Topic: RailBike Adventures--Hunting Season?

[gerhed]

RailBiking in southern Maryland last weekend.
My 48 volt hub motor driven railbike pictured
--along with friend Bob's 3-wheeled "speeder"-vintage 4-stroke.
--featuring gorgeous cast aluminum wheels!
Came across some severely bent track-in the middle of nowhere
-not sure how this could have happened.
Saw some deer crossing the tracks--heard some rifle shots.
--not too distant.
You don't think............?

[Bob Wessner]

The bent track has to be aliens. Keep the pics coming, find them interesting.

[olds-cool]

That is a crazy bend.  How in the world would something like that happen except a train wreck?

[seaweb11]

Is this some crazy new hobby on old unused rail tracks? 

amazing what us retired guys will do to pass the time.........

[BobbyR]

That is a crazy bend.  How in the world would something like that happen except a train wreck?

The bend was probably due to rotted ties collapsing while a freight car ran over it, and yes it derailed. It takes tremendous force to bend a rail like that, it more like a kink. Years ago there were some clowns with K5 Blazers with brush guards running down mailboxes. Mine was hit twice. I went down to do some work with the NY Transit Authority. I came home with an 8 ft section of worn out rail. I dug a 4 ft hole and bedded the rail into some cement. A piece of steel tacked to the top to mount the mailbox, and some flat black Rustoleum and it was done.
A couple of weeks later they came to harvest the neighorhood boxes. In front of my house there were pieces of brush guard, an antifreeze and tranny fluid trail down the block. Rail was still plumb.

[333]

Ger, I thought about you last week.  I was on 29 south of Warrenton heading north and in the right lane I saw(on a trailer) a cart with wheels like your friends 4-stroke.  It was 4 wheels and what looked like a wooden garden bench with no legs.  It was a quick look, but I didn't see any drive mechanism or a way to tow it behind something.  Maybe a project in the works.  It made me think of your rail bike.

[gerhed]

Is this some crazy new hobby on old unused rail tracks? 

amazing what us retired guys will do to pass the time.........

S--WEb,

There is a long and noble tradition of attempting to
ride strange vehicles on someone elses railroad track.
Pictured from around 1880 --machine has what appears
to be a large flywheel integrated--I'm looking into this.

[BobbyR]

Is this some crazy new hobby on old unused rail tracks? 

amazing what us retired guys will do to pass the time.........

S--WEb,

There is a long and noble tradition of attempting to
ride strange vehicles on someone elses railroad track.
Pictured from around 1880 --machine has what appears
to be a large flywheel integrated--I'm looking into this.

I like your design better.