TIL about the railroad speeder which is a small railcar used around the world by track inspectors and work crews to move quickly to and from work sites.
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I saw one of these at a car show and talked with the owner for a while.
Most of them are painted orange so they're nicknamed pumpkins
The ones up north have doors due to the cold. His had an Onan engine and 4 speed gearbox
A clean used one will run you about $2k but you can get tricked out ones all the way up the price ladder
There's owners clubs that meet up and all caravan on something like a road trip but on the tracks. Because they're so small, a rail line lets them do group buys for rail mileage so several of them split the bill for what a normal rail car would cost.
Every year in Oregon there's a caravan of rail speeders that goes down the coast doing a toy drive.
Cars as they were meant to be
Ah, a motor draisine!
Like Sandy from Thomas the
TrainTank Engine?You mean Thomas the Tank Engine?
You know what, that's on me. I'm gonna fix it.
Wikipedia list exactly that in the In Popular Culture section, so yes, I guess
Honestly I watched those when I was I kid when it was Ringo Starr, and I never knew more than 2 of them. Now that I have a kid, I am forced to learn every b-list character.
Around here they just modify pickups to add rail wheels.