Railway velocipede

Sachmanram · Sep 14, 2014

Hello all,

Last Friday, I dropped into a local hardwood lumber supplier's warehouse and noticed this velocipede on his wall. Arnold has a great love of history and is always at auctions and wheeling and dealing with all types of people and seems to attract the "out of the ordinary "

Here's a few pics of the velocipede and outrigger...

Apparently, these were used to visually inspect the tracks in a section of 8-10 miles, depending on the topography. Notice the main gear spokes... these are serpentine in shape instead of being straight. I have heard that this method of spokes stood up better to expansion and contraction than straight spokes.

I thought that some of you railway buffs might have some interest in this.

Here is a link to some literature on the subject... page 3 has an old photo of a velocipede...

http://www.exporail.org/can_rail/Canadian Rail_no492_2003.pdf

Cheers...

Brian

jdleach · Sep 14, 2014

Thanks for posting this Brian, that is a cool contraption.

bridgedog · Sep 14, 2014

Very interesting thanks

peter · Sep 14, 2014

Clearly, I dont get to enough auctions. Very cool.

Sachmanram · Sep 14, 2014

Beats a regular bicycle all to hell, doesn't it ?

DeSelle · Sep 14, 2014

You would probably get talked about for tearing down the tracks on one of those now but I would love to try.

Joe in NH · Sep 14, 2014

My Manchester, NH Steam buddy has one of these. Very cool.

Wiseman Products actually makes a model (which I bought him as a present)

Joe in NH

Rick Rowlands · Sep 15, 2014

In 1995 or 96 when I worked for the Ohio Central I borrowed a velocipede and rode it over the entire length of the Youngstown & Austintown Railroad. The entire railroad is only 3.5 miles long, but its all on a grade. It was nice riding going away from the rear end of the line to the CSX interchange at the other end, but coming back was a bit of a workout.

stephen thomas · Sep 15, 2014

That's wonderful!

I grew up with our property abutting what was then a busy RR. Track ~50' from where the house was located.

What we kids would have given for such a thing! We even tried to rig one out of bicycles at various times, but sadly (or fortuitously?

) did not have access to machine tools or welding options.

smt

Sachmanram · Sep 15, 2014

No need for welding or machining in the day...

This link shows an attachment for an ordinary bicycle...

http://www.roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/sears.jpg

Brian

HUMPHREY MACHINE · Sep 15, 2014

A very interesting velocipede which departs from the American standard in several notable ways (larger driving gear, cast iron rim/steel spoke wheels/ front ‘bearing hangers’).

Shown below is a velocipede which I’ve owned for more than two decades -- and it IS fun to ride! It is a Sheffield #1 car manufactured by Fairbanks, Morse & Co. This model and make were used throughout the United States and are without a doubt the most widely manufactured of the many velocipede designs.

There are linkages between the foot stirrups and the hand lever harnessing the power of the leg on the pull pack cycle of the hand lever. There was a slightly longer two man model which sported a rear facing front seat over the front wheel. Optional tool trays could be supported by the out rigger arm.

These cars are remarkably easy to operate on level trackage and even moderate upgrades and really cook on down grades. Back in the first half of the 90s there were numerous recently abandoned local branch lines which were great for riding before they were either torn up or overtaken with vegetation.

On the foreground floor is a metal outrigger arm I fabricated to allow the car to be used on the two foot gauge WW&FRy in Maine.

HUMPHREY MACHINE · Sep 15, 2014

Here are several images of velocipede photographs which I have found over the years.

ewlsey · Sep 15, 2014

They restored one of these on an episode of American Restoration on History channel.

HUMPHREY MACHINE · Sep 15, 2014

Women and girls could play too! Note the early gas powered model as well.

boilerhouse · Sep 15, 2014

I volunteer with a tourist steam locomotive. We have an operational pump car and velocipede on static display. We occasionally take them down the track to amuse ourselves. I found the pump car to be a bit of a workout even with a partner but, it seemed to me, the velocipede required less effort.

JST · Sep 16, 2014

Never saw a velocipede, but in the 50s and early 60's, I still sometimes saw a working pump-type car when we went on trips by RR out west. NP from Twin Cities and changing to the SP (or??) down the coast Most maintenance cars were the powered type.

Lots and lots of the wood "sidings" for the cars, some of them in "interesting" places when on steep mountainsides.

JoeE. · Sep 17, 2014

Humphrey Machine, you saved me the trouble of posting a catalog view of that machine. I have the Fairbanks/Morse catalog with all that stuff in it, including the one you have. F/M made all kinds of railway equipment, besides locomotives.

Railway velocipede

Stainless

Stainless

Hot Rolled

Titanium

Stainless

Cast Iron

Diamond

Titanium

Diamond

Stainless

Cast Iron

Attachments

Cast Iron

Attachments

Diamond

Cast Iron

Attachments

Plastic

Diamond

Titanium

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