In search of unique features I could incorporate in my future layout’s plan,I’ve found a quite strange track arrangement called a “gantlet” (MR 2002,Jim Hediger’s Track Terminology,page 87).
It called for two entirely different tracks that shared the same roadbed without interconnecting in any way,their only common purpose being to allow different trains to go through the same tight space (bridge,tunnel,etc.).
As trains could collide together (train control required indeed),I don’t believe these are very common as being an ultimate and undesired solution to a specific problem.So I’m just curious to know if someone can tell me if any is being (or has been) used by a prototype railroad anywhere.Thanks.
A variety of gantlet track is used in an interestingly dense industrial area of Rockford Illinois, switched by Illinois RailNet.
Let me try and describe the situation. On the north side of Seminary Street is a portion of a very large scrap dealer called Behr. [Not directly on point but here is a photo tour of the Behr opertation if you like scrap yards: http://www.mchenry.k12.il.us/behr.htm
Anyway where was I? Oh yes. The scrap yard is on the north side of the street. The actual switch throw for the turnout leading to the scrap yard is on the south side. The points are on the south side of the street but the the track is a gantlet across the street, running along the main, and the frog is on the north side. Am I making myself clear? This avoids having the moving points or the switch throw in the middle of the street.
Dave Nelson
I would suspect that there would be very few gantlet tracks in current operation (if any). They would have to be treated as a short stretch of single track on a double track RR for signal and operational purposes. The only advantage to them I can see would be the elimination of the neccesity to throw 2 switches to utilize the short piece of single track through the bridge or tunnel on the normally double track RR
They are not very common. Use on a “main” line would usually be where some obstacle that would be expensive to modify or replace, prevents the use of double track, such as a narrow bridge or tunnel
I’m not sure that South Shore’s gantlet track in Gary, referred to as the Pennsylvania Overhead in the employee tt, has been rebuilt to double track. A complete replacement of the bridge would be required since the existing bridge isn’t wide enough for double track.
The old NKP Calumet River Bridge, which was a swing bridge and was replaced by a vertical lift bridge in 1969, was also gantlet track. Poughkeepsie Bridge was rebuilt with gantlet track to center the weight of heavier locomotives on the bridge.
There are and have been numerous gantlets in the NEC. They were built to allow freights to clear the high station platforms out on the line. Also some on bridges, if I recall correctly. Switched with points but no frog (the rails never cross each other) and under CTC control as interlockings.
Katy and ATSF had one on a bridge near Bartlesville OK, except in that case Katy used one set of tracks and ATSF used the other. If I recall the interlocking was automatic in relatively modern times. I believe this one is now long gone.
When they rebuilt it they built a second bridge right next to it for the second track. Each bridge only carries one track.
There was also a gantlet bridge on the former C&NW east-west main in Cedar Rapids, IA but it has been replaced by UP.
John Armstrong’s “Track Planning for Realistic Operation” talks about gantlet tracks, and shows one in use on a bridge. He notes that often railroads in this situation used a version of a semaphore signal called a ‘smashboard’, it stuck out across the tracks when the signal was at stop. The engineer had a great incentive to be sure to stop, as if he ran thru it he would sma***he signal, thereby leaving irrefutable evidence of his running the red signal, and he would have to take the blame for any resulting trainwreck (presuming he lived thru it!!).
The C&NW had a gaunlet across the Wisconsin River on the bridge at Merrimac. There was a tower at both ends.
At the UW Heater in Madison, WI, there is a gaunlet switch. The points are on one side of a street, the frog is on the other side. The tracks run parallel, about 6-8 inches apart across the street before they branch apart.
There’s at least one along New Jersey Transit’s Raritan Valley Line, on the section of track it shares with CSX and NS freights. At the Roselle Park station, the track that, for a ‘normal’ station, would be the “eastbound” track, has a ganlet so that freight cars don’t crash into/slide against the high-level island platform.
There’s also still at least one smashboard up (though I don’t know if it’s still in operation) in the NJ area; it’s on the Journal Square-bound PATH track just prior to the bridge over the Hackensack River.
I’ll soon be building a gantlet on my trolley line. The routes diverge in a tunnel. The frog and guardrails, being stationary, are maintenance free and inside the tunnel. The gantlet design will allow the points, which occasionally require adjustment, to be outside the tunnel portal.
Actually there is one not all that far from Québec City. It is on Canadian Pacific, coming off the Island of Montréal, near the Bordeau Penitentiary. The CPR mainline is double track and the bridge across Rivière des Prairies is not all that long, maybe 200 metres, 675 feet. By using gauntlet tracks, in this case two frogs but no points, the railway avoided the expenses of two powered track switches, with interlocking. They do have signals of course. You can ride this line by taking the commuter train to Ste Thérèse and Blainville. A few miles north of the bridge, the CPR line reduces to single track with a spring switch.
Norm
Canadian National has one on their Toronto bypass line, on the bridge over the Humber River (west branch). They have a long bridge over the valley in the middle of a double track line and it is essentially single track size, but there are 4 rails across it (plus guard rails). This bridge was built in the mid-60s. CN is very cheap when they have to pay for the bridge themself.
Reason you don’t see many any more is the reduction in traffic in general and the reduction in tracks. Biggest usage was for a bridge that could not support the weight of two trains or the width. It is a much safer practice then a turnout because there are no points involved. just the frog when the rails cross. South SHore had two by the way. The aforementioned bridge and the station tracks prior to rebuilding of the Gary station to an upper level version around 1980. I took two rolls of film at Gary prior to demolition to preserve the arrangement.
I don’t know what you guys refer to a related but different one as. The one I am thinking of has three rails. Two are set at 4"8 1/2" and two at 3’6". There are two tracks of different gauge but only three rails.
Does anyone know of a manufacturer who makes HO and TT combined like that?