Nostalgia & History > Pictures of Gauntlet Track?

Does anybody have pictures of gauntlet track operations? I know the SP had one across the bridge in Yuma. Also the south portion of Pit, going through the tunnel. You could still see the way the running rails were towards the left of the tunnel wall going north.

Also there was was one over a bridge somewhere south of Yakima with the UP & NP? GN?

Its something you don't see or hear about much.


Nudge

Nudge,

I remembered this from a while back.

Santa Fe crossing the Colorado River near Topock, AZ:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,227553,227585#msg-227585

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,168659,168659#msg-168659

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

Nudge,

There used to be one on the San Diego Trolley and so also the San Diego & Imperial Valley Railroad service on the East Line (San Diego to Santee) it is gone now and double tracked. The gauntlet was going over the 805 freeway east of downtown San Diego. Operated over it many times!

There was also a very short gauntlet of sorts at the Tecate depot for the scale track.

I don't have any photos off hand.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/13 15:35 by 6088.

Gauntlet track on the Santa Fe's Missouri River bridge at Sibley, MO, photographed by Jack Delano in 1943:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/item/owi2001021283/PP/resource/
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/item/owi2001021284/PP/resource/

The innermost pair of rails are guardrails. The same bridge still serves today but is plain old single track.

The Wiki has a good photo of triple GANTLET track -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantlet_track
...Lorenzo

Gauntlet Track in Amsterdam, December of 2003.

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spnudge Wrote:
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>
> Its something you don't see or hear about much.

On some lines where there is both freight and passenger operations on the same track, a gauntlet track is used to divert freight trains away from the platforms. For example, I see gauntlet track every time I take the South Shore/NICTD from the Hammond, IN, station. I believe that there is gauntlet track at two other stations.

The South Shore had a gauntlet track on a bridge but this was removed some years ago after an accident occurred there. I don't remember the details, but I think one train failed to observe a signal.

There was an interesting exchange here on TO some months ago on the topic of gauntlet tracks.

Here's the one at Parker (south of Yakima) shared by UP and BN branches. Controlled by automatic interlocker.

Best regards,

Rob L.

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6088 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nudge,
>
> There used to be one on the San Diego Trolley and
> so also the San Diego & Imperial Valley Railroad
> service on the East Line (San Diego to Santee) it
> is gone now and double tracked. The gauntlet was
> going over the 805 freeway east of downtown San
> Diego. Operated over it many times!
>
> There was also a very short gauntlet of sorts at
> the Tecate depot for the scale track.
>
> I don't have any photos off hand.

There were several times when I had a high ball to cross the I-805 bridge only to see it drop to red when an opposite trolley passed by the red and blew into the 47th Street Station. Once of the main reasons it was double tracked!

The 'Other' gauntlet track in San Diego was actually a
gauntlet switch, crossing Broadway at Pacific Highway!!

This was just west of the Santa Fe Depot on industrial
trackage that fed the B Street, Broadway, and Navy piers,
as well as heading south to the old Ferry Landing!

The points were on the north side of Broadway, with the frog
on the south side of Broadway! The closure rails between
were buried up to the railhead crossing Broadway!

The track with the gauntlet switch also lead to the last of
only 5 true three way switches on the Santa Fe railroad.

The three way is now part of the yard trackage at the PSRMA
facility at Campo, Ca.

Mike

Thanks Mike... I remember seeing that switch when I was a kid (the gauntlet one), I had totally forgot about it..

saw similar type track in picture of the Brooklyn Bridge .

Correction - Gantlet track. Gauntlet is a glove.
Gonut

Gonut1 Wrote:
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> Correction - Gantlet track. Gauntlet is a glove.

Correction not accurate nor needed.


The gauntlet is an interesting arrangement for a track ... generally used when switches cannot be used but the aforementioned South Shore (CSS&SB now NICTD) line used one on a bridge in Gary. That one went away when a second bridge was built.

I won't blame the track design for the fatal accident there - a train could just as easily run a red and foul a switch to the level that the train in the incident fouled the gauntlet. But it was good to see that bottleneck removed (the original bridge has also been replaced next to the new bridge).