In Florida. Looks like a diesel locomotive, converted to run on rubber tires?

http://cgi.ebay.com/6775ND-RAILROAD-PHO ... otohosting

I'm more inclined to think this is the body of a "critter" (Plymouth, most likely) dropped atop a truck chassis to move it about a shop area--possibly by someone oblivious to how much weight is typically involved....... though a great deal of the weight of a Plymouth 25-tonner was in the upright plate frames......

If you look closely, there is a slightly different axle set in front that is turned. ooks like they added tires for rail wheels and then added a steering axle in front.

It's not a Plymouth. Chances are excellent that this contraption is another of a group of such devices built for USATC by Evans Products Co. They featured rubber tires for traction but had steel flanges behind each wheel. Several different variations have turned up. The photo does not show the wheels very well, but a better view would confirm the tire and flange configuration. They were not designed to operate on pavement, only on rails. There were also passenger carrying versions of the same concept. Just another dead end street off the highway of innovation.

I think that "AutoRailer" was the Evans trademark for their highway-rail concept. A. & Fairfax in the Virginia suburbs of Washington in the 1940s replaced trolleys with a "city" passenger version that later became the line car for the East Chicago bypass on the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend in 1955.

Didn't B&O use a similar critter to move freight cars around Fells Point in Baltimore?

Wesley

Not exactly. Both the B&O and the PRR used rubber-tired tractors to switch freight cars in Fells Point. They were equipped with railroad couplers and train air brakes, but they did not have flanged wheels and could operate on pavement only. The original PRR ones were ancient things with hard rubber tires. They were later replaced with more modern tractors. The B&O used a tiny four-wheel electric locomotive (now on display at the B&O Museum) until the near-by streetcar line (the source of the overhead power) were abandoned, when they switched to a rubber-tired tractor as well (Also at the B&O Musuem but not on display)

I don't have any photos of the B&O tractor, but here are shots of both the old and new PRR ones.

Now that is a weird critter!

You don't know how weird they were. They actually had a big wheel -- like a ship's wheel -- to steer!!