Well, Red -
I've never heard them called anything but Frogs, but as a mere Phraud-O-Grapher – not a real rail-roader – who am I to say? Since they ARE a bit different, IMHO "Toads" is as good a name as any.* There were a fair number of them in the "puzzle-switches" near the depot in Antonito, as one (or two, or even three or more) can see from this highly doctored version of Ernie Robart's well-known photo of the National Park Service inspection train in late November, 1968. Note that the semi-three rail, or "half-puzzle", switch in the old Chili line at left center has two Frogs (green circles) but no Toad (orange circle) at all, and that there are two spare Frogs (uncircled) in the open area farther left in the photo.
There was yet another type of odd-frog trackage in the Antonito yard, somewhere in the background along the connector track of the wye, as highlighted by the red rectangle. These were usually called a "Draw", but historian John Maxwell referred to them as "Swishes". See [
ngdiscussion.net] for a drawing of a Draw and an explanation of its function.
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El Curmudgeoño de la Costa del Oro
p.s. Most railroad Frogs and Toads were bolted together, but some were probably welded. I wonder if any of them were ribbited?
* Since they aren't really Frogs, perhaps they should be called Phraud-O-Phrogs — or maybe just "Phraugs"
. . .
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2018 07:39PM by Russo Loco.