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10-06-2018, 03:48 PM | #1 |
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Railroad Inspection Car
As some of y'all may already know, besides Model-As, Model-Ts, brass-era cars, and racing, one of my other strong interests is in Railroad Inspection or Speeder cars and riding the rails.
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VDPMB3P_-8 to watch a YouTube video showing a 15+ year old 1931 Victoria being used as a mule to transport passengers on a passenger car trailer just north of Houston, TX area. It even shows them jacking the car up and spinning it on a jack acting as a turntable to reverse the direction of the car. I would love to have those wheels, but geez that poor car would be a rough one to restore!! Enjoy!! . . . . . |
10-06-2018, 04:42 PM | #2 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
Amazing. Thanks for sharing....
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10-06-2018, 04:51 PM | #3 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
I really enjoyed that Brent! Thank you.
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10-06-2018, 05:33 PM | #4 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
My former customer also likes speeders, and took this photo on one of his outings on the rails. Notice the flathead engine.
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10-06-2018, 08:14 PM | #5 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
I can’t believe the variations in the track.
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10-06-2018, 08:34 PM | #6 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
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10-06-2018, 08:54 PM | #7 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
Thanks for posting this Brent. Tom Endy, newsletter editor for the Victoria Association had a small article, with photos, in the April 2015 issue. According to the article, the poor Victoria was used on the Waco, Beaumont, Trinity & Sabine Railroad, known to the locals as the Wobble, Bobble, Turnover & Stop, perhaps the best indication of the operating conditions. At the height of its operation it owned 114 miles of track running thru Texas, Missouri & Kansas. The WBT&S went into receivership in 1930 and operated until it went out of business in 1961. Tom reports that nothing is known about the Victoria leatherback rail car other than "it appears they were careful to park it in the garage at night".
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10-06-2018, 09:30 PM | #8 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
I have a speeder, which was made by Fairmont in MN. It's their smallest model with 5 H.P.
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10-06-2018, 10:28 PM | #9 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
...some other Model A's on the rails:
....and some rail busses: ....somewhere in Brazil: ....a couple of years ago: ....as it looks today: Brad in Maryland Last edited by Brad in Germany; 10-06-2018 at 10:48 PM. |
10-07-2018, 05:53 AM | #10 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
I also have a speeder, or rail car. Mine came out of Canada. I would love to have a Model A or Model T adapted to rails! Lots of tours out there, all over the United States. You get to see things, you will never see from the road.
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10-07-2018, 07:29 AM | #11 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
Thank you Brent & Brad for posting these cool pictures. These are a segment of the hobby that are not seen very often.
God bless Bill
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10-07-2018, 07:30 AM | #12 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
I love the way they turn the car around by jacking up the trans and spinning around the car.
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10-07-2018, 07:45 AM | #13 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
Brent. I just joined and have a new thread about a railbus I am working on. It has a '30 Model A motor and a narrowed Model T rear. Once I have enough posts, I'll post a photo or two.
Later! Mr. Ed |
10-07-2018, 07:47 AM | #14 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
Mike, I believe they just had a 500 mile each way, week long excursion up your way last month that was well attended and liked. I too would like to have a Model-A powered Gang Car.
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10-07-2018, 09:13 AM | #15 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
More photos and information at www.psrm.org (Pacific Southwest Railroad Museum). Enjoy
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10-07-2018, 11:01 AM | #16 | |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
Quote:
Here is a similar car that did not require a turntable. This gang car would have been used by several men and pulled a trailer (-or two) to go out and inspect/repair rail that needed maintenance. Below is some original advertising for a Model-B powered gang car. Notice how the rear end is made where it uses two ring gears on one pinion. This is done so the car can be reversed to travel the same speed in either direction. . . . . . . |
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10-07-2018, 05:42 PM | #17 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
I too have done some time with speeders and hi-rails.
I used to work for a couple of tourist railroads. Besides working in operations I did track inspection and was the pilot when the local speeder club showed up for a tour over our lines. The speeders were the company's, the hi-rail was mine. The speeders didn't have model A engines but they were Ford 4's. (173's) Running the hi-rail all over the NW on privately owned track was probably the most fun I ever had with my clothes on. |
10-07-2018, 08:58 PM | #18 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
Attached are the two pages of the Victoria Association newsletter from April 2015 as indicated by Vern in an earlier post.
Tom Endy |
10-07-2018, 10:12 PM | #19 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
Work on maintenance of way equipment and car movers,that Vicky on the Wobbly line is whats called a tractive effort car mover,it doesn't have a coupler that lifts weight from the attached car like weight transfer machines,it provides its own weight for traction.Given they also jack it to turntable it it doesnt have much weight..so if the engineer pushes it too hard the drive wheels break loose and chatter, its probably why she looks like it does,she gets shaken to death |
09-13-2019, 11:03 PM | #20 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
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09-14-2019, 02:00 AM | #21 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
The "putt-putts" were the Fairmont 2-cycle inspection cars however those engines were superceded by 4-cycle engines such as Onans in the Fairmonts. Also during that same era were the bigger gang cars by Fairmont that used 4 cylinder (-and even 6 cylinder) engines. Relatively speaking, there were just as many non putt-putt speeders as there were putt-putt speeders.
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09-14-2019, 07:33 AM | #22 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
The Southwest Railroad Museum in Campo, California has a speeder with a Model A engine in it. We rebuilt about 25 years ago for them. The are on the San Diego & Arizona Eastern railroad Line built by John Spreckels in 1906 through the Carrizo Gorge and called the "Impossible Railroad."
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05-12-2021, 05:39 PM | #23 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
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05-12-2021, 05:54 PM | #24 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
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05-12-2021, 06:19 PM | #25 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
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05-12-2021, 06:57 PM | #26 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
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Tom Endy |
05-12-2021, 07:02 PM | #27 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
there is a fascinating book out there about Henry Ford's purchase and operation of the D T & I Railroad.
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05-12-2021, 07:04 PM | #28 | |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
Quote:
Don't ask me how that works.....lol |
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05-12-2021, 07:35 PM | #29 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
We don't need no stinking driver's door on the Vicky!
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05-12-2021, 08:07 PM | #30 |
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Re: Railroad Inspection Car
They ran those putt-putt MOW cars down the CB&Q tracks by our house in the 50's and 60's. When the train would come along I would see the workers get out, pull these long wooden handles out, and lift the whole works off the tracks and wait for the train to pass. Sometimes they would be at a little wooden deal that was perpendicular to the tracks that they would wait on.
They had to be heavy that amazed me as a kid them doing that. |
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