Wonderful photo of 9 Abtus (Buda England) Pump Cars in the Street from James West who has an archive to die for.

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1 And other Hand Powered Rail Vehicles Hajtany (HU) Railbike (US,GB) Dresinsykling (NO) Handcar (US) Handhebeldraisine (DE) Drezina (RU) Resiina (FI) Drezyny (PL) Skinne cykel (DK) Cykeldressin (SE) Draisines (BE) Bicilinha (BR) Dresin (NO) Biciclette Ferroviarie (IT) Spoorvegfiets (BE) Dressin (SE,NO) Dresina (SP) Schienenvelo (CH) Dreziny (CZ) Spoorfiets (NL) Pump Car (US,GB) Velorail (FR,GB) Cyclo Draisine (FR) Hand Jigger (NZ) No 46 For this free newsletter, contact: Or download from: th National Velocipede Rally, Churnet Valley Railway 28 th & 29 th May, Nene Valley Railway Velocipede Rally 12th July. Other events (dates to be agreed): Shildon Velocipede Event, Dean Forest Railway, North Yorkshire Moors Railway Velocipede Event, USA Nevada Northern Event. 2 foot gauge: Statfold Barn Railway, 28 th March, 6 th June, 12 September Wonderful photo of 9 Abtus (Buda England) Pump Cars in the Street from James West who has an archive to die for. Abtus Special 1937 The UK s First Pump Car Rally is actually a publicity shot for the ABTUS Company founded The board reads Chinese Government Purchasing Commission King Kan Railway 1937 Abtus Hand Propelled Trolleys

2 Plate from James West s Collection ABTUS was The Buda Company, (England) Harvey Works, Wembley, London, England (Harvey is a reference to the Company s home base in Harvey, Illinois). Steel Pressed Wheels on the Abtus Machines are very like the Wickham pressings of the same period (the Abtus Velocipede wheel pressings I have, are stamped Sankey ). Half walking beam, 2 to propel, 2 person Bench Seat, 3 Semi Circular seat springs, 4 foot 8½ inches gauge? Low metal bar back/end rest, with inclined footrest. Above is a very similar American Buda Half Walking Beam Machine, but with a different brake and wheels.

3 Having a guess at the text, Chinese Government Purchasing Commission, King Kan Railway, Order No. A 923, 19 June1937 Abtus Hand Propelled Trolleys, Abtus Limited unknown, Bottom line unknown. Possible Abtus brake mechanism, both hand from bench seat and foot from deck. Abtus article concluded. From John Scholes at NVR Nene Valley Railway Velocipede Rally Sunday, 12 th July 2015 Combined hand brake (with 4 to 1 Pivot?) and footbrake pedal. Blow up from the front view. Sherlock Holmes Article Phil Naylor has hunted 19 th century newspaper archives for Manu-motive (the 1829 hand power entrant to the Rainhill Trials) and his persistence has paid off with the earliest definitive description of this type we have seen. He may have found the earliest case of joy riding too. We are a tiny group by Railway Enthusiast standards but what a group of Researchers, like Phil and Steve Downs we have!

4 Phil Naylor hunts manu-motive And finds it in the Lincolnshire Chronicle of 26th May 1848 The drawings and photo are Great Western not the machine supplied to the railway builders Peto and Betts but fit the description beautifully. Windlass, Strap/belt, Small wheel/on the centre of the axle, Larger wheels/4 8 ½ gauge on the ends of the axles. The Drawing that fits exactly was sent to us by one of our Severn Valley Railway members Steve Downs.

5 Great Western broad gauge manu-motive (7 foot & ¼,which ended in 1892). cargo is a splendid name for the 8 miscreants.

6 Lincoln Hykeham Swinderby Collingham Newark photo Richard Croft The level crossing and 1846 Collingham Station where the Lark ended.

7 Level crossing gates in 1846 were required (by Rule 99) to be kept closed against road traffic unless a vehicle needed to cross the line, hence they offered no obstruction to the Manu-motive on its trip out from Lincoln. Inspector Beswick had the gates at Collingham specially closed across the railway to bring the adventure to an end. From 1933 the railways could apply on a per-crossing basis under an Act of Parliament to keep the gates open for road traffic, these are Rule 99 exempt and what most people are familiar with today. These very heavy type of wheels are still about if anyone fancies building an 1848 manu-motive contact Jacqui for map references and who to contact. Manu-motive article concluded. Incoming s Last issue was accompanied by the 1897 Kalamazoo catalogue, this was very kindly sent in by Lary Shafer in Maine. From Ralph Beaumont My name is Ralph Beaumont and I live in Canada. I'm the proud owner of an old velocipede. It runs great, and the seat/tray are being redone. English prison tread wheel By the 21 st Century the tread wheel was a hand power rail leisure activity, at least in California.

8 A question though, is there a way to tell who made it? The previous owner thought it was Kalamazoo, but it looks identical to some Sheffield examples I've seen Sheffield 1897 Kalamazoo 1905 Sheffield/Fairbanks Morse 1894 Sheffield with brake handle between the upright handles is too early Kalamazoo could be, if the Sheffield patent of 1878 had finally run out but these may have been bought in from Sheffield and rebadged plus Sheffield/Fairbanks Morse type is the best bet. There's no brand markings on it that I can find, so is there some specific casting or feature that I can use to identify it? They look the later balls in a cup Sheffield type from about 1905 onwards. The outrigger wheel is all steel - not wood-spoked like the main wheels. 20 Fairmont wheel pressing. This is a much later 1940 s/50 s replacement for the original wood centre wheel, my best guess a small Fairmont Wheel pressing. One thing you need to change These numbers are very unlikely to have survived, they are marked on a top frame timber in front of the driver (only 2 have been found) They are positively Sheffield. Or go to Try pages 104 to 107 for Sheffield part numbers and you may be able to confirm Sheffield manufacture form numbers on your machines castings. And next step, maybe some way to positively date it? A previous owner has assembled the V680 arm wrongly, the brace should be on the bottom. The Axle boxes you have are not these early Sheffield. From the 1894 catalogue at It is a jewel, you can download pdf pages. The site is the most user friendly, with loads of advice panels, I have ever come across. Jacqui.

9 More received from Ralph I've also done some more exploring since I first contacted you, and your leads further into it, as follows: 1. Manufacture Date I found the website of Mason Clarke, where he's posted a 1949 Fairbanks Morse catalogue. I'm new to this, so was quite surprised that it listed wood velocipedes and they were still produced at this late date. The Velocipedes still being available is amazing, a bit of a time warp, maybe they batch built and had the spare parts in stock for years to assemble them. J And just by coincidence, I had my wooden seat back standing upright in my basement. This is the small vertical piece between the seat and the rear tray. Anyway, the light hit it just perfectly so that I could properly read a stamping "G 11-43". Given that they were still being produced in the 40's/50's, I'm now wondering if this was the manufacture date - November (Photo attached) G Other Dating Clues I'm also thinking my vehicle was this late date because of the pressed steel wheel, as your piece specifically mentioned. And I read somewhere they reverted to plywood seats at some point. Mine had a very rotten plywood seat and I had thought it was just a cheap later replacement, but I'm now thinking it was original. It wasn't salvageable unfortunately, but suitable to provide a template for the replacement I've had made. 3. Casting Stamp I contacted Mason (is he a member of your group?), and he got me to look at the brake lever handle which has a part number of V750. I don't see it in the list of parts you've attached here, so I'll look at the website url you sent and maybe it's the next page along. Or being a later vehicle, maybe it was a different part number. I don t have a later Sheffield/FM parts list, but by 1909 a lot of the same numbers were used in the Buda Catalogue (I have no idea why or what the connection was, unless Buda bought a license to make Velocipedes from Sheffield) but the numbers do not go as high as V750, V697 is the highest I could see. J 4. Serial Number Also, following your article I took a quick look for a serial number stamped on the frame, but there's none there. Another friend is rebuilding a model identical to mine, so I'll see if his has this marking. 5. Outrigger Rod Upside Down - Or Maybe Not? And yes, I knew the outrigger truss rod is on the top instead of bottom, and although not accurate I have mixed emotions about changing it. Another friend has a velocipede and your left foot gets squeezed by the outrigger on every forward stroke. Now his is a later steel replacement, but mine has no issues with that, and I'd hate to go to all the trouble of changing my rod to the bottom, only to find I've created that problem. However, I looked at part V681 in the catalogue you attached. If you look closely you'll see there's two versions of the arm! Given the downward curve of the wood outrigger arm, one rod support looks to be mounted on the bottom, while the other would have been mounted on top. Mine doesn't look to have been tampered with, so I wonder if it was built that way. Maybe we'll get more replies and I'll learn more about the vehicle. With this Newsletter will be sent the 1949 Fairbanks Morse Catalogue Which was kindly scanned by Lary Shaffer You can see how late Fairbanks Morse were offering machines virtually identical to the 1905 model. Jacqui. From Trevor Catterson Who recommends we see This is a Buda with replacement wheels, and red polka dots! Jacqui. Incoming s concluded.

10 Kalamazoo 1883 Patent Wheel Rich Harner has found the first catalogue illustration of the Kalamazoo 1883 patent wheel I have ever seen. I was not sure if it made it to the market place. The spoke tensioning was a contra rotating motion. These are the spoke fixings in the illustration. Simpler version by 1887 I think this was changed very quickly to a simpler spoke fixing shown in the photo above, but I do not know how the spokes were tensioned in the later wheel. See page 2 from Newsletter 40 below which covers the patent. download from: A large number of vulnerable delicate parts for use on a railway, which probably explains its rapid replacement. Kalamazoo article concluded.

11 Ferrovia 1912 By Mark Hambly Please find attached scan of the cover and the railbike page of the reprint of the Ferrovia 1912 catalogue which I purchased recently. Ferrovia was headquartered in Prague in 1912 (This was then in the Austro Hungarian Empire until that collapsed in 1918 and Czechoslovakia was formed, this lasted until 1990 and split to become the Czech Republic). The catalogue has lots of the usual sorts of things found in contemporary catalogues - every type of skip you might require, track components, lightweight locos etc, but interestingly no velocipedes, push or pump trolleys, and only this single example of a bike. Ferrovia article concluded.

12 Jonathan Flood s Photo Page Jonathan has a wonderful eye for old velocipede photos An amazing stack of machines, at least four machines are two seater (facing) Model Sheffield No.3 No. 3 VELOCIPEDE CAR (sometimes called Telegraph Car) Actual weight, 175 lbs; boxed for ocean shipment, 300 lbs. Made for any gauge desired. 3 6 gauge

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