hello all am doing a new layout finally and there is one point where it would make it easier to have a gauntlet track over a bridge. has anyone done this in the past or has pictures of them? any help at all will be accepted. thanks Harry
Harry, We have a handlaid gauntlet track over a curved timber trestle on our club's HO layout. Here are some pix. HTH, Jim
Harry, Hi. Seems I saw a gauntlet/gantlet question not long ago, and listed an article in Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantlet_track This might give you a start. Bob C.
it s very good congratulations Gauntlet on the entire bridge is the most I'm doing this here in HO scale
I guess my first question would be why? I can see it being used on the wood trestle but if you are constructing a new bridge I would use a double track as a gauntlet track snarls traffic and can lead to some serious bridge meets! Mike
I decided to make this sample of how the trail would be complete with ballast and vegetation and it has It took a good look great:tb-biggrin::tb-biggrin::tb-biggrin: Hug Bruno Fernandes
It is used when 2 different rail lines (light density) must cross a similar obstacle, and building a second trestle would be cost-prohibitive. The lines require a special signal arrangement. Milwaukee Road and GN utilized Spring Creek Trestle outside of Lewistown, MT in this way. Both lines were light traffic. http://www.themilwaukeeroadtrail.org/SiteImages/MT/LTK_MT_Spring Creek Trestle _Westend.jpg
Yeah , I know they exist in the real world , but I guess what I ment to say is why would one want to create such a log jam on a home layout other than to create work during operating sessions. Thanks , Mike
The Erie had 2 different gauntlets close to where I live. One was so the mainline could run down the center of the main road in Warren, OH. Each train had to stop and the first train there was able to proceed. At one end was the station, this is what happens when things don't work out right: http://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/ProtoPhotos#5073455577821783362 For 2 blocks this is what the tracks looked like: http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o235/SAHRR/WarrenSouthStEast6503xxwCreditsm.jpg
Thats what I was wondering. I guess one needs more activities during running sometimes. Though I am re-building my layout to by-pass most of those types of things. They do make for some great scenery interest as well. Mike
Gauntlet track arrangements (in the prototype world) were a very dangerous arrangement, one that could and have lead to some very bad collisions and derailments, largely because of human error. The one incident that comes to mind almost instantly as I started to read this thread was the accident that happened on the Chicago South Shore & South Bend/Northern Indiana Commuter Transit District at Gary, In., in 1993. That collision cost 7 people their lives and 95 people were badly hurt. (Note: Double track right of way, save for the gauntlet trackage over a river. One track eastbound, one track westbound. A second bridge was constructed around 1997 to provide for the discontinuance of the gauntlet trackage.) To read more see the NTSB report below: http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/1993/R93_28.pdf Operationally on a model railroad it actually can be a very interesting situation, but like the prototype, block signals should be installed so that crews on both sides could have fair warning of what was coming. They would not have to be a part of a CTC or ATC system... just simply approach signals, one on each end roughly 10 to 15 feet away warning of a possible meet and a second on each end of the gauntlet track as an absolute stop. Control could be from a dispatcher or even automatic train detection. Probably the biggest drawback to gauntlet track arrangements in N-scale is that you will have to lay the trackage by hand since no ready-to-use trackage is available. One thing that helps is that there are some really great jigs to make turnouts that could be used to create the unusual track switches (are they really switches???) at the ends of the gauntlet track. Such could provide both visual and operational interest, if one was to pursue it.
