I’m looking for examples of “gauntlet” track, perhaps across a narow bridge where two lines had to merge to use the existing bridge. Such a place will soon exist on my Pacific Cascade Railway in HO gauge. An NP line that almost ran from Yakima to Chehalis, Washington.
At one point Starrucca Viaduct on the Erie was gantleted – possibly when the first of the true high-speed Super-Power Berks were introduced. Turns out the arrangement was removed later as – decidedly contrary to the appearance from ‘down below’! – the stone construction happily handled the increased Cooper loading. The recently-replaced ‘temporary’ viaduct in upstate New York was iirc gantleted for modern diesels and stack traffic, I think with speed restrictions.
For many years the Poughkeepsie Bridge was gantleted with a hard speed restriction. Here is one account of that story:
In Polaritz’s book on the P&LE A-2-A Berks he mentions, and pictures, gantlet arrangements on that road.
Here is a recently built example, on the ION light rail system in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. They share track with freight trains, which need extra clearance to pass station platforms. This section opened for service in 2019.
At one time the Santa Fe southern ‘Transcon’ main line bridge over the Missouri River at Sibley (MP 440) was gauntley for its two main tracks. That was discontinued with TCS signalling. Now BNSF is wishing to build a new double track bridge there.
While we’re on the subject of modeling a gantlet operation, here is a 1938 account of how one was worked in Bessemer & Lake Erie:
For many years the B&O used a gauntlet track through the Howard Street Tunnel for their freight traffic. In effect, there were three track routes through the tunnel. East and Westbound passenger tracks along the sides of the tunnel and the gauntlet track for freight down the center line of the tunnel to take advantage of the peak of the arch of the tunnel in being able to handle freight cars that were higher than passenger cars.
When passenger service from DC to New York was eliminated in 1958, the tunnel was single tracked with the track on the centerline of the tunnel being the only one to remain. When I worked in Baltimore in the early 70’s 17’3" autoracks were allowed the track speed of 25 MPH; 17’5" racks were restricted to 10 MPH. When I retired, the tunnel had been undercut and notched to be able to handle 19’2" with both autoracks and double stacks. Still waiting for the work to begin to allow 20’ 2" racks and stacks.
There’s one in Roselle Park NJ, on the NJ Transit Raritan Valley Line.
Here’s some shots of the station with the gantlet track.
http://www.subwaynut.com/njt/raritan_valley_line/roselle_park/index.php
A 28 second video featuring the gantlet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VHb1t9p0d8
And a video of the gantlet in action. (Not very good, but better than nothing!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY6OkEh-xvY
The NJ Transit station in Union has a gantlet track as well. Here’s a vid, a little better than the last one. Gantlet’s on the left.
Most of the Sonoma Marin Area Rapid Transit (“SMART”) stations have gantlet tracks. Here are a couple of Google street view links for Downtown Petaluma and Cotati.
The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (South Shore to nearly everyone here) has gauntlet tracks at the Hammond station in Indiana, and probably others, so the passenger trains can get right up to the platforms and the freights can clear them adequately by using the other route.
There used to be a number of gauntlet bridges in the area east of Chicago. The South Shore had one in Gary that was the site of a serious collision between two of its passenger trains. B&OCT had one in Burnham, crossing the Grand Calumet River. Both of those (and another South Shore bridge, IIRC) have been two-tracked now.
C&NW’s bridge over the Cedar River in Iowa was gauntleted for a while, later made into a single-track bridge, then widened again to two tracks by the UP.
The New Haven’s Poughkeepsie Bridge had its double track made into gantlet since trains got a lot heavier since the bridge was built in the 1880s.
This excellent site with numerous fascinating, historic photos has images of Santa Fe’s Canyon Diablo bridge when it was a single track, gauntleted affair.
Amtrak’s B&P tunnel in Baltimore and station platform in New Carrolton MD are (were?) gauntlet.
Hah! Nice trick. Thanks…
At some point, you ought to investigate why they redesigned the platforms twice, before slapping the gauntlet track band-aid on those stations. When do they change their moniker to DUMB as in Didn’t Understand Much Basically? Several of the rail consultants have seen some really poor moves and wasted effort to get them to the current stage. Still waiting to see what happens in the next stages as they get to the fun at US-101/Francisco/Anderson area in San Rafael and the expen$ive fix there. (Ramming Speed, Politics & Traffic Jams)
This poster seems to remember a quantlet set up where a double track line crossed a bridge with just 3 used tracks with the middle track being standard guage to the two outside tracks. Anyone know ? It may have been on the south shore ?
Carl is right, South Shore also has a gantlet at Hegewisch for freight trains. I believe that the North Shore Line had similar arrangements south of Dempster Street on the Skokie Valley Route where the Rapid Transit Company provided local service.
[quote user="CShaveRR"]
The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (South Shore to nearly everyone here) has gauntlet tracks at the Hammond station in Indiana, and probably others, so the passenger trains can get right up to the platforms and the freights can clear them adequately by using the other route.
There used to be a number of gauntlet bridges in the area east of Chicago. The South Shore had one in Gary that was the site of a serious collision between two of its passenger trains. B&OCT had one in Burnham, crossing the Grand Calumet River. Both of those (and another South Shore bridge, IIRC) have been two-tracked now.
C&NW’s bridge over the Cedar River in Iowa was gauntleted for a while, later made into a single-track bridge, then widened again to two tracks by the UP.
[/quote]
Working in Chicago (in the 1980’s,); I remember an accident, possibly, one that Carl (CShaveRR) mentioned in Gary, In. IIRC the accident was with a South Shore passenger train, and as a result of thecollision; some pretty good sized rolls of steel got ‘bowled’ into the adjacent neighborhood.
Just did a Search for ’ South Shore rr accidents in Gary,In’ It is an interesting study for over the years that particular issue of ‘narrow’ [Gauntlet(?)] track at Gary, In. Station has apparently been the scene of a number of crashes.
Involving South Shore Passenger equiment and ‘other’ railroads that might be passing through… Here is a linked site that provides a lot of info in South Shore equipment that has been involved in accidents :
Gantlet/gauntlet?
I guess a gantlet, derived from a Swedish word for lane, is a kind of military hazing/punishment where a soldier has to pass between two rows of other soldiers who would strike the unfortunate person. A gantlet track is analogous to this situation because of the pummeling a train in the quoted text if it tried to pass when another train was on the parallel track lacking proper clearance for two trains side-by-side.
A gauntlet is French word for the glove in a suit of armor, and a knight would “throw down the gauntlet” in issuing a challenge to combat, simila
Wikipedia splits down the middle and uses the two more or less interchangeably.
Doing a search for either brings you back to the other…