WARNING! Do not ride on active lines or without the permission of the railroad. Trespassing is illegal and can result in arrest, fines and/or imprisonment. Railbiking can be dangerous and result in injury or death.
billville111 ya i no that but. I'm saying all of America was beautiful like this before all the cities where built. It gives you a glimpse of what America was in the past. Its like going back in the day
I spoke to a fellow biker about doing this a few years back. For legality issues I never pursued it as we have no unused tracks near us... awesome scenic video.
Definitely...Aliens. How could humans stack wood in such a formation? And clearly if you look at it from space, it looks like an alien tittie. Alien titties reflect mass scanning allowing it to be found.
I had that same catalog, and in my early 20's I used to ride my gas powered bike (Homelite XL 925 chainsaw engine) everywhere, and built my own "rail rig" with some old crutches and inline skate wheels (and Harbor Freight Alumiweld rods 😂). I used the tracks that go from Downtown Grand Rapids, MI to Wyoming, MI to get to work successfully for about 2 years, until a Wyoming cop sternly lectured me at a street crossing...then I retired it. Good Times! I think a business for taking trips on abandoned tracks with motorized bicycles is a fantastic idea, I'd probably use my design as it folded up on the rack and you could ride it as a regular mountain bike still, and take on any terrain due to the powerful engine.
as a kid i lived next door to the rail and a train trestle. yeah “TRAAAAAAAAIIIIIIINNNNNN! drank water from Coyote Creek just below it. its still there but smack in the middle of silicon valley. i can still remember the smell of them old rail road ties creosote and diesel. the house would shake like crazy. The horn would blow you right out of bed. Also running from the hobos who we thought were going to kill us and eat us. great times.
@CharacterMatterz The concept of a rail bike has been around for many years. I've seen photos of them being used from the early 1900's. And they are just as cool today as they were back then :)
I crossed some rail tracks...just YESTERDAY...and thought to myself: "Gee, I wonder if I could rig my bike to travel down these lonesome tracks". Talk about premonitions! I HAVE to start work on it TODAY! Great job guys!
It's been a "thing" of a sorts for a long time. Check out this old drawing from pre-revolutionary Russia: i.pinimg.com/736x/e5/4b/37/e54b37b4123c2f6d525b0f272d26a238.jpg He is a Trans Siberian Railroad official inspecting the rails.
2:39 That moment on the bridge when you hear a steam locomotive roaring up behind you and there's no where to go, but then you realize it's just a ghost train.
As a former RR freight conductor I realize that those trestles are SCARY high and also that those little platforms that stick out are probably for conductors to stand on and do car counts and pull-bys (observing the train wheels etc). NOPE!!! Love the video!
I don't know why but those wooden bridges make me feel happy. I imagine the guys building them years ago and how they have stood all this time through many summers and winters.
Have you seen the tv series “hell on wheels”? It’s about the building of the railways to the west after the civil war. It’s a drama of course but they show the building of the rails, trials and tribulations related to such a huge undertaking and there are some bridges they made. Some of the shows main characters were based off real folks who built the railways and approx timeline. It also shows the railways being built from the east to the west coming through the mountains. It’s an interesting show to be sure.
@@CR604 Yeah, true... But I bet they'd rather have something still standing today to show what they did, even under oppressive conditions. It's a testament to how our country linked east to west, and became the "United States" both despite and because of the ugly underbelly of the how and why it happened. Why would we want to not discuss our past? I mean, nobody said you should glorify the railroad tycoons. Ignoring the story of how the railroads were built is a disservice to those who built them - not the other way around.
Hallo, liebe Grüße zurück aus Tschechien. Würde selber gerne so was ausprobieren. Im Bahnhof Zossen, 20 km von Berlin entfernt, kann man auch solche Schienenfahrräder fahren. Es gibt so viele Dinge, die sich anbieten, einfach ausprobiert werden zu sein. :-)
Do it. I built 3 failures before i got one that was somewhat reliable and stable... even the one that worked had its warts. It is a wonderful creative process. Just build, and ride... you'll come back with new ideas, and get back to building anew. I do my most creative thinking just walking along the rails, looking at defects that don't bother trains, but really mess with a railbike. You'll also learn to read rust. One rail line I walked, had three short trains per week. I lived about a quarter mile from the track, and I'd hear it rolling through town just before noon. The train speed limit on these single track spurs is also slow, 15mph. The rail is also not welded, but bolted. This is a sure sign of slow, infrequent traffic. Good luck!
@@veronicadaugherty3760 You obviously know nothing of the rail system in this country. Emphisis... Nothing. I've been riding rails since the mid 80's. Careful selection of where to ride is obviously, the first decision to make. Next, is to observe the construction of the rail. Fish plates at rail joints means traffic is limited to 15 mph. Welded rail... NO. Next is the acquired skill of reading rust. If you love railroads, you walk rails, observe rail wear. Where our author is riding is abandoned, no train traffic. Did you notice rock slides across the rails? Washouts? If you read the lowbar, you would know he had permission to use these rails from the right-of-way owner.... and he probably signed a waiver.
I LOVED seeing this, and had never heard about it before. What a sense of freedom, and connecting to our country's history. The design, labor and funds that went into building those beautiful bridges, and they are, for all intents,and purposes, abandoned. Thank you for posting! hope there'll be many more.
back in the 60"s us local boys would run our 50"s cars and trucks on the rail line and go across trestles [ not that high ] which took nerve but for the most part lower tire pressure to around 20 lbs get on at a road crossing and drive about 20 mph tops but don't touch the steering All cars and trucks pre1965 were the right track width . Thought we were cool and to top it off My Dad showed us how to do it Now at 66 years I want to build a Rail Bike Looks like a load of fun and no real hills to speak of .
Early 70s I had a friend who saw The Flim Flam Man movie and insisted we try that trick with his 60 something Pontiac Lemans. We first tried it on a side track between 2 crossings 1/4 mile apart. It worked so good we put it on the main and went several miles on an active track. This was in the prairie of MN Red River Valley, along and in plain sight of Hwy 75, on a Sunday afternoon an hour after the daily train had gone by. Our so called "measure of safety" was that we could see any train coming from miles away and had many crossings to get off at. I told that story to a co-worker about 1978 and he flat out called me a liar! A couple beers later--- we put the air tank in the trunk and drove my rusty 68 Firebird down to the tracks, lowered the front tire pressure and went 2 miles, turned around and went back, twice crossing the bridge over the Crow River between Rogers & Monticello MN. It was a dead end spur used occasionally to take freight in, or a nuclear waste shipment out, of the Monticello power plant. I have since watched Flim Flam Man and it looks fake! It would never have convinced me this was possible but we rolled along maybe 15-20 mph, smooth as silk and hands off the wheel. I do remember a little panic when we came to a siding switch, I grabbed the wheel to keep it straight, and you could feel car lift and settle just a bit as we crossed the switch diverge points.
John Kuchera! I don't know where you are, but if you're interested in bike-hiking on old railroad tracks, old hydro canals, crossing old hydro and marine canal pipes, walking along the Niagara Escarpment on the Bruce Trail, unless you really like to climb around, with the Niagara Parkway and the shore of Lake Erie as relaxing places to be, you should visit the Niagara Peninsula for a visit. The old steel factories were fun to look around, but they've all been torn down.
John Watt I’m in Washington state, got a buddy that works for BNSF railroad track maintenance, I’ll be asking him if he knows any secret squirrel spots
John Watt oh haha, secret squirrel meaning hidden spots. Guess not many people use that term. What’s the longest distance you’ve gone on abandon tracks?
@@ShreddinSleds! Don't forget, my abandoned tracks have the rails removed with an asphalt path. I like to pull an all-nighter, yes, even if I'm 67, and start riding after the sun goes down, dressed for the night. I'll bike-hike through the next day and start coming back at night. I wish I could use some photos here. If I want it rough I have the Niagara Gorge. I'm pushing and carrying my bike where other people have to be helicopter rescued.
These tracks runs along 95 in Idaho. It's very sad to see them left abandoned. Awesome engineering work to see the wood built bridges. Great American history.
Not sure crossing that first bridge would be relaxing, I’d be shitting myself hoping this abandoned bridge is still structurally sound and I don’t do something stupid
Amazing! I recognized these trestles immediately, though I've only seen them from the ground looking up. I made dozens of trips up and down the Winchester grade hauling loads out of Clearwater Paper in Lewiston. The trestles always got my attention as I tried to imagine what it would be like to go over them. Thanks to you, now I know!
Beautiful scenery. Makes me nostalgic for an America I never got the chance to see. Back when every man could climb a mountain and call it his own, and the landscape ran unbroken by the seeds of greed and corporate interest. The land that created a vision in the minds of its people that promoted freedom, and that consequently landed us in these troubled time when too many subscribed to it. An unsustainable way to live, but a way in which each individual can live his own life to the fullest, and truly experience the beauty around him.
Looks more like an 'accident' waiting to happen to me! ;) Seriously, I love the concept, but for me I'd prefer to stay within about 6 feet of terra-firma.
This just popped up in my suggested videos, subscribed to see what you got. Used to jump the train and ride to the next town and jump off and walk to my grandpa's house to hang out and tell him a friend gave us a ride. Then we'd tell him our ride back home was meeting us at a certain time in town to go back home. Now that I'm older I get that when he heard the train horn and said "y'all are about to miss your ride" and we took off running he knew exactly what we were doing. As far as I know he never told my Dad! Oh how this video brought back memories! Thank you!!!!!!!! My Dad and best friend is 82 now...might just have to confess about this one and see what conversation that one drums up...BTW beautiful video!
Wow. Those views from the bridges were amazing. Surprising how clean most of those tracks were given that they've received no maintenance in years. Great video.
Nice, I was dong this for years 30 years ago and I believe you had this model back then. The guide wheels have a magnet. Glad to see you are still doing it. I really loved my time rail biking east of San Diego in the Carrizo Gorge.
Whoa,,, - - - in GOD's grace evermore - - - - indeed,,, Thanks so much for sharing with words of warning as well,,, Safe, happy & blessed travel on your all journey,,,
We used to cross an active train truss bridge all the time when I was a kid. That's how I would get to my grandma's house and back on foot.good times, running like hell to get to the other side when we heard the train whistle. And it was a long way to the other side, and a long fall to the river below.
Fabulous scenery. Beautifully constructed railroads...a real testament to the men and women who toiled to bring them into existence. Just imagine, the local history surrounding those rail lines?! What stories those trees could tell... Very nice and very nicely done! Thanks for sharing.
Had no idea, had never heard of this activity. Kudos for a great video, but I have to admit, my fear of heights had me wanting to grab the arms of my Lazy-Boy recliner while watching you cross those high trestles. Man, I hope those rigs are nicely counter-weighted. What an incredible experience it must be out in the wild riding those old rails Thanks for sharing.
Loved this video! Have always been fascinated with trains; they are regularly featured in my dreams. Must be high adventure to bike across abandoned railways. Ms’ Buller’s rendition of that ‘Ole country hymn takes me back to the beginning where my mother and a sister friend at that little baptist church sang this as a duet. Very rich memory for me and a treasure I often refer to. Thank you! PWG
That really large and long curved wooden bridge was spectacular! Where is this located? I've never heard of rail biking before. at first I thought you were adrenaline seeking Daredevils on live tracks.
In the description Bountiful Grain and Craig Mountain Railroad. Google says northern central Idaho. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BG%26CM_Railroad I love in northern Utah so maybe drive and see it someday. 10ish hours drive.
I was hoping for some mad mtb skills, when I saw the extreme part, however I thought that this was very cool, I would have liked to have had a go... thanks for the video, I enjoyed it immensely.
I never cn nothing like that in my life. What a beautiful clear sunny day with fresh air. The views were epic I liked the music 2. The labor that went in2 building them hi in the sky rafters is mind blowing. Iam so impressed I'll watch it again. U people have ( guts) that's 1 hell of a hobby. GOD bless u & yr loved 1s with great health wealth happiness & wisdom. Then share it as freely as u shared yr video. I loved it. ☆
This is awesome! Grew up in NTx walking tracks to our fishing ponds back in the late 80s.We finally came up with something like your riding.Good times we should do again.
The views are breathtaking! My sister and I used to sing that song as a duet years ago, one of my favorites. You've got some amazing stamina, carrying your bike over mangled or covered track.
Nice stuff Peter. Your production work, again, just gorgeous. Presently railbike-less. As a first time homeowner, I've decades of domestic catch-up to do... but I've a workshop and plenty of original railbike ideas to follow through on... So many projects... yikes! I hope this note get in front of your eyes. Peace
Great video! It looks so peaceful. And I do especially appreciate that permissions were aquired for both the music used and for the activity itself. Too many idiots do dangerous things without permission or steal music for their videos.
man that's awesome it's beautiful out there in the construction of those wooden beams or them tracks it's amazing how much that still there I love the video 👍🇱🇷💓
RIP Dwayne Foster, January 5, 1961 - June 17, 2018. In God's grace, for evermore. Road the rails on Franklin's Landing, found the railroad was not abandoned.
@@ohmanyourecool1 They said right here that these are ABANDONED rail lines - historic but no longer viable routes for commerce, so abandoned and unmaintained. Did you watch the whole video or just comment, I mean - there are HUGE washouts, with bridges collapsed, how do you suppose a train would traverse those twisted tangles of rail and lumber to meet you on a bridge? Anyone who would do this on an active line would be an IDIOT begging for some Darwin effect.
0011clem raptor my thoughts exactly. I think i would have been putting a few extra boulders onto the platform of that outrigger wheel to stop the entire thing tipping over up on those trestles.
Gotta love North Central Idaho! That line from the Clearwater Ri. to Graingeville is gorgeous. And those timber tressell bridges are some of the most photographed bridges in N. America