Earliest Examples
The earliest British (and possibly worldwide) example is the double-tracked triangle within Earlestown railway station on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which was completed by the Grand Junction Railway in 1837. The triangle has two passenger platform faces on each of its three sides and five of the six platforms are in frequent (half-hourly etc.) use by passenger trains. When steam engines were in regular use the triangle (which is of course also traversed by freight trains) was also used to turn locomotives and can still be so used.
There is an example on the Cromford and High Peak Railway, which was opened in 1831 as a horse-drawn railway, which may be earlier. This appears to have been used for reversing trains of wagons with end doors that have just come up the rope-hauled inclines to the highest level of the railway before they proceeded down the remaining inclines. The site of this can still be seen near Hindlow, in Derbyshire, SK093685.
Read more about this topic: Wye (rail)
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