Christmas 2011 Velocipede Newsletter Number and other Hand Powered Railway Vehicles

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1 Christmas 2011 Velocipede Newsletter Number 12.1 The 12th National Velocipede Rally Sunday 8 th July 2012 Froghall Station Churnet Valley Railway Staffs ST10 2HA and other Hand Powered Railway Vehicles Christmas Wishes - For the man who has everything Trawsfynedd Project The UK s FIRST Velorail Hire Project The first Velorail has arrived from its builders in the south of France and will be followed by 4 more before the opening day in summer 2012, reports Ceri Cunnington. The machine measures 3 metres x 2 metres and weighs 100 kilos, seating 5. The operating track will run from the Level Crossing in Cwmbowydd, to Llan Festiniog. I hope to go, clutching a camera, to report on it. I will also suggest a regular Welsh National Velocipede Rally to add to our calendar. I will offer to donate a VELOWALES Trophy and take along some old machines. PRESERVED RAILWAY Next Year s Rally The MUST DO Rule to obey is - have the token before you go down to Oakamoor. No token, NO GO. NEWS on ebay I hope some of you may be able to come along too. Dates as soon as I know them. Xmas Patent Watching If you spend as much time as I have looking at the Patents on hand powered rail machines you will end up needing a gallon of industrial grade OPTREX eye wash and having a sense of déjà vu. I began to realise I had seen some of these mechanisms before in Toy Catalogues dated after the patents had expired. Have a look at these from 1913, the mechanical drives look very familiar. A Sheffield No 14 Velocipede Car, Shop No (2 person track bike with seat and handle bars that fold back) manufactured about , was on sale on ebay with a reserve of 9,500. Closed 30 th September. Not a goer, needed new spokes and block chains, we did not bid.

2 Christmas 2011 Velocipede Newsletter Number 12.2 Perhaps not the scooter. But No. 1 is a Rowboat, No. 2 is a Velocipede, The Nipper is a Rowboat, and No. 3 is a Draisine. Curiously a clutch for going backwards has appeared in a US Patent in Human Powered Rail Bike, Feb. 12, 2009 No. US 2009/ A1. It s a 12 sheet job and you may recognise the wheels as Railriders products. It s on the internet, Google the Patent Number.

3 Christmas 2011 Velocipede Newsletter Number 12.3 Rebuilds under way 1940 s Danish Draisine Needs 1¼ & 1 tube and some brazing. We may adapt the machine to make the outrigger removable s Hanestad Belt Driven Car From Norway, a real treat working on this little one after modern 20 th century all-metal machines. I like a bit of woodwork and wood turned handles. Tasmanian Velocipedes This should have a 50mm (2 ) leather belt, but we will use a modern alternative which is a laminate of fabric and rubber called BALATA belt. We will probably need to use a belt dressing, which is a tacky glue. Modern belt dressing comes in an aerosol, but in my father s day it came in a rusty tin, you spread it with a stick and he called it Black Strap (which may have been a joke since that was also a brand of Treacle) s Sicilian Track Bike Frame tube 1, lower frame to carry axles 1½. (Modern replacement tube is still in imperial sizes even though it is ERW Electro Resistance Welded from a flat strip drawn into a tube.) A lot of brazing. BUDA Foot Rest Stirrup Neil Brooks has a beautiful BUDA Velocipede with unique Foot Rest Stirrups, I am guessing but I think these are a later improvement in the development of Velocipedes. From Tony Lyster Two old machines much altered, the gears have been replaced by a final chain drive on both machines. The red machines front wheel has had the wooden spokes replaced by a wood disk, but the felloes and centre seem intact. The chain and new disk on the Red machine can be seen clearly from the left side.

4 Christmas 2011 Velocipede Newsletter Number 12.4 casualties. A standard gauge preserved (probably Wickham) one can be seen at Rutland Railway Museum. Poling Car GN & GE Jt Line The Rusty machine behind the Red one has an unusual wheel on the outrigger. It is too small to be an old Sheffield outrigger spoked wheel with the spokes replaced. Its twin is the front wheel. Spotted in the corner of a photo belonging to Barbara Cree, the clues are the highlights on the two crankpins facing the camera and the poles underneath the car. Donington is on the Great Northern Great Eastern Joint Line in Lincolnshire. YouTube for moving pictures Velocipede Cavalcade Velocipede Rally 2012 for a preview of new attender Jeffrey s Velocipede with Kevin Thomas aboard. Camera Velorail Churnet Valley I had planned a Velorail with a very low deck to allow filming of crank and gear motion at working level. Filming from the adjacent track when running through the platforms at the Rally (design below). The outrigger is handed the opposite way to the red one, and has been replaced with angle iron. The top two timbers are missing and the back end of the shelf support, normally two turned spindles, has been replaced with a metal bracket. The two pieces of timber clamped on are probably temporary supports to keep the machine intact on display. Ron Forster of railriders However we have been offered and bought a complete 4 8½ rubber tyred rail car (with disk brake) to which we can add pedal power and a lower deck. Jacqui Ron on one of his elegantly engineered and minimalist machines Ron reports he has been contacted by a fireman who wants to make one to do rescues on/near the rails. In the UK the ironstone quarries had rail stretcher carriers for removing

5 Christmas 2011 Velocipede Newsletter Number 12.5 Didcot Velocipede Tony Lyster of Quainton Road Reports Anne Downs is giving Steve Kay his instructions. NEWS The Kidderminster Railway Museum Their Velocipede is having a service and thorough clean down to running condition, Curator David Postle has told us. It may be ready in time to join us for the 2012 Rally. Something Very Scary On YouTube Pulling up the old Central Australian Railway Not Velocipede related but what a toy! I hope the traveller metal thieves don t see it. Almost tripped over this one and pulled it out from under a coach to photo it before losing the group I was in. Wretched thing kept trying to roll away to hide - well that s my excuse for out of focus blurred shots!!! These are the first photos I have ever seen of this Velocipede, it s a very shy one. Jacqui. Severn Valley Autumn Gala For the 2012 Rally Trackbike Trophy Open to all Pedal Powered Machines From Steve Kay at Eardington Station The SVR Autumn Steam Gala this year was particularly successful, weather as well as an excellent range of visiting locos helping. Eardington Station demonstrated the velocipede, PWay dept having helpfully left a good distance of the siding for velocipede operation. Still to be plated and have year labels added.

6 Christmas 2011 Velocipede Newsletter Number 12.6 Frankfurt Fieldrailway Museum Punt Cars a Myth confirmed? 600 mm or 2 foot gauge collection I write this clutching their Locomotive Stockbook, they have 3 trackbikes and a pump trolly. Trackbikes Schienenfarrad 21, Eigenbau single seat, minecar wheels. Schienenfarrad 22, Scharf tandem, tiny wheels (hard work) Schienenfarrad 26, Scharf tandem, pressed steel wheels Pump Trolly Handhebeldraisine 24, ZNTK Pila, for children under supervision. The collection has over 50 locomotives and appears set in a park with running track. This is a stunning collection they even have a complete undamaged WW1 Gas Baldwin from the trench railway system, a real rarity, I reckon worth a visit if you are a traveller. Frankfurter Feldbahnmuseum e.v. Am Romerhof 15f Frankfurt am Main Internet: I would love photos and a write up if you go. Skillset for Velocipede Restoration I had a conversation with Barry Bull of the Chasewater Railway and the Severn Valley Railway and a Velocipede owner, on the skillset you need to have to restore Velocipedes. The obvious answer is Engineering, but I had a really good think about this and I have settled on: Rough Carpentry Rough Wood Turning Rough Blacksmithing Rough Welding and Drilling Rough Metal Lathe Work Fortunately I had a childhood watching every trade I came across. Much easier in the Tropics where tin roofed buildings often had open sides. Jacqui. Editor jackiethomas002@hotmail.co.uk I m very pleased to receive any news and photos for the Newsletter. Get restoring and photograph it, keep us in mind when looking at old books and foreign magazines. Projection for 2012 Rally We might be up to 18 attendees in 2012 this not overly optimistic, we may do better, but the 20 Barrier is a big one. I will not consider we have arrived in the railway world until we pass 30 attendees, get a colour spread in the Railway Magazine and get invited to hold a Rally at the NRM in York (?in period costumes possibly?), aim high! Book up to 15 Chapters/Types I had real trouble believing anyone would propel a railway push car by standing on it and punting it with a long pole. It s very hard work with no mechanical advantage BUT I was wrong. This was actually done in the UK, I had previously only seen one photo of a flooded GWR line where a car was being punted and I thought this was sensible to keep dry, but it would be too much like hard work in any other circumstances. However Kevin, a Great Eastern buff, found the quote below. I recall the platelayers trolly which they propelled along the line with a long pole, this was later replaced by a motorised version. From page 75 of RAILWAYS TO SKEGNESS by A. J. Ludham, published by THE OAKWOOD PRESS in1997. ISBN Has anyone come across any other references to this hard labour in the UK? Punting or poling * was done in the early days in the USA as reported by J. H. White, Jr. in A History of the Railroad Hand Car, Bulletin 127 of The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, October An early example, but not likely the first, was a train on the Sacramento Valley Railroad which ran on August 11, It consisted of a hand car poled down R Street in Sacramento by Theodore Judah and three other men. An even earlier pole car was used on the Pontchartrain RR. Henry Clay was visiting New Orleans in 1831 before the line was completed and expressed an interest in this new wonder of the age. The wooden substructure was finished and the company s engineer Joseph G. Swift, eager to accommodate the great statesman. had a rude car fitted with wooden spool wheels. Six men using iron-shod poles managed to give Mr. Clay and his wife their first ride on a railroad. I didn t think the Brits took to the idea, but a few did. * Poling took on a completely different meaning in the US later it referred to propelling a box car on one track with one on an adjacent track using a stout metal shod pole between them (later banned as dangerous). * Poling in the UK meant Poling Car with crank pins on the wheels and the crew on the deck having poles with a hole in the end to hook over the crank pins. So I have settled on Punt for this type in the book, to hopefully avoid confusion. This one put the book up to 15 Chapters/Types, but that includes The Dogs, my bin for all the ideas I don t take seriously, and there are some really odd ones.