outside rails are for DC traction power so that potentially corrosive return currents are not travelling through the running rails. The running rails are used for signalling.