Transfer table

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.

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.

Traversers were used at metropolitan termini located in confined sites, such as Kew and St Kilda in suburban Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, which worked only two tracks.

In 2013, the Port of Felixstowe installed a traverser across nine tracks at its new North Terminal as ordinary points could not be fitted while allowing 35-wagon trains of shipping containers.

Didcot Railway Centre, UK, has a traverser for transferring coaching stock between the roads of the carriage maintenance sheds.

There may be a desire to reduce the number of points required, or — in the case of raised track with overhanging carriages — to allow switching with the same restrictions found on a saddle-beam monorail.