I wonder how soon it will be before the rust rods start showing up with cow catchers because of this thread?
!00% Correct. If you look at Steam Locomotives there is a "box" on top of the boiler. That is called the sandbox which then get pumped to the rails for traction. The vehicles are called inspection cars. Some of them like the Cadillac or the Lincoln that were shown were used when the President or senior managers of the railroad would show up for an inspection. At least thats what my dad told me.
There is an interesting car connection with the car photograph in this post. That shot with "DT&I" on the door was from the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad, which was owned by Henry Ford 1920-29. He finally sold the DT&I because the ICC (government) wouldn't let him run his railroad the way he ran everything else - very efficiently. See the history here: http://cg-tower.com/dti/history/history.htm
laplata, mo has one...but we just stayed at there hotel 2 yrs ago and i dont recall anything like that there.....?
We used to square up on the rails with my mom's 63 Cadillac. Let some air out of the tires. You don't touch the steering wheel, it will track by it's self. We would ride for miles. Sometimes we would ride on the hood and lean against the front windshield. The new cars probably have a different wheel width and won't center on the tracks. I miss the 60's.
Here are a couple of more, these were used to tranport work crews and to inspect rails. They were called "Gooses"
that's super bad ass. thanks for the cool pics. re: big wheels-i was at a store the other day and the dude was one of these "pretty fly for a white guy" kinda dudes-wearing a jersey that said "impala 63" big gold chains, etc. he saw my car and was like "you gonna put big wheels on it or what??" i told him "fuck that, i'm putting no wheels on it-it's the new thing. rolling on brake drums dude" he just looked at me. whatever.
They are cool, I ride on the rails in a car or speeder is very cool. a bit noisey and you cant steer,,,,,,,,clack clack clack
Way off toipic but there's a guy here in NH who makes a contraption he calls a railrider. Kinda like a pedal car on steroids you use to tour around on the old abandoned railroad tracks. He's also got a link on his website if you look for it for a guy who makes an attatcment for a bicycle to ride it on a rail. Weird shit but could be fun I suppose. http://www.railriders.net/
There was one just like that at the "Thresher's Reunion" they had last Fall here in my hometown. I think it originally belonged to the Canadian Pacific, you could still read their logo through the repaint a smaller road had done somewhere in the past. The ones the old C,B & Q used here weren't that fancy but when I was a kid I always thought it would be cool to have one.
Well, here's a quick little story about those little track inspection cars. Where I came from, they'd come into town from time to time. Usually two of them riding. The best time for us kids was along about the noon hour, when they guys would park their inspection cars. Well now those guys didn't always just ride along and look at the rails. They would also stop along the way and pick red or black raspberries. Us kids also used to walk down the tracks when we went rabbit or quail hunting. So we also knew where some of the good briar patches were. Anyway, while the guys went into town to get a bite to eat. Us kids used to way lay their goodie bag. Here later in the years, it kind of reminds me of some of the old Yogi Bear cartoons, where Yogi snatches a pic-a-nic basket, from some unsuspecting who ever in Jellystone Park. Mmmmmm.....fresh red raspberries..... HellRaiser Good Lord, Rudebaker...do you realize I can remember when the tracks ran thru your town??????
We called it a Doodlebug. Some of the routes were a spur off of the C B & Q lline. That was one way of riding from town to town back then. It was a round about way, to go south, then east, then north to go up to the quad cities. Up there, those of course were the Rock Island line and the Illinois Central line. Another little episode with those track inspection cars, was in the town about 30 miles south of you. The M & St. L trains ran from east to west. Not very often but they did. Anyway, to the west of town was some ponds. The tracks ran right beside those ponds. So sometimes rather than walking out to those ponds to go skinny dipping, we would "borrow" one of those track cars for a ride out there. Times have changed. Those ponds used to be part of the city dump. Now as you drive by, they are part of a city park. The M & St. L trains are long gone now. I could probably write a whole episode of growing up back then. Riding with my grandad when he delivered ice in the summer. (That's back before a lot of folks had refridgerators) The ole oak and chrome hinges ice boxes. The people would put a card in the window of their house, letting grandad know whether to deliver a #5, #10 or #25 of ice.. Best place for a kid in the summer back then, getting free chips of ice to stay cool with, "borrowing" track inspection cars to go skinny dipping. Kids these days, just don't know how to have fun. HellRaiser
Rudebaker, This is the Doodlebug of the C B & Q that I remember riding, and going thru those towns back when. These were used for the short runs, in those small towns, that didn't have a real large passenger load. They were used for mail carrying more than anything. View attachment 898841 They stopped running the Doodlebugs in the very early 50's, 50 or 51. The tracks got tore up probably in the late 50's. Once in a very great while, maybe one of the steam freight trains would have a pasenger car connected before the caboose. That was a ride for those who weren't in a great hurry to get anywhere, because the freights would sometimes have to do some switching of the cars, before they went on. The steam trains I remember last being run in the mid 50's. So those track inspection cars, or at least the little open ones stopped about the same time. I can't recall seeing any of the enclosed car type track cars or any like the "Galloping Goose". The Goose was run out in Colorado I think. Now to keep this within the traditional hot rod/old car theme. That one town south of you, where the ole C B & Q tracks ran, on the east side of town was the salvage yard. Behind the salvage yard was the ole stock car track. Oh my, seeing those ole Hudson Hornets, all the ole coupes that were "Lighten'd up". The smell of Caster oil in the air. (They used Caster oil in their stock cars back then, because they thought the finer refined caster oil was better than regular car oil) Then with the salvage yard right there...well they didn't have far to take the Saturday night left overs. But of course all of that is gone now. But the memories aren't. Riding the trains back then was right out of the song by Arlo Guthrie, riding the train, "The City of New Orleans". Some might wonder why old trains are mentioned on a traditional hot rod site. Well, because that's the way it was was back then. This is somewhat why the traditional lives on. We want to keep things sort of like it was back then. Sort of do things like we used to do back then. Scrounge around for a little this and a little that to build what ever we were going to build. Just to experience the sights and smells of times gone by. You can't hear hear a steam train whistle late at night any more, or smell the coal burning, or the sounds of some kid starting up his hot rod 8, 9 or 10 O'clock at night. The sounds of a old stock car race, when most of the cars are running flatheads, or six bangers. Some smoking so bad the bowl is filled with blue smoke, mixed in with the burning of the Caster oil I mentioned. Some time, I'll have to do a little number on "Sky King". HellRaiser
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