Everything you weren't interested in about high-speed turnouts.

[Mudkip Orange]

Fascinating technical memo here:

 

http://www.calhsr.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/TM-2.1.3-Turnouts-and-Station-Tracks-R0-090629.pdf

 

For those not into reading through 60 pages, a summary:

 

"US standards are worthless because they're published by the freight guys and there's no standard for a diverging route faster than 45mph. The Euros at the UIC have higher-speed standards, but they front about the actual lateral forces imposed by their own "standard" turnouts. The French know this, so they set the limit 20kph lower than the UIC says is OK. The Germans have some crazy advanced turnouts, but the geometry is so complex that our subs can't even draw 'em in AutoCAD. So we really don't know what to do here, but here's some handy English conversions of the UIC stuff for future discussion."