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R-16 Automatic Point Rail (1990)


The R-16 Automatic Point Rail (自動ポイント) is a manual or automatic three-way switch first released in 1978. A lever and switch allow the track to be set to automatic operation or manually select between any of the three outputs. A small white fence and a removable sign are also included, as is a single Half Straight Rail are included in the individual release. In 1988 the switch was given the number R-16 and was released as R-16 自動ポイントレール R-16 Automatic Point Rail.

The Automatic Point Rail was first produced in Japan before the tooling was moved to Thailand and adapted to work with the Tomy Train system in the early 1990s.

The small signal piece fits into the support near the switches. On later versions it has supports to be held in a specific orientation.

The switches 3 and 2 outputs form the footprint of a regular R-11 Turnout Rail and lanes 2 and 1 form a R-13 Single/Double Point Rail, with the trigger area talking up the length of a half straight rail preceding the overlapping switch footprints. Additional parts of the mechanism hang off the right side of the switch.

The area around the trigger was changed so that it could work with either the Tomy Train or Plarail trigger. In more recent years, a more modern flat type that does not have the hump over the trigger area has been sold.

Originally, the auto/manual switch was marked in Japanese, but the tooling was updated with English for Tomy Train. The area around the signal did not originally have any locating features to keep the signal facing any particular way, but these were added to later examples.

When set to automatic, the switch's decider advances through the numbered exits every time a train's activation tab trigger catches on the switch and drags it forward. When the switch is set to manual, the decider stays in whatever position the numbered switch is in.

Inside the switch, the auto/manual lever alternates pressing the output of either the three-position lever or the ratchet against the spring-loaded decider to press it into position.




When the ratchet is engaged, each successive passing of a train advances the ratchet one sixth of a rotation, flipping through the different positions of the decider. When the switch is set to manual, it swings the ratchet mechanism away from the trigger and brings in a linkage connected to the three-position lever, which moves a peg forward and backward to press on the spring-loaded directional decider.

The modern flatter type of automatic point rail is still in the range. In 1990 a smaller automatic point rail that simply switched between two different outputs was released as R-19 Automatic Turnout Rail.