dinwitty I have never seen it gantlet, always Gauntlet cuyama I think the spelling is "gantlet"
I have never seen it gantlet, always Gauntlet
cuyama I think the spelling is "gantlet"
I think the spelling is "gantlet"
I think in John Armstrong's "TPFRO" he says "gantlet" is correct for railroad use and I believe "gauntlet" is correct for a glove, but Webster's says either way is OK.
Kinda interesting actually, "gant" is Old French for "glove", that's where the word comes from when used in describing a glove that goes part way up the arm. The railroad use apparently come from the Swedish word "gatlopp" which means "running down a lane" (as in the punishment "running the gauntlet"). My guess is it's a case where the Swedish word made it's way into English (maybe thru the Vikings?) and because it sounded kinda close to the existing word "gauntlet" or "gantlet" was transformed into that.
"Dock" is like that, there are IIRC four different meanings for that word in English, each one comes from a different language.
The South Shore had one until several years ago on the west side of Gary Indiana. They had an engineer who was involved in a fatal accident. When reinstated he ran the signal and had a head on collsion at the bridge injuring several people. Now it has a companion bridge and the tracks are separated. They also had a section of Gantlet track in the old Gary railroad station that was at ground level. I suspect the reason was to give freight trains a little more clearance past the platforms.
cuyamaI think the spelling is "gantlet"
Thanks Chuck for the info on Poughkeepsie. I'm glad that my memory still works
I walked the western part of this bridge a few years with Bill Sepe when he was still the "caretaker". A family member did his land title work so we got the dime tour. It was an interesting experience to say the least. I was very appreciative of the opportunity.
BTW: In case anyone is wondering, both spellings appear to be acceptable.
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Gantlet track can be modeled with the frogs of commercial turnouts - use higher frog numbers since you will be tightening the curve between the frog and the place where the points aren't as well as creating S-curves.
If you don't use dead frogs, easiest electrical control would be to wire the frogs and both inner rails together as a single unit, then connect that unit to the appropriate outer rail with a SPDT switch - or use a DPDT and operate appropriate signals with the other contacts. The rails should be spaced like bridge guard rails, so there will never be a back-of-the-flange short between the outer running rail and the unused gantlet rail.
The Poughkeepsie bridge was originally built double tracked - adequate for the light locomotives and rolling stock of the time. It was rebuilt with an additional center truss and gantlet track to accommodate 2-10-2s and heavier cars.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
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Yep, a gauntlet. I believe that the Poughkeepsie NY bridge had one. Think of the possibilities for spectular crashes! You could build one easily using three rails too but it would require a wider bridge.
It's called a "gauntlet track." I don't think they are commercially available. I've seen an absolutely beautiful one on a long, curved trestle on the club layout of the Pepperell Siding club in Pepperell, MA. It was hand-laid.
Of course, only one track can be used at a time, so they had electrical interlocks set up to select the track that was active and the one that was blocked. It looked really nice.
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Lefty