BigDaddy John-NYBW Note the smashboard above the gantlet track. Is that to knock the roof top surfers off? There have been a couple teen deaths in NY and a mother is demanding they do something to prevent teens from getting out the doors and climbing onto the roofs of cars. I don't think those kids were going to be the next Steve Jobs. That tunnel is slated to be made higher to accomodate double stacks, as it was built 128 years ago. The gauntlet must start in the tunnel.
John-NYBW Note the smashboard above the gantlet track.
Is that to knock the roof top surfers off? There have been a couple teen deaths in NY and a mother is demanding they do something to prevent teens from getting out the doors and climbing onto the roofs of cars. I don't think those kids were going to be the next Steve Jobs.
That tunnel is slated to be made higher to accomodate double stacks, as it was built 128 years ago. The gauntlet must start in the tunnel.
I'm going from memory here but haven't there been cases where a double track tunnel had a center track added to take advantage of the higher center of the bore? I think they would have used turnouts rather than a gantlet so that trains of standard height could use the original rails although they probably could create a gantlet bringing both tracks to the center of the tunnel.
wjstixI like to collect old model railroad "how to" books, some going back to the 1930s. It's interesting that in the early days of the hobby "gage" seemed to be the most used, like "O gage layout". Not sure when "gauge" became virtually universal; just sometime after WW2.
There was one equipment manufacturer that insisted on spelling it "guage" in their technical manuals. That made it even more confusing.
Spell Checker had eventually been edited on all my office computers to accept gage, gauge, or guage. It was annoying.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Ed -- didn't you post a trade-press article on the Poughkeepsie Bridge a few years ago, that covered the period of time it was operated 'gantleted'? Seems to me they spelled it without the 'u' in that example.
If I remember correctly they did the same thing on the famous Erie stone viaduct for a while -- how did contemporary references spell it there?
Railway Signaling Gauntlet by Edmund, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
wjstix wvgca not up here in canada anyways, it is always referred to as a 'gauntlet' section of trackage ... never checked a book, just asked a few engineers at CN That might explain it, it may be one of those things where maybe "gauntlet" is the preferred British English version, and Canadians use that spelling while Americans don't? Like the earlier mentioned "plow" vs. "plough", or "draft" vs. "draught", etc.
wvgca not up here in canada anyways, it is always referred to as a 'gauntlet' section of trackage ... never checked a book, just asked a few engineers at CN
That might explain it, it may be one of those things where maybe "gauntlet" is the preferred British English version, and Canadians use that spelling while Americans don't? Like the earlier mentioned "plow" vs. "plough", or "draft" vs. "draught", etc.
Or it could be that "gauntlet" is the commonly used term, even if not technically correct.
I think that's probably the case here. For many years there was gantlet on the CNW across the Cedar River Bridge on the Linn County Railway cutoff that bypassed Cedar Rapids. Everyone used the term gauntlet, and still do today when reminiscing about it. It's become so common a term that it's correct even if it isn't correct.
Even my spell check changes gantlet to gauntlet, making me retype it every time I write it.
Jeff
wvgcanot up here in canada anyways, it is always referred to as a 'gauntlet' section of trackage ... never checked a book, just asked a few engineers at CN
richhotrain wvgca i have always referred to it as a 'gauntlet', i have never heard of it being called a gantlet ??? Never? Yet, it is the preferred spelling and pronunciation on the prototype. Rich
wvgca i have always referred to it as a 'gauntlet', i have never heard of it being called a gantlet ???
i have always referred to it as a 'gauntlet', i have never heard of it being called a gantlet ???
Never?
Yet, it is the preferred spelling and pronunciation on the prototype.
Rich
not up here in canada anyways, it is always referred to as a 'gauntlet' section of trackage ...
never checked a book, just asked a few engineers at CN
Keep in mind that the etymology here is likely from 'gantlope', which is from a Swedish term meaning 'narrow road' and was used to describe a military punishment, rather than from 'gaunt' meaning thin.
'Gauntlet' in English is itself something of a misspelling, as the French it was derived from uses the spelling 'gant' today for a glove. I have the sinking suspicion it is related to other words that got a 'u' inserted for other than sensible reasons, like 'honour' or 'colour'... see Fred Newell of the USGS for 'gage'.
BigDaddy I don't think those kids were going to be the next Steve Jobs.
Darwin Award candidates, rather
Alton Junction
No, bored urban youth didn't exist in the late 19th/early 20th Century. It's a signal that 1) is obvious to the crew as it drops an obstacle across the track 2) provides proof at disciplinary and court procedings that the signals were operating with its smashed arm.
Tell tales existed to warn trainmen decorating the tops of cars as part of their braking duties to duck before low bridges and tunnels
With the elimination of roof walks beginning in the late Sixties, they are gone in most places now - something non-functional to maintain (aka cost dollars)
And I have the totally opposite experience
John-NYBWNote the smashboard above the gantlet track.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I always thought it was gauntlet. Never heard of gantlet. Doesnt even sound right. Im still working on that 'plough' word from a year ago .
PMR
Overmod Part of this is the early-20th-Century spelling simplification that led to 'gage' in technical terminology (as in 'loading gage').
Part of this is the early-20th-Century spelling simplification that led to 'gage' in technical terminology (as in 'loading gage').
I've seen both terms used interchangeably on various sites and references. It's not worth splitting hairs over.
BEAUSABRE It's gantlet. Anything posted on Wikipedia should be conmfirmed by other sources
It's gantlet. Anything posted on Wikipedia should be conmfirmed by other sources
I visited several dictionary sites and they all state that gantlet and gauntlet are variants of each other.
At least in my accent, there is a slight pronounciation difference. The "gant" in "gantlet" would rhyme with "can't", where in "gauntlet" the "guan" would sound like "gone".
Not to throw down the gauntlet....
gmpullman Howard Street Tunnels in Baltimore: Thomas Underwood Coll B&O105 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr Regards, Ed
Howard Street Tunnels in Baltimore:
Thomas Underwood Coll B&O105 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
There's a gantlet switch at the entrance to the Fairbanks Morse plant in Beloit, WI.
Another use was scale track. They didn't want heavy locomotives on the scale track.
Gantlet or gauntlet, any way you say it was more common than you think.
Pete.
Another vareity, the gantlet switch:
Thomas Underwood Coll B&O274 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
The Erie Railroad main line negotiated a ganutlet in downtown Warren, Ohio for many years. That must have been an operating headache:
Erie_Warren_Gauntlet by Edmund, on Flickr
If anyone's interested in seeing a real-life gantlet track here's two of them at the Townley Station on NJ Transit's Raritan Valley Line. The first one appears at 1:25, the second at 5:35.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mvNZhxkNHk
According to my trusty "Random House Dictionary of the English Language" (copyright 1968) Definition 1 for "gantlet" is the railroad track construction; they even have a good graphic showing a gantlet track. Definition 2 of "gantlet" is an alternate spelling of "gauntlet" for the punishment.
Kurt Hayek
The Chicago, South Shore & South Bend Railroad (CSS&SS) is well known for its gantlet bridge where a fatal accident occurred in 1993. If you Google accounts of this accident, you will find the track arrangement referred to both ways - - gantlet and gauntlet. It is commonly referred to in railroaders' language as "gantlet".
on the railroad - the fewest letters usually wins.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any