How do you do?
I am a rail lover writing from Japan.
I have a long-standing question about railway switches.
In Japan, wye (equilateral) switches are commonly used in stations with passing loops on single-track sections (for example, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... _eki_1.jpg), but I have rarely seen such designs in British or other Western railway stations.
During the expansion of railway networks in the late 19th century, Japanese engineers mainly followed British practices: left-hand traffic, elevated platforms, and station track layouts. It appears that wye switches were introduced independently by the government railway management (the Imperial Railway Bureau) after railway nationalization in 1907. One of the possible reasons is to prevent derailing.
I would appreciate any information on the use of wye switches in British railway system/history.