It would (albeit on ‘both sides’ of its railhead), and it might. The same problem occurs with dual-gauge track that shares one rail.
This is an interesting point. I came along too late to hear what crews actually used, but I don’t think I ever heard anything but ‘Malley’ used or mentioned as a pronunciation on a railroad. I have even heard that Anatole himself would have pronounced the name that way in the dialect he used… but I’m not fact-checking it on a phone with one-bar connectivity.
The etymology of ‘gantlet’ as a military punishment is from Swedish via the usual translation spelling into English that has ruined so many Gaelic names (gatlope, meaning a running course, to “gantlope”) but as so often happens the spelling got conflated with an accepted English word, that being the name for the glove. I don’t recall having seen the spelling ‘gantlet’ used in “running the gauntlet” before you mentioned it – strange, because I’m a fan of the Far Side in general…
It had never occurred to me that a Watts link derived from that source. It made me think of that old adage from 1066 and All That, “Watts pots don’t Boyle”.
Especially since that is/was a large “railroad town”.
I’ve never heard of the IAIS having anything like that. The RI before it never had anything like that.
The C&NW had a gantlet bridge over the Cedar River that extended underneath the Rock Island at Cedar Rapids. After a derailment on the bridge in the late 1970s they single tracked the bridge and under the RI with controlled power switches at both ends. Eventually, the UP double tracked through there.
The reason for the gantlet was the RI OHB, not the river crossing. That portion of track is not the original CNW main. The main went up into Cedar Rapids. A freight cut-off, once called the Linn County Railway, was built between Otis and Beverly has a single track. The RI track, former BCR&N, was there before the cut-off was built on an embankment. When the CNW went under, they cut through just enough for a single track. Later on, when the CNW double tracked the cut-off, either the RI wouldn’t agree to widen the opening or the CNW didn’t want to pay for a longer, new bridge.
Jeff
If memory serves, the old New Haven’s bridge over the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie had gantlet tracks.
I found this interesting video from 1991, basically a promo film for converting the bridge into a pedestrian walkway, which was eventually done. The videographer tours the bridge on a railroad handcar, also there’s some interesting vintage fim of Poughkeepsie (1920’s?) an F-unit powered Amtrak train, and the West Shore Line (now CSX’s River Sub) wayyyyyyy down below. Ten minutes long.
Video didn’t show anything that looked like a gauntlet track. What was shown was standard gauge with a pair of inside ‘safety’ rails. Safety rails are common on bridges as a effort to keep derailed cars upright and inline with the track structure.
Often called “guard rails.” Sometimes on a double track bridge, there will only be one, to help keep cars from running into the side of the bridge (or over the edge).
Flintlock is correct. The New Haven’s Poughkeepsie bridge did have a gantlet/gauntlet at one time.
One of my New Haven books notes the bridge was originally double track but, as steam locomotives became heavier, the New Haven centered the track and converted it to a gantlet.
I think the New Haven’s Maybrook line was single tracked under Penn Central ownership. I’m guessing the gantlet on Poughkeepsie bridge was eliminated at the same time.
CW
I found another video featuring the Poughkeepsie Bridge, it’s an Alco-GE post-war promotional film showing the New Haven’s route from Maybrook to points east. The bridge shows up at the 8:00 minute mark, the gantlet’s mentioned but not shown.
In color and of good quality, the film’s a neat time capsule.
One interesting feature, the CSS&SB had a gauntlet track over a bridge near Gary, IN, and back in 1993 there was a terrible wreck on the bridge which was basically the last bad wreck of the “Interurban Era”.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-01-18-9303163513-story.html
Some claimed that the motorman/engineer had run through a stop signal and others suspected it was a signal failure that showed a “false clear”. I’m not sure that that dispute was ever fully resolved. I do believe the bridge was later rebuilt and the gauntlet eliminated.
Today, the South Shore (NICTD) uses some rather interesting gauntlets at passenger stations which handle traffic that all moves in the same direction. The reason is to shunt the CSS&SB’s freight trains out a safer distance away from the station platforms. But since there is a switch involved, I’m not sure if this can be accurately regarded as true gauntlet track. Nevertheless there are two sets of rails in a space that is only slightly wider than a single track. So, in a sense, it is a gauntlet.
That’s a very cool video. Thanks for linking.
Man, I see all those graffiti-free cars, and it makes me sick (again) about today. What the hell is wrong with people who think it’s okay to deface private property? As a photographer, getting a good shot is hard enough; but then you do get a good shot but all that crap ruins it.
So … I like gantlet track. I’m on topic.
No consequences to their actions, that’s what’s wrong.
I realize catching taggers is easier said than done, but there’s an old maxim some people have seem to forgotten:
If you ignore, explain away, rationalize, or in a backhanded way condone or reward irresponsible behavior all you do is buy yourself more of it. Count on it.
Correct.
They need to make examples out of some of these kids.
Of course with the age we are getting to be - anyone under 50 is a kid.
I strongly believe that in this era where operating ratio reigns supreme, if any railroad had adequate staff on hand to intercept graffiti artists, they would be laid off so that the money could be passed through to the stockholders, instead.
I basically agree with you, CO.
I’m just wishing out loud that so many people were not so irresponsible. You think that will do any good? [banghead]
Well, it’s nice to have dreams. But the turn this thread has taken inspired me to think. So many cars are owned by leasing outfits, so many cars are owned by shippers…that I’ll bet the railroads themselves have little interest in paying the required cost of controling the problem. In fact they may see it as a problem only in the context of what if a tagger comes onto their property, is injured, and tries to sue?
I used to have to deal with taggers a lot in my real estate days. So I know well the exasperation you are feeling.
Some men aspire to leave their mark on the world, while others are content to leave a stain. That’s my take on it.
Just out of curiosity, have you ever tried using photoshop or gimp to remove graffiti from a photo? Sometimes I amaze even myself the good results I get in altering reality.
I read a report several years ago of a railcar tagger who WAS caught, and he was 24 years old! Pathetic. Old enough to know better, but didn’t.
I’ve seen the Tropicana train come through Richmond with extensive tagging, I suppose the tagger “artists” find the white side of those cars an irresistable canvas. If I was Mr. Tropicana I’d scream bloody murder over my property being defaced like that with no apparant effort on the railroad’s part to stop it, but maybe they’ve thrown their hands up over it as well.
The reporting marks seem to get cleaned off pretty quickly though.