Rail Cart Ride to Abandoned Switch Yard
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 เม.ย. 2021
- Driving a DIY electric railway cart / speeder and a railbike down an abandoned industrial spur to a former factory rail yard.
This is the first significant journey for my homemade railroad cart, hopefully we'll have some good follow-ups soon with longer trips!
them rails aint seen a car for years, prob made em happy to see sombody.
Train?? 🥺
Yes traincar. As in how many cars are being pulled by the train. Dang I'm not that goofy bro. Glad to amuse.
@@1683clifton lmao i meant it as in the rails reaction to seeing some action 💀. I guess u missed it.
R/woosh
Indeed friend
Now go listen to "long train runnin" by the doobie brothers ok?
It’s a shame they had to tear down the Ford factory, it had been producing automobiles since the era of the Model T and was also a great spot to watch trains.
Thanks for mentioning .
Is this at River Rouge?
I need to check this out sometime I live 90 minutes away .
Great job on the rail cart, ingenious design. Maybe someday you will engineer a product that could be manufactured in a new factory on the site of the old Ford facility? Ya never know. Keep inventing, keep designing, keep building, this is what we need in this country right now.
Nice railcar, just love it ... One remark though : You must reduce t,he depth of the flanges on the wheels, you wont keep hitting the fishfplates (railjoiners) anymore ....
Not everyone has access to the necessary machinery. If he doesn't follow your suggestion he may be willing to live with the current dimension.
@@joewoodchuck3824 WOW. YOU ARE DEEP.
@@dontherealartist so are his flanges apparently!!
@@nojhampton zing!
Excellent
There's a talking heads reference in that scene where the factory is gone and now there's nothing but trees and wildflowers
Looks like a fun time. You need a horn. Like a big plastic stadium horns. The kind you BLOW through.
vuvuzela i think
@@baconeater312 Correct.
The watch out for trains sign was cool.
Suprised its still there and know ones jacked it yet ..lol
Silence would be infinitely better than this "soundtrack" (no pun intended).
What a great way to ride.
I was just there last fall. It's good to see some of the history was/is still there.
That is so cool. And the way you made a rail cart. Awesome. Keep up the great work. And your buddy with the rail bike. Neat.
You are lucky the abandoned railways are left intact. I've seen similar in France. But here in the UK the track is often lifted soon after closure
Same in the Netherlands, everything is lifted when taken out of service
I was gonna say just this. Abandoned Railways in the UK seem to have tracks ripped up pretty quick
@@mcw8900 Usually when we rip the rails up in the UK its usually replaced with something like housing or other forms of infrastructure. But near me there are still abandoned rails but they're usually fenced off from the public.
The rail usually gets ripped up in the states, too.
In the US rails are usually left in place just in case they decide to re-open them. Railroads retain their right-of-way as long as the rails are there.
Very cool! My dad and I used to be in a railroad club waaaay back in the 80’s. He had built a speeder and it was always a really fun time. I’ve been thinking about doing a bike myself. Much love to you guys and be careful in your explorations.
During the late 40’s and early 50’s my father,sister and I watched the evolution from steam to diesel electric from the hillside above.
I loved that rail cart!! and even that bicycle system too! subscribed and thumb up! Best Regards.
Brilliant lads, such fun.
True. Fun little excursion. One might be surprise surprised what action an abandoned line sees? I have found sections of abandoned lines or where rail traffic isn't as heavy as it once was and all but one line was removed. Also, is fun to see when the rail was made. 👍🏻😉
Looks like fun . The tracks look like they in good shape
One of those be great for stealth camp/living eh! Great ideas man!
This reminds me of Cambodian Norries (“Bamboo trains”). Basically a flat bamboo platform resting on two axles with flanged wheels, with a belt connecting one of the axles to a rudimentary gasoline engine. Pretty cool stuff.
This is great! I love stuff like this!
Quite an interesting journey. Milwaukee had some great industrial spurs but they are sadly torn up. Take that yard and triple the size and that's how the hump yard here looked. Possibly that little pine trée was the Charlie Brown
Curse!
Very creative young men...keep it going...who knows what you'll design next. See if you can attach a 12v 160w solar panel roof for extended range...
This is really cool! We sadly don’t have abandoned rail lines to this degree where I live. Would love to visit this one day!
That rail go-kart is so cool!
I like that bicycle contraption!
Man this is so awesome.
Love the rail creations! I would love to learn how to make the bike one haha, have fun and reminds me of Half Life!
This looks like a lot of fun.
1:31 At the FROG, your previous wheel jumping was shown to be "a too wide a wheel flange gauge", meaning the flanges of your wheels were "hugging" both rail heads, such that any deviation or tighter (track) gauge -was forcing your wheels to ride the rail top.
At the frog, a slightly different effect occurs, in that the wheel flanges Keep to both rails (the one diverging at the frog being followed too tightly) - meaning your wheel gauge was larger than track gauge - result - the wheels JUMPED atop the frog and derailed you (which is precisely why you deleted / edited that bit out, but NOT before I spotted the left wheel riding above the rail-top of the frog.
Checked the comments to say the same thing! He thought he could be sneaky with his edits... but he wasn't sneaky enough. 😉
Very cool. Gotta get me one of those!
Your kidneys will look like they went into a boxing match after a day of riding. Awesome video and I think it wouldn't be too hard to throw a little suspension under that rig......just looking to reduce the spinal shock ya know.......with ya in spirit
Now that looks like fun.
As always, an awesome video! I am really loving this rail cart series!
Tree: Let's grow here, no one is gonna hurt me on an abandoned railway
Tree: 3:12
😄
Choices: destroy a healthy tree vs lift cart past obstruction.
F
You're a Champion.
Carl must love peddling, kind of like the 'Forrest Gump' of rail cycling. No problem the dude can appreciate the great outdoors...respect. It's a testament to the rail engineering of old when your 'rail speeder' can navigate still perfectly aligned tracks after so many years of no maintenance on them.
It jumps every time you pass over a rail joint. Your wheel flanges are too deep.
How Cool... A Unique, Progressive, Professional, Productive Video from a Unique, Progressive, Professional, Productive and Positively Assertive Proper Sublick.. Choo Choo !!!!! 👌💯👍😜
Just love it bro 👍😉saves walking hello from Australia 🦘🍻🦘🍻
Cool channel buddy 🤘🏻
I like the railway cart, pretty cool. Sad to see the factory and abandoned spur. Jobs lost forever.
Cool rides.
Looks like fun, thanks for sharing !!!!
This music is awesome!
I want to ride it. Cool video
A rail bike just like the movie The Quest. Cool!
Good idea, you can make a petrol powered lawnmower wagon , for cut weeds on long rail tracks. You get two old lawn mowers together to wagon .
Hey, again ! Another option ! You need old mini tractor with lawn mower covert to rail track wheels. If you want to build it. You will happy about it. I’m from Australia 🇦🇺
Congratulations my friend. I knew you can do it. Now change the sign to Watch out for Rail Carts. Liked the scenery.
Great video. Reminds me of the areas in Buffalo, NY where Bethlehem Steel used to be before closing up in the early 80s.
Enjoyed the ride! Your music fit perfectly 👌 and gives your vid a Wes Anderson vibe.
There was a part around 6 minutes where machine and music blended nicely.
need a lawn chair mounted for more comfortable regal ride and maybe a weed-eater for track maintenance along the way - good build
and a chain saw or just a saw
@@-watermelonking Electric saw, gas too loud, gets maybe unwanted attention.
Interesting bro love from india🇮🇳
Just a thought but you could shrink the size of your "cabin" put gokart or lawnmower tires on the inside add steering that you could lock once on the tracks keeping the same gauge and have a multiuse electric vehicle for getting into and out of those rougher areas where the ruffage is a little too thick to pass easily great video and it being semi modular makes it an even more cool project almost looks like it'd be possible to copy with a metal bed frame
Multi-modal 👍
I'd like to ride on one of those rail carts sometime!
You mentioned wheel diameter needs tweaking. Yeah, there's a bit too much flange. Maybe brake rotors with a small diameter tire tread wrapped around the hub section. The lug nuts could be used to fasten a plate to keep the rubber tread from coming off. The hub, axle and bearing assembly might be of use as well.
How about brake drums instead? You have a flange then. No need for tread as metal wheels are what trains are all about! They used to do this with Model T's - take the wheels off and run on the drums.
@@lenmarinaccio3262 You do need the tread because a train has several hundred tons of weight pressing it to the rails. A human body on a sheet of plywood does not. You will not be going anywhere.
That line was once the EL's main line to Chicago. Now it's the Marion Tallgrass Trail, and if you find it with Google maps and switch to satellite you can follow the right of way.
Nice video...🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
I noticed that it would hop up sometimes
I think from hitting weeds maybe add a sorta plow maybe a than sheet of metal that goes in front of the wheels and the cart to help push them out of the way like trains do or maybe add a sorta damper for the front wheels like rubber or a spring to help with the bounces
The carts amazing and I exited too see wat else you are going to do
Part of the bouncing was from my wheel flanges being too big, they hit the fish plates between track sections. I've modified it slightly so hopefully won't do that as badly next time.
@@saveitforparts I noticed that it might be the rubber or odd shaped part of the wheel that was catching and good luck!
Another battery for headlights + a REAL TRAIN HORN!! That's what you need. And paint it in C&NW colors!
They need to start rehabbing the rails so that in the future we can travel more than one or two hundred miles away f
rom our home charging stations!
You what would be fun? Making a diesel-electric "speeder". Find a small diesel generator--use it to drive two motors on the back wheels. Then it would be architecturally like one of those big locomotives :)
The switches are pulled up so they can be used in other places because, switches are hard to make, they use pre-made switches
It be wonderful if a trucking company CEO SEES YOUR WONDERFUL VIDEOS AND YOUR GREAT JOB OF SHOWCASING THIS YARD AND LINE AS A FUTURE RAIL TO TRUCK SHIPPERS TRANSLOADS FACILITIES ......CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR NEW "TRANSLOADS FACILITIES scouting electric car .it be cool if you put a 1936 fiberglass autobody on your beautiful cart
As soon as I saw the wheels I knew the flanges were too big. I bet you hit every nut and bolt, not to mention trouble with switches and crossings.
You need some choo choo music here...lol...
Sign: watch out for trains
The railcar and railed bicycle: are we a joke to you?!
Clever!
I would appreciate a better examination of Carl's 3 wheel design. I actually like both of your concepts. My initial concept was a 3 wheeled (actually 5 wheels) 2 side wheels for off road/ on road and on tracks an 1 wheel for extension to the other track while the other 2 wheels are for off/on road only. I did not have proof of concept for the 3 wheel train track but YOU & Carl provided that, Cheers! SUBSCRIBED!
I think Carl based his off the Bentley Railbike, which you can buy plans for online. I always prefer to just bodge things together and learn as I go :-)
Need to add a cow catcher!🤣
Just watching a couple of your videos now. Pretty cool!
How long can you drive on your electric rail car? And I believe you said that's 36vdc.. so three 12volt batteries in series. Is 36 volt the max on that motor?.. or what's it rated for?
Also you probably live in a more urban area than myself.. or an area that had heavy industry at one point in time so there appears to be alot of railroad.. what's the best way to find abandoned railroad? .. most of what I've seen in my area of Wisconsin the railroad have been made into bike trails.. which is awesome! I do alot of biking on them! But this would definitely be fun to do if there was abandoned track around! 😀
I haven't tested the full range, it's just 3 12v tractor batteries wired in series. The motor is rated for 36V.
Any idea what was on the site? What the future is for the site?
Is this in the twin cities? Take me along on these adventures on the rails!!
Reminds me of a Canadian car with square wheels from South Park - que Primus outro
Ok I wondered how you kept front bike tire on the rail. Now I see
LoL man, If I was there & had garden tools, I'd definitely clean those areas. It'd be a lot of fun to play-ride there.
Ever thought about making a gas powered version? And a lightweight brush guard for the front. Maybe a flashing hazard light as well?
I haven't had much luck with any of my old gas engines. I've about given up on internal combustion for small projects, electric is so much more reliable!
they jave turned those into bile paths in my area. Rumor is they have to keep the weight capacity the same if they replace any sections incase they need to lay rail line in times of nation emergency. Not sure if thats true or not and sadly I doubt we could even make rail in the states anymore on a significant amount to fulfill that need.
looks like a lot of fun! you gotta mount a chain saw in front of it and put a lawn chair on it.
its strange that the rails have not been pulled up for scrap.
Value of abandoned rails is often lower than the cost to remove it.
@@TheCentralTexasRailfan Also, the value of industrial land is higher if it has rail access. Keeping the track there prevents it from becoming something else. Perhaps the railroad hopes a new industry will locate there.
@@lenmarinaccio3262 RRs can keep ownership if they run the tracks just once a year. They usually do it in an adapted truck. I think it's good to have all the track you can in your portfolio. Thus, they keep it and don't use it.
3:12 so that's what the saw is for!
It is so sad to see these abandoned rail lines . . . Where is this? Thank you.
Very cool video... and really I love all your videos! Just one thing.. Be CAREFUL! Just because the tracks are abandoned, does not mean you can't still get in trouble for trespassing.. Someone owns that property, even the railroad may still own it. Unless you know FOR SURE its been turned over to county, city or state for public use.
Don't forget put in a headlight as well so people can see you in the dark bright fluorescent clothes and they can see you my friend and please be careful and safe travels my friend from Gabriella Rivas from Roslyn heights long island near New York City and have fun as well my friend
Dang I would love to build my rail kart, probably with a stronger motor to go a bit faster, not like dangerous speeds that I could derail but an improvement like a roof and some lights in case someone is on a dark area
The cart is cool! How far on a charge?
And that bike is sooo cool!
Not sure about max range, I've only gone a few miles and the battery voltage didn't go down much.
I don't know how I found your channel but I really do like your content. I've been getting into railways and public transit channels too.. and I guess my one question is why don't you make the rail cart a little faster? It seems like that little motor is struggling. Is this just a prototype or is the reason why you don't beef it up a little?
It's kind of a prototype / experiment. I have some other motors to try with it, but I haven't had it out much this summer since the weeds grew really tall on all the abandoned tracks. I might play with it more next year or re-design it again.
I think 36VDC motors are limited to around 3000 rpms. That size motor is produced in such mass amounts it has an affordable price for hobbyists. Gear it for speed, you lose torque. Hey? How about a way to shift into overdrive while you're at cruise speed?
Nice journey but how come the railway tracks aren’t ripped up?
To complete the thing that you are on add some caragese to make it like a real train lol you can store a lot more stuff
If you find Marion, Ohio on Google Earth on its west side you'll see a large switchyard. Out of its far west side you'll see the remnants of a solo line that once ran all the way to Chicago. It's an old Erie Lackawanna line. It was already long abandoned when I started visiting Lima in 1987. How long? Coming out of Lima on Route 117 you could see an ancient semaphore type signal, built by Union Switch and Signal. Now, that ride, from Lima to Marion, would have been epic. I used to be able to find the right of way on the sat maps but everything is grown over now. They tore up the tracks in the mid 90s.
Lima? Isn't that where the US Army Tanks are made?
What railroad serviced the old factory?
When you hit a rock (as in railroad ballast) do you know how any teeth of your chain saw you will, on average, dull before you can release the trigger? All of them.
Chainsaws work great for cutting out tunnels in sandstone... for about 10 minutes, and then the chain is just a smooth polished surface 😆
Id make one of those just to get around
Very ingenious and funny ! Greetings people.
Hey awesome stuff where is the list of parts? I think I missed it? Curious what motor that is
I'm not sure if I had a complete parts list, although I did a build video with some links. The motor is a 36v, 800W geared go-kart motor. No brand or model since all those imported products change their name every few months :-P
Sadly I can’t watch it right now😔 because I’ve gotta go to bed but I can
Watch it tomorrow!
Shun the person who puts personal responsibility before watching youtube videos... Shun the non watcher, Shuunnn, Shun, SSShunn, Shun.
@@evilcanofdrpepper shun the person who takes the time to shun another fan
Awesome video! What rail was this? What city/state?
We own a speeder. We bought it a few years ago and have yet to take it for a ride.
It's a lot of fun! I'm still working on mine and might re-do the wheels yet again :-)
At first I thought the electric cart was some sort of green statement until he started whacking innocent trees in his way.
Just wondering what railroad owns this yard, and how long has it been abandoned? Thanks
Awesome! I've never seen Carl with that much beard before!