I am curious as to how many museums offer motor car (putt-putt) rides to visitors, either with or without trailing cars, and if these rides are subject to any FRA regs?

Thanks.

Les

The Southern Forest Heritage Museum in Long Leaf, LA offers them; both motorcar only and trailer. A member of the museum posts here, and can provide more details.

The thought scares me.

A good friend would agree with me. He tells of getting a ride with a roadmaster of a road down in Georgia back in the 1960s when he was young and in the army. While going through a grade crossing they hit debris in the flange-way. The car and both of them ended up in the ditch on the far side of the road. That made him think that it is just a poor idea.

I suppose, if you inspect the track and don't have any road crossings, it might be doable.

Along with the hay maze, face painting, petting zoo, motor car rides were/are done only as part of the festivities of DOWT over Memorial Day Weekend at Heber. Guests are invited to ride the railroad's A-4 about 100-200 yards along the siding paralleling the track where Thomas is boarded. It is a straight down and back run with only one at grade crossing of a driveway (non-functioning during DOWT) involved.

sc 'doc' lewis

Yet the MCCA and NARCOA have been sponsoring motor car meets for years with good safety records. Seems to me that an isolated incident may have caused unfounded concerns.

The East Broad Top offers rides south of the Orbisonia station for about a mile on the recently reopened (motor cars only) section. The rides take you south past the coal dock and the reservoir to route 475 and back.

The Doe River Gorge uses an e-Speeder (battery operated like a golf cart) & trailer or Fairmont A-4 & trailer to carry campers to various activities in the gorge (on the old ET&WNC) as part of their camping program. These activities include inner-tubing, hiking, zip lines, and rockclimbing.

Both of these are 3' gauge, and my ex-EBT ST2 Fairmont was used in refurbishing both lines. (It has now been returned to the EBT by a group of volunteers who are rebuilding it there.)

Ione, CA stands out as an interesting home to motor car rail rides. A group had leased the Amador Central from Sierra Pacific Industries (the region's biggest logger who has been systematically abandoning the mill site and the east end of the line). They were not able to renew the lease for 2010, so I suppose the future of the Amador Central may be up in the air.
http://www.ionerailfair.org/news.html

Les, We give rides in Coldwater on Labor Day weekend down the tracks a couple of miles. As long as the Motor Car complies with all of the track equipment standards, lights, horn, seats for riders then there shouldn't be a problem. We have a car that we built and we followed the rules stated in the CFR about hauling passengers on it. I don't recall the chapter but am pretty sure it is in the track equipment safety standards.
Travis

As Jim Hefner posted above, the Southern Forest Heritage Museum does offer motor car rides, using several pieces of equipment. We have an A-4 car and and A-8 car, both of which haul trailers when needed. We also have the Fernwood, Columbia and Gulf motor M-4 in operational condition and available as well. In the next several weeks, we plan on getting our Fairmont S-2 operational as well.

We have over 2 miles of operational railroad, and are able to offer rides 7 days a week if requested.

At the SFTM we offer handcar rides. At trolley fest we sometimes have speeder rides.

At the NARCOA events I've been to where 'riders' were allowed, both the host railroad and the car owner had liability releases to sign before you hopped in. And they were written in english.

I don't think that's overkill, actually. You tend to get kids and individuals that don't necessarily understand the risks and it's too easy to jump/fall out, even at low speeds. I love it myself, but if I had a railroad or a car, you'd sign a release.

The Orrville (Ohio) Railroad Heritage Society usually has a "train" of speeders giving rides for their "Depot Day" event every August. They use the connection track from the Wheeling to their storage yard (old transfer track to the PRR yard) to give rides on, supposedly close to a mile round-trip. Passengers don't have to sign a release, hopefully their insurance coverage is first rate. I forget how much they charge, but it's not more than $5 for a ride. They usually have a nice variety of speeder types - from totally open to the more modern Canadian ones with a fully-enclosed fiberglass body, with most being Fairmont two-seaters.

Also, over 10 years ago the Ma and Pa H. S. at Muddy Creek Forks, PA used to give speeder rides over most of the seven miles of track they controlled around there. I have no idea if they still do this. I went on a trip there sponsored by Potomac Chapter around '96 or '97, and had a really great time. The chapter gave a significant donation to the M&PRyHS for hosting us, in addition to the individual fares for the outing.

I belong to a group of speeder owners in NJ. We have given rides at Liberty State Park (former CNJ Terminal) to the general public on several occasions. Never an issue and everyone is covered by the Park's insurance.

More recently on another section of track an "official" with the State came to an event and noted the speeder rides were an amusement type ride and must comply with those State regs.....since then we have not been in a position to offer rides open to the general public.

The local NARCOA trips still go on without that hassle since all participants must sign release forms.

The Silver Lake RR on the ex B&M Conway Branch is a motor-car & trailer operation only. Lots of fun and a great ride with nice folks.

Rob

The New York Museum of Transportation and the Rochester and Genesee Valley RR Museum have a "speeder train" that links the two sites. The NYMofT also has an electric railway that runs a former Philadelphia Red Arrow "Strafford" car. Not sure if they're planning to eventually have trolley wire all the way to the other museum.