Facing and trailing

Facing or trailing are railway turnouts (or 'points' in the UK) in respect to whether they are divergent or convergent.

[1][2][3] Fixed diamond crossings (with no moving parts) count as trailing points in both directions, although in very exceptional circumstances such as propelling a train in reverse over fine angle diamond crossings they can derail wagons as they bunch up.

Stub switches are effectively facing in both directions and must be correctly aligned.

The goods siding on a double line (in the above diagram) uses two trailing points and a diamond.

This was widely done in New South Wales, though later on the diamond crossing was replaced with a pair of ladder crossovers; such as:

Turnouts facing and trailing. Note that this diagram is for left-hand traffic ; for right-hand traffic, "F" and "T" would be swapped.