Narrow gauge and standerd gauge gauntlet tracks

[Anonymous]

Narrow gauge and standerd gauge shared the same right of way in some place like Maine. How did they manage switches and crossovers?

[dldance]

Photos of the D&RGW mixed guage operations show 3 rail switches. They are no different that two rail - just with an extra set of points. The turntable at the Nevada State Railroad museum handles mixed gauges as well - but with 4 rails. For weight balance purposes, the engines need to be centered on the turntable. Thus, there is a single point switch on the common rail of the 3 rail track to move the narrow gauge to the 4th rail.

dd

[mudchicken]

Dual Gage Track, not gauntlet track in this instance. Colorado Railroad Museum has 4 dual gage switches and a dual gauge turntable/roundhouse in-service.

ahem...three stock rails (one bent, two straight), three switch points, two frogs sharing the straight stockrail side of the narrow gage track. There also is such an animal as a triple throw standard gage turnout and we are not talking puzzle switch switch either.

In Colorado, D&RG and C&S were heavilly into dual gage prior to 1937. Alamosa and Antonito, CO have the last vestages of that in service.

[daveklepper]

You can also find a lot in Switzerland. Chur is a great place for dual-gauge switches.
The standard gauge is Swiss Federal and the narrow Ratean Railways. Lucern is one place with narrow and standard gauge, both Swiss Federal Railways

[Anonymous]

As far as Maine and the 2'Footeres go, there were only two diamonds or crossings at grade used. One was at Farmington on the SR&RL, the other was at Wiscassett on the WW&F. Several two foot diamonds or crossings at grade used on the various Two-Foot lines.

[nobullchitbids]

Would all this make building a dual-gauge double-slip switch the ultimate in railroad basketweaving?

[nobullchitbids]

P.S. Anyone who wants to see a dual-gauge turnout can buy HO models of same from Shinohara.

[Anonymous]

I was in Chur & Lucern in March - The other place for dual gauge over there is Landquart, next station on from Chur, where the RhB workshops are.

Germany has some dual gauge but perhaps the most spectacular example is in France where the Vivarais [metre Guage] runs across a Standard Guage [SNCF] viaduct from their joint station before heading up towards the terminus at Lamastre.

[martin.knoepfel]

I heard once there was a railroad with three different gauges in the Cincinnati-area. At some places, it had five rails on the same right-of-way. Isn't there a book about it?

[CShaveRR]

There was once, many years ago, a photo in Trains of a station area (plenty of switches) where three different gauges were employed. I don't know whether you'd classify it as "basket-weaving" or "spaghetti"!

(Can't remember which issue it was, but it was back when they had a fairly regular column entitled "Would You Believe It?")

[Anonymous]

The ultimate mixed gage track is GE's test track east of Erie, PA. It starts out with 7 rails and gradually loses until there 3 at the end. (4-81/2 and meter gage as I remember.

[wccobb]

A dual-gauge double-slip might be an interesting snarl of steel --- but try a dual-gauge trolley grand union for a real challange !!!

[M636C]

There were a number of dual and triple gauge yards in Australia, the triple gauges being 5'3", standard and 3'6" in South Australia. The first of these got its third gauge in 1937 when the standard gauge of the Trans Australian Railway heading south met the 5'3" of the South Australian Railways heading north in Port Pirie, which already had an extensive 3'6" network used mainly for Silver Lead and Zinc processing, the ore coming from far-off Broken Hill on 3'6" gauge. The line to Adelaide should, even then, have been standard gauge, but the Federal Government owned the standard gauge and the State Government owned the broad gauge, and wouldn't surrender the traffic (and the then meagre profits). In 1970 the line to Broken Hill was converted to standard gauge (still owned by the SA State Government) and this removed 3'6" gauge from Port Pirie, but added it to two other yards, Peterborough and Gladstone. In these yards all the track was owned by the same operator and there were a number of triple gauge turnouts and a triple gauge six rail turntable. There were also some locations with four rail track where 3'6" used the middle two and 5'3" and standard used one of the inner and one of the outer rails. This was used to avoid triple gauge turnouts where the two wider gauges diverged. The 5'3" has been abandoned or converted to standard in these locations, but the 3'6" has been retained by a musuem line in Perterborough, at least until recently.

There is a lot of dual 5'3" and standard gauge left in Adelaide and Melbourne. When 5'3" passenger trains were still using Keswick terminal ( before 1995), the shunting locomotive (switcher) could be either gauge. If it was a different gauge to the train being moved, a full length passenger car of the same gauge as the locomotive had to be placed between the locomotive and the different gauge train.

A three rail dual gauge turntable exists in Tailem Bend, South Australia, although the 5'3" gauge (the one that was actually centred) is no longer used. This was converted in 1995 by which time the concern for balance and correct alignment of the rails had been overtaken by the need for economy.

Peter