Riding the rails...

[Anonymous]

Hey all. I am just passing through this forum and had a question. I remember a while back seeing something one the History Channel, I think, about trains. It might have been on something like Tactical to Practical. Anyhow, they talked about these little bicycle-type cars that you could ride on old abandoned rail lines with. Does anyone know anything more about these? My family wants to take a "excursion" of sorts. Also, do you know of any abandoned rail lines in the eastern US, preferably in the Appalachain mountains around North Carolina and Virginia? Do you know what kind of permission you would have to have? We have decided that riding on in-use lines is just out of the question because of safety risks and all the permission we would need. Does anyone have pics of these or a link?
Thanks,
Reed

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Don't even think of it. Many of the "abandoned" lines are either out of service or in minimal service with the poorly maintained trackage that goes with it. If you're riding along in your velocipede or handcar and run into an especially out of gauge or poorly aligned stretch of track, you could get hurt pretty severely in the resulting derailment and be a l-o-n-g way from any help.

[tree68]

There are groups of speeder collectors/enthusiasts who arrange track time, etc., so they can enjoy riding their vehicles in a safe environment, usually on shortlines. They might have a fringe faction that does the same for velocipedes. Some Googling should produce results.

You might also have some luck with rail museums that have significant trackage, especially if you agree to become one of the "displays"....

In today's security conscious/litigous society, you might find yourself doing a lot of explaining, even on an "abandoned" branch. And remember the cardinal rule - always expect a train....

[Anonymous]

Well, I found a link to the bikes: http://www.railbike.com/default.htm It seems that the hardest thing to do is find track, so any help in this area would be greatly appreciated.
Reed

[rrock]

I'll reiterate what has been said by others- check with historic rail groups, and any non-profit "tourist" rail groups in your area. A few years back I was living in Seattle, and vaguely remember a group had organized a velocipede outing on one of the ex-GN/NP/Milwaukee (sorry, there are a number of each and I don't remember which) branches in the area now occupied by a historical/tourist rail group. "Speeder" groups might be another source of info- they often make arrangements to run their rolling stock on non-active rail, and might know what rail entities have also been approached by velocipede groups. Good Luck.