Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge's History - Connecting New England to the Nation's Freight Network

Quick question...perhaps someone knows the answer.

Why did the railroad bother with a gauntlet track rather than simply making the bridge single tracked with switches at either end? Since two trains can't use the bridge at the same time anyway, it just seems like it would be simpler that way.

SemperFidelis wrote:Quick question...perhaps someone knows the answer.

Why did the railroad bother with a gauntlet track rather than simply making the bridge single tracked with switches at either end? Since two trains can't use the bridge at the same time anyway, it just seems like it would be simpler that way.

The gauntlet was done maybe some 100 years ago. Long before remote interlockings, modern signals of the current period and other improvements. It worked and worked fairly well for the period.
Noel Weaver

Ah, didn't think of that. Thank you.

I kind of figured when I was writing the question that the bridge either had switches that were controlled from a local tower or that the men assigned to watch and maintain the bridge would have been in charge of throwing switches.

But, again, thank you for the information. Always nice to learn something new!

A dramatic saving in maintenance when you think of it--one inert frog at each end versus two turnouts. I was told some 40 years ago that an interlocked switch with all the attendant circuits cost (I think) $500,000 then--I think it's about 3 times that today--just to install, and after that it has to be maintained.

This is somewhat bridge related and I couldn't find another more appropriate thread.

While scanning the Maybrook rail trail on Google Maps, I noticed a couple points of interest named Maybrook Signal, CP Grand and Maybrook Signal CP Poughkeepsie. Going down to street view, there is a fully restored and obviously illuminated, westbound dual aspect searchlight signal standing at CP Grand ( Grand Avenue grade crossing ) https://www.google.com/maps/place/Maybr ... 73.8957784. I assume this was the approach signal to CP POK which was the WB home signal for the bridge. The the ground shot of CP POK is from 2012 and the signal was not yet restored. I would have to guess that it has received the same treatment if it's noted on the map. Nice to see that a little bit of infrastructure was preserved for those who probably never knew a railroad was ever there and those of us who still remember what once was.

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