On the Trains General Discussion forum there is a question posted about gauntlet tracks. Has anyone made a gauntlet track and if so in what scale?
A fellow I once knew near me had a pretty extensive layout in HO and he built a hand-laid gauntlet. It was interesting but being right on the main line there was no way to simply let two trains run at will on the mostly double track main.
Operations-wise it kept operators on their toes. It was simply a pair of frogs laid onto wood switch ties. Pretty easy to make.
The Erie Railroad used a gauntlet on their main line through Warren, Ohio.
Erie_Warren_Gauntlet by Edmund, on Flickr
I believe some tunnels used gauntlets to center the clearance height once excess height cars became more prevalent.
I’ve seen both frog gauntlets and point gauntlets, the latter sometimes used at scale tracks or more frequently today, as high speed through tracks at passenger stations where wider clearance is needed at high-level platforms.
Good Luck, Ed
another use is on a scale track
A scale track is more or less the opposite of a gantlet track.
With a gantlet track there are two tracks that merge into one, on scale track there is one track that becomes two.
A gantlet track has two frogs and no switches, no moving parts. A scale track has two switches and no frogs.
Hmm, that could solve my problem with a single track truss bridge that I have no other use for on my double track main - - - a gantlet track!
Too bad that the track has to be handlaid.
Rich
hadn’t considered that (another learning experience). wiki suggests some varieties including Point gauntlet/interlaced loop seen in following which allows train to get closer to platform
and the following shows a triple
243
In the early days of my HO modular club (late 1980s) one of the members built a neat scene with a handlaid gantlet track on a six-foot module, bypassing a track gang fixing a partial washout on one of the tracks. There were manually-controlled signals at the end, and it was a nice model.
It looked neat, but it was an operating problem, since about half the club members weren’t always too good at paying close attention to where their train was. The gantlet track turned that section of the railroad into six feet of single-track main, so we had more than our fair share of collisions.
This same member built a large, gorgeous horseshoe-shaped end where one main climbed up over the other on a bridge while both crossed a river. To get the mainlines back into their proper orientation, he hid a grade-level crossing inside of a tunnel at one end of the set of modules. Again, “hilarity ensued” frequently when a member lost track of where his train was when it approached the tunnel. That got really old in a hurry.
Given that the layout was built as an exhibition layout, and most of our members were pretty gregarious and always willing to speak with the public, neither the gantlet track nor the crossover in the tunnel were very practical when running for the public. We were able to reduce the number of problems by always placing the gantlet track module right next to the end of the tunnel that contained the crossover. It put all of the choke points into one place, at least.
[quote user=“DSchmitt”]
Then can use points to make a Scale Track
You can always use these.
or the Fast Tracks system, for both Gantlet frogs + track (cross-tie strips)
Fast Tracks - Helping the World Build Better Railroads (handlaidtrack.com)
Dan
A scale track as shown above is a gauntlet track. A gauntlet track is where two parallel tracks are interlaced to run together. Whether the parallel lines were two separate lines brought together or a single line split in two (it could even be two lines at one end and one at the other, it’s still a gauntlet track.
Interesting thread.
I now find myself looking for an opportunity to add a gantlet track. It would be a good way to add back my single track truss bridge on my double track mainline.
Rich
In Bellows Falls there is a siding that has the switch points on one side of the river, two pair of rails across the bridge and the frog on the other side of the river:
Bellows Falls by James House, on Flickr
That would make an interesting enough track layout without actually making a bottleneck on the main line.
https://www.handlaidtrack.com/af-ho-g-6-me83
Regards, Ed
my understanding of this image is that it is a turnout on the bridge. the points are on the opposite side of the bridge
Yeah, right.
My description is way out in left field.
Thanks for clearing that up.
[:^)] Ed
One offbeat design has an east-west line going across a bridge with another line coming in from the south to form a gantlet across the bridge and diverging to the north 0n the other side, in effect a sort of crossing
I like that. It sure would be easier to add a siding than to mess with my double mainline. [Y]
Rich
Does anyone know for sure the proper way to pronounce Gauntlet Track.
I always assumed it was GAWNT LET like the iron glove your throw down.
However, I have heard people pronounce the word GANT LET and GANT LAY when discussing railroad trackage.
-Kevin
However you spell it is how you pronounce it.
Gantlet - Pronounced GANT-LET
Gaunlet - Pronounced GAWNT-LET
Rich