Folding rail
The folding rail is a contact-free crossing between at least two tracks. It consists of a flap that is folded over a track below by means of a joint .
construction
The construction of a folding rail consisted of the two railroad tracks, which were connected to the fixed track structure by means of an iron rod in the vertically rotatable tilting joint. At the opposite end, another iron bar connected the two rails. To prevent the track from twisting, a cross brace was mounted between the two rail sections diagonally to the rail ends. The flap had to be folded by hand over the track to be crossed.
Example of operation
The level crossing of the Altona-Kaltenkirchener Eisenbahn with the Hamburg-Altonaer connecting line consisted of three flaps, which were folded for the AK via the siding track III (transfer track to the goods transfer shed) and the main tracks I and II. The folding rails were interlocked with one another. Over the main tracks, track 1 was folded over from the south and track 2 from the north with one flap each. The siding with another flap from the north. When the first flap was lowered, the four protection signals connected to it , two for the main track, two for the siding, were automatically set by a wire pull so that the connecting track was deprived of 'free travel'. The wire train ran from the southern main track 1 below the connecting railway tracks, on the western side of the bascule bridge, towards the axis of the northern swivel bridge joint. From this opposite joint, the second cable ran east of the hatch below the siding, then between this and main track II, towards the eastern protective signals. The locking, as well as the activation of the signals, was triggered by the flap III (main track I) to be overlaid first. Three people were required for this. As soon as all three flaps were over, the barriers for the train of the Altona-Kaltenkirchener Eisenbahn lifted and it drove over the connecting line. Then the process was repeated in reverse order. The whole process took about three minutes.