Gauntlet track or interlaced track (also gantlet track) is an arrangement in which railway tracks run parallel on a single track bed and are interlaced (i.e. overlapped) such that only one pair of rails may be used at a time. Since this requires only slightly more width than a single track, all four rails can be carried on the same crossties/sleepers. Trains run on the discrete pair of rails appropriate to their direction or loading gauge.
The term gauntlet is derived not from gauntlet meaning a type of glove, but from the expression running the gauntlet (originally running the gantlope) which means running between two confining rows of adversaries; gauntlet in this sense is a "corrupt form".
Famous quotes containing the word track:
“I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say—I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
—Harriet Tubman (1821–1913)