Passenger Trains > "Adirondack RR & Railcars"

Set deep in the Adirondacks, this video, made today, features Adirondack Railroad's Thendara-Beaver River train plus a North American Railcar Operators Ass'n (NARCOA) group both passing through a rock cut approximately 1 mile south of Big Moose NY. The NARCOA excursion began this morning in Remsen and was heading to the end of Adirondack trackage in Tupper Lake, just shy of 90 miles.

A lengthier version of this video can be found on my YouTube channel, "Railroading Rambler".

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Great stuff - thanks for sharing!

Looks like a lot of fun riding those speeders - however, the buttocks must take a beating on many of them!

rbenko Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great stuff - thanks for sharing!
>
> Looks like a lot of fun riding those speeders -
> however, the buttocks must take a beating on many
> of them!

They're really called motorcars.  Most have spring suspensions and uphostered seats so the ride quality isn't bad (the gang cars and some of the section cars are an exception).  That looks like pretty good railroad they're running on.

Out here in the Pacific Coast logging country, we (Timber Heritage Association, Eureka, CA) are inheritors of two "speeders". Not the Fairbanks variety but home grown Humboldt County products. Built locally in the 1930's from parts available on-hand. We have the Arcata and Mad River RR #60 (there's a pic of it here on TO from a couple of months ago) built in it's shops in Korblex, and another, of the same size and vintage, from the Pacific Lumber Co. These are much larger: transporting 18 people each. #60 was first powered by a 6 cylinder Hudson engine and is now on it's (we think) 4th Ford industrial engine. We decided not to rehabilitate the gas engine in the Pacific Lumber car and we use it as a trailer towed by #60.

Both rail vehicles are moved around by road on trailers to various local stretches of the still existing NWP right of way. Amazingly popular with the locals. We sell out almost every ride all day on every occasion. We offer rides on the half hour at about $8/adult. They have turned into real moneymakers for us and enhance our mission to support, preserve and expand our preservation efforts. Someday we hope to have a steam powered full sized excursion train around Humboldt Bay. That's after we somehow fix the track which, at this point, will not support the weight of full sized conventional trains. 

Anyway, here the term "speeder" was coined not because they are fast (except none of the existing portions of NWP track will support anything more than 10 mph operation), but because they can be more speedily pressed into service than a steam locomotive. 

And, virtually no suspension on these guys.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/22 11:16 by OnTime.

Great stuff. I was in Utica last week and what a grand station that is. Marvelous.

I rode engine 101 from Poughkeepsie to Utica on train 63. I had just enough time to whip over to Ricks Famous Burgers ( what a treat of a place that is)eat my food and get back to the station for train 48/448.

The reason being I needed a ride off the lovely looking AMTK 108. I rode her and classmate 94 to Springfield. I forgot how scenic the Albany - Springfield section is.

Next year a group of my British mates are coming over and we are all going to ride that Adirondack preserved line.

Upstate New York. Quite delightful!

Englishman in America

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