TIL about the railroad speeder which is a small railcar used around the world by track inspectors and work crews to move quickly to and from work sites.

Every year in Oregon there's a caravan of rail speeders that goes down the coast doing a toy drive.

Cars as they were meant to be

Ah, a motor draisine!

Like Sandy from Thomas the Train Tank Engine?

Around here they just modify pickups to add rail wheels.

I saw one of these at a car show and talked with the owner for a while.

• Most of them are painted orange so they're nicknamed pumpkins

• The ones up north have doors due to the cold. His had an Onan engine and 4 speed gearbox

• A clean used one will run you about $2k but you can get tricked out ones all the way up the price ladder

• There's owners clubs that meet up and all caravan on something like a road trip but on the tracks. Because they're so small, a rail line lets them do group buys for rail mileage so several of them split the bill for what a normal rail car would cost.