Transfer table

A transfer table or traverser is a piece of railway equipment. It is similar in function to a turntable, though it cannot be used to turn equipment around.

Overview

A transfer table, also known as a traverser, consists of a single length of track that can be moved from side to side, in a direction perpendicular to the track. There are often multiple tracks on one side of the table and a single or multiple track(s) on the other.

Applications

Yards

They are often found in yards with locomotive maintenance facilities. The table allows a shed with multiple stalls for locomotives or carriages to be served by a single track, without the need for points that could take up a much larger area.

Terminal stations

In Europe there were traversers at the terminal platforms at Birmingham Moor Street Station and at the former Gare de la Bastille terminus in Paris. These were installed to release locomotives from arriving passenger trains to the adjoining track. They had three parallel tracks on the table so that whichever positions the traverser was in an incoming passenger train would not be faced with a void.