Western Railroad Discussion > California NBC piece on our handcars

Today NBC network owned stations aired a piece on our Monterey Handcars on their daytime magazine show titled California Live:

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/california-live/whats-a-handcar-ross-drives-a-piece-of-history/2692917/

We have two more weekends remaining and this was nice coverage.  For me it was really cool because much of the B-roll footage came from my cameras and drones.  Yes, your eyes do not deceive you, there are scenes from Ely, NV


 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

Very cool coverage!!

Larry

Wow, that's one smart son you have!!!   Let's see from eastern TN it should only take 5 days driving, hmmm.
john

webmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Today NBC network owned stations aired a piece on
> our Monterey Handcars on their daytime magazine
> show titled California Live:
>
> https://www.nbclosangeles.com/california-live/what
> s-a-handcar-ross-drives-a-piece-of-history/2692917
> /
>
> We have two more weekends remaining and this was
> nice coverage.  For me it was really cool because
> much of the B-roll footage came from my cameras
> and drones.  Yes, your eyes do not deceive you,
> there are scenes from Ely, NV
>
>
>  
Exactly when are you open?

Mark
Austin TX

SeaboardMan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wow, that's one smart son you have!!!   Let's see
> from eastern TN it should only take 5 days
> driving, hmmm.
> john

Yeah, you got time!

What  a great promo piece!  Imagine the cost if you had to pay someone to produce that.  Mason did a good job of promoting the ride, he's learning all phases of the business.

At the 2:05 point, there are at least 4 handcars moving fairly close together.  Is that typical to travel that close?

mapboy

Todd, you must be very proud of Mason and what he has done with your handcars. It is wonderful to see young people like Mason actually get to build and operate things that they invent.

Great coverage.

mapboy Wrote:

> At the 2:05 point, there are at least 4 handcars
> moving fairly close together.  Is that typical to
> travel that close?


We have tried all types of operational concepts and we found when running downhill it is safest to run the handcars close together. Each car has spring bumpers and they can handle slow speed collisions well.  Problems come when a car stops and the following car running fast is not paying attention and rear ends the front car.   A few weeks ago we settled on stopping the handcars at the top of Ord Grade and then proceeding downhill with the lead at 8 mph.  I don't know how we could safely run this without the bumper systems on the cars.  I also don't know how the rail bike operators do it without bumpers.

We have moved over 5000 people through this and I feel like I have seen everything.  I have had domestic arguments, including one guy who got off the car and walked out leaving his wife behind.  I have also had some amazing people ride including a pair of 80 year olds that pulled their weight up the hill.  We had some interesting people ride too. Last week the CEO of Foster Farms rode with his family.  My biggest challenge is keeping people off the car that should not be on them in the first place. I have parents that try to hide their developmentally disabled children in the auto until departure so we don't see them.  Then there are the parents that try and preseat their family in the rear and when asked why, they say "my child is autistic and I don't know what they will do.".  I have heard this twice and I am speechless. Are you kidding me??  These people are willing to put their kids at risk for a handcar ride.

For the most part Mason is running the enterprise. He handles staff scheduling, operations, safety briefings, and gives the final inspection of handcars before departure.  He also handles advertising, media inquiries, lobbying, and is the face of the business.  My wife Donnalee handles customer checkin and gift shop sales. My job is to operate the motorcar that leads and follows the tours. I have logged over 1000 miles in the MT19. In a few weeks we'll get the cars back to the shop and figure out where to go next.  Perhaps we'll come back to Monterey or somewhere else.



 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

Very cool, congratulations on a sucessful venture.
JB

Thanks for sharing your experiences in this amazing start-up venture ... 
Seems Mason has very good operational and business orientations ... 
kudos to him for conceiving and making the venture work.  Hope next
year is even more successful!

Odyssey
Evergreen, CO

We were able to take this adventure earlier this season. Got a chance to meet Mason and ask a lot of questions. He is a great guy and very smart. The cars are really marvels and work smoothly and efficeiently. The ride was interesting and scenic (but too short! Ha ha ha).. also had the pleasure of meeting Todd. It would be too bad if the operation moved as it is pretty convenient for me. If you can, book a trip in these last 2 weeks.

Wow, over 4 minutes of prime coverage. That's priceless. Congrats on your first season. Very cool.

Super cool to get that kind of coverage. Wish we could have made it out for a ride, looks like a lot of fun.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

Great story and so happy for all of you!    It really is a success and I look forward to the next chapter.

Jason Eminian
Smith Brothers Hobby Center
Northridge, CA

webmaster wrote:

> My biggest challenge is keeping people off the car that should not be on them in the first place.

I don't understand what the above sentence means - it's sort of convoluted.  Handcars are not on people.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/21 01:37 by johnsweetser.

EDIT: My biggest challenge is keeping people off the car that should not be on [the car] in the first place.

Hope that helps, have a nice day. Congrats to Mason and Todd on a good year and the media coverage.