Well I've wanted one of these for a long time and I finally have one. This Fairmont M19 was purchased directly from the Canadian Pacific RR by the gentleman that I purchased it from, a couple decades ago. It has a 2 stroke engine and weighs appx 1200lbs. It just needs a little TLC to get it running again and then I can take it on a local rail trail that has the tracks still in place and is maintained by a local speeder club.

I'm confused by your long standing desire to own such a vehicle. Where can you go run it at?

Neato! My grandfather owned a house near a railroad line. While visiting him I’d often see maintenance workers on the tracks on a handcar. And occasionally a motor driven one similar to yours, but much older.

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
Where can you go run it at?

quote:

Originally posted by ryan81986:
...then I can take it on a local rail trail that has the tracks still in place and is maintained by a local speeder club.

That looks like fun.


Rick

I had no clue that "rail trails" even existed. It does look like fun. Enjoy!

This thread is worthless without details!

What kind of power plant does this thing have? Transmission/drive train? How fast? What's the MPG? Is that chain to tow or in case you need to be towed? How many cup holders? Is there a bumper for a Trump 2024 sticker? You get the idea.

Congratulations. I love these. A friend of mine has several and in our area the 'club' rents rail time on the working tracks and they travel in groups as events. Amazingly fun.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
This thread is worthless without details!

What kind of power plant does this thing have? Transmission/drive train? How fast? What's the MPG? Is that chain to tow or in case you need to be towed? How many cup holders? Is there a bumper for a Trump 2024 sticker? You get the idea.

I'm still learning myself, the basics I know is it's got a Fairmont RO-C 2 stroke engine which runs between 6 and 9 HP and a top speed of around 30-40. MPG is probably around 40. The chain was to secure it to the trailer but it does have a tow bar so you can tow it with another speeder if need be.

More to follow.

Does it have a turbo ? I hear that's important .

Interesting. A motorized hobby I’ve never heard of.

Let me be that guy:

I’ll bet it handles like it’s on rails.

Buster Keatons was open:



This was the first thing that came to mind when I saw your picture.

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
I had no clue that "rail trails" even existed.

There is one here, but with the rails removed and gravel put in its place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...essee#Tweetsie_Trail It used to be the ET & WNC (East Tenn. & West N.C., popularly called "Tweetsie") narrow-gauge railroad. Others exist around the country.

Several years ago I met a group of "Railroaders" who had rented a portion of track time in northern Arizona. They were a club who restored and ran speeders on weekends. Looked like fun, but expensive fun.

My dad worked for Western Union some fifty years ago. Western Union owned those types of rail cars for the linemen to ride the rails and check on telegraph lines. “Sportsmen” used to shoot the lines and the glass insulators connecting the lines to the poles.

OMG blast from the past i played on one 50 years ago. Norfolk and western Railroad stored one just blocks from our house.

Cool!

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Member

We have a ton of what we call “rail trails” around here. The rails have been removed, mostly, and they’re paved walking/biking trails.

I like your use better.

-Rob

Google produces a lot of stuff on the engine. One opinion I found was that oil requirements are very important. My experience is on 2 stroke outboards and a lot of old ones have been ruined running modern lubricants way too lean. Read this post and comments if you haven't already:
https://www.smokstak.com/forum...peeder-engine.77850/
I think it's a pretty neat toy!

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:
Buster Keatons was open:

I've never seen this before but it's great. That's actually the same exact model as mine, obviously just without the cab.

Cool.