Speeder

A speeder (also known as railway motor car, putt-putt, track-maintenance car, crew car, jigger, trike, quad, trolley or inspection car) is a maintenance of way motorized vehicle formerly used on railroads around the world by track inspectors and work crews to move quickly to and from work sites. [cite web| url=http://www.narcoa.org/newsite/faq.htm| title=FAQ's & Answers| publisher=NARCOA| accessdate=2008-01-25| ] Speeders were replaced with trucks (usually pickup trucks or sport utility vehicles) using flanged wheels that could be raised for on-rail, called road-rail vehicles, in the 1990s. Now speeders are collected by hobbyists, who refurbish them and take them on outings organized by the North American Railcar Operators Association in the USA and Australian Society of Section Car Operators, Inc. in Australia

Speeders in the movies

The most famous speeder in a movie is, arguably, the Fairmont M19/M19AA that Buster Keaton rode across Canada in his 1965 film, "The Railrodder". Keaton made tea, washed his laundry, hunted ducks and passed trains as he travelled across Canada. The Railrodder and its making-of documentary, "Buster Keaton Rides Again", are still available from the National Film Board of Canada.

Motorcar manufacturers and models

Beavercar — BMC-2,BMC-4,BMC-B

Buda Manufacturing

Casey Jones — 531

Commonwealth Engineering — Heavy Gang Car built for 5'3" and Standard Gauge operation in South Australia

Fairbanks-Morse — 40-B,101,757

Fairmont Railway Motors Inc — 52,52-A,59,59-A,59-B,59-C,59-D,1100,2100,3100,4100,5100,6100,A2 Series,A3 Series,A4 Series,A5 Series,A6 Series,A7 Series,A8 Series,M2,M9,M14,MT14,M15,M17,M19,MT19,S2,ST2,C7,CD7,CK7,CR7

Gemco [For more information on Gemco, see [http://www.kenssectioncarshed.org/id42.htm Ken McHughs Section Car Shed] ]

Kalamazoo — 23 Series B,23 Series T,27,560N

Pacific ACE (AKA Tutt Bryant) [Assembled cars from components supplied by Fairmont Railway Motors, but also developed two of their own designs] — [http://www.nicdoncaster.com/sectioncars/types/pacificcseries.htm C500] , [http://www.nicdoncaster.com/sectioncars/types/pacfairst.htm STT/E]

Portec

Sheffield — 40-B

Sylvester Manufacturing Co [For more information on Sylvester see [http://www.kenssectioncarshed.org/id69.htm Ken McHughs Section Car Shed] ] — H21B - Medium Gang Car,E21B - Light Inspection Car

Tamper — TMC-2,TMC-6,TMC-8

D Wickham & Co Ltd [Gunner, K., Kennard, M. 2004 "The Wickham Works List" Dennis Duck Publishing] — (59 models over their manufacturing history)

Woodings — CBI,CBL

Railway Workshops — Various railways and their workshops also manufactured speeders. Often these were a copy of commercially available cars, such as Wickham and Fairmont.

Dimensions

Approximate dimensions of a common speeder car are given below. Due to the variety of base models and customization these are not fixed numbers. These values are from a Fairmont A4-D.

Rail Gauge: Standard 4 feet 8.5 inches (56.5 inches 1435mm)

Weight: ~3500 lb. (~1587 kg)

Width: ~64 inches (~1626mm)

Height: ~60 inches (~1524mm)

Length: ~9 feet 2inches (~110 inches ~2794mm)

Wheel Height: ~14 inches (~356mm)

Floor Height: ~80% to 120% of the wheel height ~11 to 17 inches (~284mm to ~427mm)

See also

* Railcar

References

External links

* [http://www.narcoa.org NARCOA]
* [http://www.railserve.com/Motorcars/ Motorcars, Speeders & Handcars]
* [http://www.nicdoncaster.com/sectioncars Australian Speeder site]
* [http://www.assco.org.au/ ASSCO site]
* [http://www.cvrtc.net CVRTC - New England Speeder Group]
* [http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/WickhamofWare/ Wickham of Ware Discussion Group]

This is also a team of free running who come from Belgium.