This one was built on May 14, 1945 as a M9-C-3-17 standard gauge car and sold to the Western Union Telegraph Company in Atlanta, GA. Western Union purchased a number of cars at this time and deployed them on highway trailers to various points. They were to be used for emergency inspections following storms for damage to the telegraph wires routed along railroad right of ways. Western Union sold many of these cars as surplus in the early fifties.
It was found in a barn near Foscoe, NC. where it had sat since 1969
This is a Fairmont M19 Speeder, it was on Craigslist for 3k
https://barnfinds.com/putt-putt-fairmont-m19-speeder/
http://www.keithmackey.com/M9/
But if you wanted to make a rail buggy, here's one guys easily portable design... just add quiet Honda portable generator, and an electric motor? I think you'd find it would be a nice quiet powered design. Add some gearing, and make it even faster.
This post sent me down yet another rabbit hole! I looked up abandoned railways in the United States (last thing you want is to be doing this on a live track!!).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abandonedrails.com/
Fascinating link. Makes me want to hike the old Transcontinental Railroad from Cheyenne to its terminus.
I cannot believe that you didn't put in a link to the 25 minute Buster Keaton short "the Railrodder". His character rides a speeder across Canada east to west. Very funny. I saw it on youtube.
ReplyDeleteThat's because there are 24 hours in a day, and I got things to do, things to post. I can't build an encyclopedia on every thing I find cool
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