Young Curly Blonde Girl Changes The Railroad Switch On The Railway Track

• Switch diamond
Although not strictly speaking a turnout, a switch diamond is an active trackwork assembly used where the crossing angle between two tracks is too shallow for totally passive trackwork- the unguided sections of each rail would overlap. These vaguely resemble two standard points assembled very closely toe-to-toe. These would also often utilise swingnose crossings at the outer ends to ensure complete wheel support in the same way as provided on shallow angle turnouts. In North America these are known as Movable-Point Diamonds. In the UK, where the angle of divergence is shallower than 1 in 8 (centre-line measure) a switched diamond will be found rather than a passive or fixed diamond.
Such switches are usually implemented on the basis of increasing the safe crossing speed. Open blades impose a speed restriction due to the potential of the crossing impact fracturing the rail. Remember that both wheels on an axle hit the crossing gaps almost simultaneously. Switching the blades like the photo shows allows a much higher speed across the gap.
The frog end is not as bad, because the outer rail is still continuous, the wing rail (the bit that bends away after the frog gap) provides a gradual transition, and the check rail avoids the possibility of points splitting. Note how the wing rail has a wider shiny section, showing how the wheel load is transferred across the gap.