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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 draisine) is a small railcar used around the world by track inspectors and work crews to move quickly to and from work sites.^[1] 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. Motorized inspection cars date back to at least 1895, when the Kalamazoo Manufacturing Company started building gasoline-engined inspection cars.^[2]

In the 1990s, many speeders were replaced by pickup trucks or sport utility vehicles with additional flanged wheels 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^[3] in the U.S. and Canada and the Australian Society of Section Car Operators, Inc. in Australia.

Motorcar manufacturers and models


United States	Canada
Beavercar (BMC-2m BMC-4m BMC-B) Buda Casey Jones (531) Fairbanks-Morse (40-B, 101, 757) Fairmont Railway Motors Inc^[a] S2, S2-A, S9, S9, S9-A, S9-B, S9-C S9-D 1100 2100 3100 4100 5100 6100 A2-A8 Series M2 M9 M14 MT14 M15 M17 M19 MT19 S2 ST2 C7 CD7 CK7 CR7 Gibson Manufacturing Corporation Kalamazoo 23 Series B, 23 Series T, 27, 560N Portec Sheffield 40-B	Sylvester Steel Products "21" section car with "120" engine (steel frame) "21E" section car with "KP" engine (aluminum frame) "K54" inspection car with "KP" engine (aluminum frame) Tamper TMC-2, TMC-6, TMC-8, TMC-12 D Wickham & Co Ltd Wickham trolley^[4] Woodings CBI, CBL Railway Workshops

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.^[5]

Rail gauge: 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge (56.5 inches)
Weight: 3,500 pounds (1,588 kg)
Width: 64 inches (1,626 mm)
Height: 60 inches (1,524 mm)
Length: 9 feet 2 inches (2,794 mm) (~110 inches)
Wheel diameter: 16 inches (406 mm)
Floor height: 80–120% of the wheel diameter; 11 inches (279 mm)-17 inches (432 mm)

Gallery

Former Queensland Rail (Australia) speeders
A former UK MOD railway engineering personnel carrier (Wickham trolley)
Dort tourer modified by the South Australian Railways in the 1920s to be a motor inspection car
Russian GAZ-13 Chaika car converted to a speeder, preserved at the Hungarian Railway Museum
Deutsche Bundesbahn speeder based on the Volkswagen Type 2 light commercial vehicle
A battery-powered ultrasonic rail flaw detector trolley made at the Centre For Advanced Transport Engineering and Research, Western Australia

Notes

^ Fairmont used three letters to designate car types. "S" was a Standard Series" section car; "A" was an "Advanced Series" section car and "M" was the "Master Series" section car. They also used a "category" name for motorcars. "Light Inspection" or 1-2 men, were car models: M9 nicknamed "Safe Easy", MM9, MR9, 59, M17, and MM17. "Inspection" or 1-4 men, were models "Roadmaster", M12, M16, M19 nicknamed the Safety Quick", MT19, and the 150. "Light Section" or 1-6 men, the M1, and M14 also called the "Light Section Car". "Section" or 1-8 men, were models "Dreadnaught", M2, 75, and S2. "Heavy Duty Section" or 1-8 men, the A2. "Gang" or 1-12 men, MT2, ST2, A2, AT2 and A3. "Extra Gang" or "B & B" 1-12 men, MX3, MX30G, MT2, A4, AF4, and A6. Final group, "Large Extra Gang" or "Hump" 1-12 men, models A6, A7, A8.

References

^ "FAQ's & Answers". NARCOA. Retrieved 2008-01-25.
^ "Miscellaneous items". The Neenah Daily Times. 28 June 1895. p. 2.
^ NARCOA website
^ [Gunner, K., Kennard, M. 2004 The Wickham Works List Dennis Duck Publishing page?]
^ A-4