A speeder (also known as a section car, railway motor car, putt-putt, track-maintenance car, crew car, jigger, trike, quad, trolley, inspection car, or a draisine) is a small

railcar A railcar (not to be confused with a railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach (carriage, car), with a dri ...

formerly used around the world by track inspectors and work crews to move quickly to and from work sites. Although slow compared to a train or car, it is called ''speeder'' because it is faster than a human-powered vehicle such as a

handcar A handcar (also known as a pump trolley, pump car, rail push trolley, push-trolley, jigger, Kalamazoo, velocipede, or draisine) is a railroad car powered by its passengers, or by people pushing the car from behind. It is mostly used as a railway ...

. Motorised inspection cars date back to at least 1896, when it was reported that the U.S. Daimler Motor Company created a gasoline-powered rail inspection car capable of 15 mph (24 km/h). In the 1990s, many speeders were replaced by

pickup truck A pickup truck or pickup is a light-duty truck that has an enclosed cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (this cargo bed back end sometimes consists of a tailgate and removable covering) ...

s or

sport utility vehicle A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon defini ...

s with additional

flange A flange is a protruded ridge, lip or rim (wheel), rim, either external or internal, that serves to increase shear strength, strength (as the flange of an iron beam (structure), beam such as an I-beam or a T-beam); for easy attachment/transfer of ...

wheel A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be ...

s that could be lowered for travelling on rails, called " road–rail vehicles" or hi-rails for "highway-railroad". Speeders are collected by hobbyists, who refurbish them for excursions organized by the

North American Railcar Operators Association The North American Railcar Operators Association (NARCOA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation, restoration, and safe, legal operation of railroad equipment historically used for maintenance of way purposes. The organization ...

NARCOA website
/ref> in the U.S. and Canada and the Australian Society of Section Car Operators, Inc. in Australia.

Motorcar manufacturers and models

Various railways and their workshops also manufactured speeders. Often these were a copy of commercially available cars, such as Wickham and Fairmont.

Dimensions

Approximate dimensions of a common speeder car are given below. Due to the variety of base models and customization these are not fixed numbers. These values are from a Fairmont A4-D. *Rail Gauge: (56.5 inches) *Weight: *Width: *Height: *Length: (~110 inches) *Wheel Diameter: *Floor Height: 80–120% of the wheel diameter; -

Gallery

File:Yeppoon.jpg, Former Queensland Rail (Australia) speeders File:Wickham trolley at Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre.jpg, A former UK MOD railway engineering personnel carrier (Wickham trolley) File:South Australian Railways -- Dort motor inspection car at Islington workshops, ca 1924.jpg, Dort tourer modified by the

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Aust ...

in the 1920s to be a motor inspection car File:GAZ-13 Chaika draisine.jpg, Russian GAZ-13 Chaika car converted to a speeder, preserved at the

Hungarian Railway Museum The Magyar Vasúttörténeti Park ("Hungarian Railway History Park") is a railway museum located in Budapest, Hungary at a railway station and workshop of the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV), the former Budapest North Depot. The museum covers ...

File:VW T1-BD 20-5031.JPG,

Deutsche Bundesbahn The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB (German Federal Railway) was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remaine ...

speeder based on the

Volkswagen Type 2 The Volkswagen Type 2, known officially (depending on body type) as the Transporter, Kombi or Microbus, or, informally, as the Bus (US), Camper (UK) or Bulli (Germany), is a forward control light commercial vehicle introduced in 1950 by the Ge ...

light commercial vehicle File:Metrotrolley.jpg, A battery-powered ultrasonic rail flaw detector trolley made at the Centre For Advanced Transport Engineering and Research, Western Australia

Notes

References

External links