Ticket To Ride

The Speeder

Although this steam locomotive about to fill its tender with water is very cool, I was taken by the speeder you see at the lower right, bringing back memories of when I was a kid growing up in southern Saskatchewan.

I have a memory of speeders not unlike the one pictured here that were used by rail maintenance crews to do work on the rail line we lived beside.
I can still hear the sound of a speeder breaking the early morning stillness as the crew headed out to do maintenance on the rail line.

Starting in the 1990s, speeders were replaced with trucks (usually pickup trucks or sport utility vehicles) using flanged wheels that can be lowered for on-rail (called road-rail vehicles or hi-rails for highway-railroad).
Today speeders are collected by hobbyists, who refurbish them for excursions organized by the North American Railcar Operators Association in the U.S. and Canada.

Expand the photo for a closer look.....