Editing Railroad switch (section)

=== Switch rails (points or point blades) ===
[[File:Point blades.jpg|thumb|left|A pair of tapered moveable rails known as ''switch rails'' (''points'' or ''point blades'').]] ''Switch rails'' (''points'' or ''point blades'') are the movable rails that guide the wheels towards either the straight or the diverging track. They are tapered, except on ''stub switches'' occasionally found in industrial sidings, which have square ends.

In popular parlance in the UK and most other Commonwealth countries, the term ''points'' refers to the entire mechanism. In professional parlance, the term refers only to the movable rails and the entire mechanism is named ''turnout'' or ''points and crossings''. Turnout and switch are terms used in North America in all contexts.

In some cases, the switch blades can be heat treated for improvement of their service life. There are different kinds of heat treatment processes such as edge hardening or complete hardening.

The cross-section of the switch blades also influences performance. New tangential blades perform better than old-style blades.

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