The SPCRR at Ardenwood Farm in Fremont CA have two pump cars, a narrow gauge replica of a CA built car and a Standard gauge Buda with a Yosemite Valley heritage, currently on loan to the San Jose Trolley group as well as a couple of member owned velocipedes, one standard gauge, one convertible...

The Nevada State Railroad museum system owns two pump cars, both modern cars, for pump car race events... one is currently resident at Carson City where it is used for outreach and for on site hand car rides... the other is at Boulder City, on display, but may be used of occasional rides in the future. (there may be non operation velocipedes at Carson)

These are popular displays with guests... but public rides are problematic... (at both Ardenwood and Nevada State Railroad Museums) with safety issues being a concern... both have vetted rules in place, which are adjusted as needed... Safe rides are labor and supervision intensive.

Randy

For working handcars (vs. velocipedes etc), I've seen one at Strasburg; and one at the North Carolina Transportation Museum. Both operate on occasion, generally with a employee/volunteer to supervise, and visitors seem to enjoy the experience.

Just an FYI. Mason Clark the son of the founder of the website Trainorders manufactures new handcars. He has a nice website;

http://www.railroadhandcar.com/

Letting my mind wander...

If you had never seen a handcar and were going to design and build one today, wouldn't you make it pedal-powered? I don't mean something bicycle-derived. I mean an actual platform car. Can't people exert more power via their legs? Two people can pump a handcar but you could make it have two seats and two sets of pedals. Or even more. And maybe a multi-ratio transmission. Are there competitions?

Considering that the people who usually operated hand cars, back in the day, were driving spikes by hand when they weren't pumping the car, I'd say upper body strength wasn't the issue.

Anyway, the layout of the traditional pump car used pretty much all the muscles; arms, back, and legs. A velocipede not so much the legs, in deference to keeping the center of gravity low.

Sounds like we have plenty of Pump Cars and Velocipedes in preservation, does anyone have a Crank Car?


BTW: for accuracy, the Pump Car at Ct Eastern RR Museum is a replica of a Sheffield, utilizing original wheels, bearings and axles, the rest was fabricated by 2 members in 1994. We also have a 3 Wheel Fairbanks-Sheffield Velocipede on display, which is on loan from a member.

Rich C.

The Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes group in Phillips, Maine has an original two-foot gauge SR&RL crank car in their collection. That's the only crank car I'm aware of in preservation.

Also in Phillips, the Phillips Historical Society has a two-foot gauge SR&RL velocipede, and also a track bicycle built from a conventional road bike with the addition of a double-flanged wheel on a wooden outrigger, the latter said to have been used by telegraph linemen on the SR&RL.

-Philip Marshall

there are a lot of videos of working handcars on YouTube.

The Shelburne (VT) Museum (sometimes confused with the Shelburne Falls (MA) Trolley Museum) has a Sheffield handcar, locked in an open shed, very dusty. It would take a strong crew to get it up their very steep non-operating trackage.
The Shelburne Museum also has a four-wheeled very light (for its time) steel tube frame with a seat and pedals and crank and gear and chain centered over the track. Didn't get a picture. The Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum has a picture of such a beast in use ca 1900, it was used daily by the operator at Shelburne (MA) Jct to get to work, since there were no roads to said junction (between the Fitchburg/Boston and Maine and the NY NH & H (do I really need to spell out New York, New Haven and Hartford? That's New York NY, and New Haven,CT and Hartford,CT)
Conway (NH) Scenic used to (1976-79) have a handcar and two velocipedes. Probably still do.
A fellow in MA has four velocipedes in various states or repair.

Seashore trolley museume, The Valley Railroad, the Connecticut Trolley Museum (Warehouse Point), And The Narrow Gauge Railway in Portland Maine all have them.

Years ago when visiting the California Railroad Museum, I seem to remember a couple of handcars just off on the left as you entered the 'great hall' from the movie theater. The Utah Railroad Museum in Ogden had/has a velocipede exhibited. Nevada Northern had a velocipede displayed (IIRC assembled from NOS parts found in storage in the warehouse) and other parts around the shop...I think an earlier thread had some mention of these parts.

When the subject of Human-powered Rail vehicles comes up, IMHO nobody beats the efforts of the Brits...check out the monthly newsletters and wealth of information being assembled and posted on the following site http://www.velocipedes.co.uk/. This site has a very International flavor...looking for and at all forms of Human-Powered Rail Vehicles.

'doc' lewis

Southern Forest Heritage Museum has operating replicas of both a velocipede and a handcar.

When the handcar was built, the effort required to get the car up some of the 4% grades at the museum basically took the efforts of more people than could fit on the car, and resulted in breaking of three teeth in the main gear, which rendered the car inoperable.

We have recently replaced the gears with much improved gears, and we are in the process of creating rules etc, for the use of the car on the flatter portions of our railroad. The fact that the car is labor intensive, and requires extensive supervision, will probably mean that the car remains mostly an exhibit.

Georgia Railroad Museum in Savannah, has an operating replica as well. They constructed a special track to operate it on, and installed railings at both ends, which make it not quite "correct" but significantly safer for operation. Still, a staff member must accompany each user to control the speed and the braking.

A replica handcar at the Monticello Railway Museum in Illinois, in service at the Museum's "Railroad Days" event this weekend.

But the children's favorites are the Hodges Handcars, shown in the second photo.