Awesome project mate, very American style hand car, the ones we have here in New Zealand a different in that you sit down and the hand lever works side to side instead of up and down, allows for greater leverage and user comfort. have done many rail trips on them, often days before the lines were ripped up. sadly there is no publicly accessible abandoned railway tracks here, they scrap them, and if you were caught doing this on any of the other tracks its a $20k fine. you will find steel axles much better and i would also add a chain tentioner or idler wheel, as chain tention will be why it goes better in one direction than the other, as sprockets dont like being fed slack chain. Enjoy all your projects mate and wish i could join in with most of them.
This is great. I was on a handcar once at the Elgin Trolly Museum. A few suggestions from what it was like: the A-frame could be taller so you're not breaking your back, and if you pumped at the same speed on an old one you'd go about 3 times faster (larger gear on your bike crank). Love the brakes; that's exactly what they were!
Also the angle of the connecting rod between the pump and bike crank is not good, it makes the up/down speeds of the pump assymetric with a long dwell time in one position.
Actor Dick York suffered a freak tragic railcar injury during a shoot that tore up his back. Literally derailed his acting career with chronic back pain and painkiller addiction
Yes!! Your railbike videos are what introduced me to your content. BTW if you ever need any specialty tools or even some machining done, feel free to reach out to me. We actually live in the same neighborhood!
Cool wheels and prototype! I've never heard a pillow block be called a penguin bearing before. :p Maybe you can get away with an extra one supporting the axle next to the gear? Or whatever random bearing that will fit in there to pull against should help some. Great work!
An extra bearing in the middle of the axle is exactly what's needed with such a thin axle. Alternatively make a larger diameter axle (maybe from tube) and just have reduced diameter at the ends for the wheels, though that would limit the minimum sprocket size.
These pump cars are fun, I recall as a kid we went to some railroad museum that let you ride one for 100 feet or so. Would be cool to go for miles, maybe with a small assist motor once you get it up to speed.
I really enjoyed seeing you getting back out on the rails again. I see you have taken a more ‘serious’ approach to safety and allowed Donny to conduct a thorough assessment before giving you the okay to continue as well…thank you for the latest adventure Gabe, looking forward to seeing what you have planned over the remainder of the summer time and further on. Best wishes
Love the looks of those hand cars. Looks like a fun way to excercise. It would be funny (and awesome) to make an elliptical machine out of that for your living room. 👍
I'd love to see this as a little electric speeder you can use to explore some super cool abandoned railways... perhaps it could also be made to have changeable gauge too so you could run it on abandoned standard and narrow gauge rails. Love this project!
Every time I watch one of your railway escapades I think of ways to tweak the project. Put in chain derailleur system like a ten-speed bike? Use a small engine from a lawn mower and gear it down for torque? LED ground effect lighting? Cool stuff.
You have a interesting wide range of hobbies. Nice handcar, perhaps the deck should be a little longer in case you get carried away pumping the handcar too fast
Suddenly, I have an urge to watch a Ma and Pa Kettle movie!🤔 As a railfan, I can appreciate your Gandy Dancing car. Over the years, I have pondered upon my own thoughts of design. Not too dissimilar, I might replace the motive of power with a small engine, swap your center A-frame with a tall lounge table with beverage cutouts, and install a couple of secure bar stools and perhaps a potted palm over in the corner. Naturally, mine would also be coupled to another small flat car trailing behind, fully equipped with a wet bar and a very cute cocktail server that also provides cigar services. Please feel free to use any of these ideas if you happen to have any of them lying around your garage. I look ➡️ to your continuing saga on this project. Cheers!🍸🍸🇺🇸
I'm glad you pre-emptively fitted a belt drive pulley wheel. You're going to get bored pretty quickly of hand-cranking, head down,, so you don't miss the stroke and crunch your arms / levers. Letting a little put-put two stroke take care of business while you sit back and enjoy the view seems far more the way, if you're going to go places on this rig, with those pro-level wheels. OR, turn it into a recumbent cycle powered dingus.
Great video! Your railroad videos are personal favorites of mine (I love abandoned railroad tracks). I'm not good with my hands at all, so seeing you work hard at all these rail carts impresses me so much.
Man jerry ringed or not this is more then most people accomplished in a year it does look awesome btw keep up what your doing your now the only reason I have RU-vid
I love your Rail Kart Videos! I have a NEW Set of those Wheels and matching Stainless Steel Axles from Rail Riders that are just waiting for my build. Like you, too many projects and.... I'm worried about finding a "Closed" Rail that has NOT been torn up to make a Rails to Trails! How do you suggest a Minnesotan find Rail to ride? Legal Disclaimer not needed!!! ;-)
There are a lot of out of service lines here and there, but they tend to be overgrown and difficult. However there are even more that are active but barely ever used. Generally they are the commercial spurs that get train delivery traffic from Minnesota Commercial maybe a couple times a month if that. Not saying you *should* ride those, but you *could*.
You are on to something there my friend, nice job! A few more tweeks and you'll be zooming down the rails in no time. Looking forward to seeing the final product, peace.
I gotta tell you, you impress the hell out of me seem like a really good guy and you love tinkering like I do. I like figuring things out but I don't have your skills. Loved the video.
Awesome project, found the channel from radio and satellite videos, stayed for all of the other awesomeness. Even went to my local version of Axeman, American Science and Surplus this weekend, not as good as axeman but very similar
Needs steel axles and a support bearing in the middle of the axle next to the sprocket to resist bending from the chain tension when pumping. With the large wheels there is a lot of room under the deck, you could make a hybrid power rail car with a motor and batteries with pump backup. Some kind of clutch to avoid back driving the motor when pumping would be useful.
i have inspected a real, old handcar. they are normally using a chain and a special mechanical construction beneat the car to do the racheting actions.
I was looking at a disk brake rotor and wonder if they might work as well. They also can be found at junkyards, and even add small tires for off-rail use.
Hey Guy. Hope you're doing well. Enjoyed the video - the editing w/music during fabrication played well. I'll trade you something for that Carhartt jacket. That thing is great. Be safe.
Your railroad stuff is what I'm here for. Some of the other stuff is good. Don't any viewers of this, live near you want to come and help? Like the guy who welded that sprocket, could you have put him in the video for 10-15 seconds? Get him some youtube exposure? If I lived near you I'd want to come help. I probably have parts I saved you could use.
I've been meaning to get back to this pump car, it's actually on my calendar to work on it this week. Re showing friends in videos, I usually ask, but not everyone wants to be on camera!
You might have realized this by the end of your video but the most likely reason why it moves better when your weight is off the drive wheel side is that your weight is causing deflection in the aluminum axle causing misalignment between the bearings and a lot more friction in the whole system. Essentially every time the axle rotates you're bending it in a full 360 motion which is also going to work harden it and cause eventual failure. It also has to be putting stress on your wheel connections. Even poor steel has more "springiness" and elasticity than aluminum. See if you can find some old used well drilling rod for axles.
If you make the bike part pivot on the axle, you can raise and lower the peddle end above/below deck and then you will have 2 modes of operation. Hand pump and peddle power. Attaching the bike frame to the axle will prevent the chain from putting bending force on the axle. This might also give you the option of engaging the peddle end to a gas engine.. Also, if you want to improve efficiency of the hand pump. Use a second chain going up to the handle and try to find a racheting gear for the handle end. I do not know if they make a double ratchet gear, but what I am thinking is one that catches on both strokes.
I haven't gotten into home brewing, although a couple of my friends have done it. They've brought a few brews out to Sandland to cave-age, but it seems like they sometimes just cave-explode from ongoing fermenting 😅
i randomly decided to read the Dark Tower Stephen King books for the first time and right off the bat The Gunslinger has a railcar in it, even though it takes someone from a different universe to tell the guy what it is...
I wouldn't have been able to pass up the opportunity to put a small Harbor Freight engine on it. I'm not sure if the weather satellites are passing by you right now, but if you happened to capture the tornadoes in Chicago it would make for another sick video!
