Revisiting the star (5 point wye)

Hi,

This came up several months ago and I kept looking to figure out what happened.

Here is the original photo:



Based on the building and the possible arc on the pad between the building and the star, I was able to draw a standard wye in place.

My guess is that the property the tail of the wye was on was valuable and a good offer was made to the railroad. The connection between the original wye and the mainline at the top of the photo was removed (otherwise any loco entering the turning track from the top would automatically be turned). The rest of the wye was made as a star and spring switches were used to to turn the locomotives.



A plausible guess but nothing proved this is what happened.

Doug vV