Ol’ Scotty “Casey Jones” G sent in this tip. I can’t get enough railroad history and just anything to do with trains. I know these speeder car articles aren’t for everyone, but I thought I’d give this one a try. This Fairmont A6 Gang Car is listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Waconia, Minnesota, and the seller is asking $6,500. Here is the original listing.
Aerodynamics wasn’t on the drawing board for pragmatic railroad engineers and rail equipment designers; it was usually all business. Of course, some locomotives and rail cars were streamlined and otherwise designed to be sleek and beautiful. As far as tough, working rail equipment went, it was usually the one that worked best for the longest time at the lowest price, yet remained tough and dependable. This one is wearing 20-inch steel wheels, and an option would have been “rubber cushion wheels” for a smoother ride.
I’ve wanted a “speeder” or whatever other type of these little rail maintenance cars are called for years. Probably decades, actually – since I was a kid. Made for track inspections and other maintenance work, this Fairmont’s number plate is so worn out that there is no way to tell the exact model or other information from it. Kudos to the seller for showing two photos of it, though. I’ve lost several years of my life trying to read that number plate with no luck at all. There would have been four boxes, listing the Class, Series, Special, and Group numbers or letters, and I can’t make out any of them.
We do know this is an A6 gang car, which is not always indicative of the number of passengers or workers it can carry. The A6 is said to seat up to 10 workers. They are sometimes shown without a cab, as seen on page 16 of the coolest brochure you’ll see all year. The website shown here says that an A6 carries six passengers, so without the number plate, we’re lost. A speeder car like this would be a pretty straightforward restoration project. There is some metalwork to do, some woodwork, and some mechanical and/or engine work. Some of these bigger cars would have had sliding doors on the sides, depending on the model.
Powering this maintenance car is a Ford flathead V8 with 85 horsepower, according to the seller, but it may be closer to 100 hp. The brochure says it’s backed by a 4-speed transmission. We have to assume that this one isn’t currently in operating condition, as it’s sitting outside. At $6,500, it’s on the high end of what we’ve seen for speeder prices in the past. Are any of you into dreaming about restoring a speeder and riding it down an abandoned rail line?
I hope it will fit in my gold mine.
LS swap.
Memories! when a little kid, in the 40s, we lived in a logging camp in western Oregon–center of coast mountains. We did have rail service, the passenger rail service into and out of camp was by speeder, almost like the one here. It was about a 40 mile run through the mountains to reach where you could catch a bus to Portland. The speeder pulled up next to the cook house, my dad was the camp cook. My brother and I would help unload bakery bread to stack on the shelves in the cook house. I never got to ride the speeder but my grandmother did often (except in winter). Seeing this makes it “seem like yesterday”.
The best part of BF is the stories!
I’m still holdin’ out for a Trackmobile. :)
This stuff is awesome!!! I knew as soon as I saw the opening photo that Scotty must have been behind this. What got my attention is that it has a Ford Flathead V8 with a 4 speed. That must sound so great. I’d really like to see one of these Gang cars in action. I hope this goes somewhere where it will be appreciated and hopefully restored. Thank you Scotty, I enjoyed this. And also, that brochure!!! I mean, where on earth did you even find that?
Could you imagine this hooked up yo a restored Derrick car? Or one of those mower cars?? That brochure is great Scotty, thanks again.
Working on the D&H in the 70s we used one of these although it may have been smaller. (4 person vs. 6?). Definitely did not have a V8 engine though.
I saw both Waukesha and Hercules 4 cylinders listed in the brochure. Both I’m sure were very durable and reliable engines.
Casey Jones you better watch your speed, trouble ahead, trouble behind, and you know that notion, just crossed my mind. Well, not sure if you have access to an abandoned rail line, oh, oh, I thought you said it was abandoned, go flattie, GO! We look at this thing as a novel addition to this guys features, but to the men that rode on this, it was no day at the beach, and they prayed the flattie would quit, it never did. Rail work is one step above( or below) prison chain gangs. I’m sure it payed well, but I preferred riding in my Peterbilt in my tennis shoes listening to The Grateful Dead for the same money, up to you. Cool find! Love anything rail related.
All I really want to know is are you kind?
IYKYK
Uncle John knows.
Didn’t he come for his kids?
Howard, in the 70s I worked on a couple of different crews for the D&H. The pay was great. And when there were derailments, we worked harder than I have ever worked since. But when there weren’t any derailments, we would sometimes park the van, and just sit. And sit. After the one worn girlie magazine was passed around for the fourth time, it got very quiet. Sometimes it was easier when we were just working.
I wasn’t high on cocaine, one night in Maui Hawaii while driving a rental Jeep TJ longbody version (4.0 inline 6, autoloader)… and there was a blaze up above the highway in the hills. Playing on the radio 📻 at the time was The Grateful Dead “Fire on the Mountain”
The railway equipment features are always too cool. This one V8 and manual 🤌
Trains are wonderful… To travel by train is to see nature and human beings, towns, bridges, rivers, churches and farm life, in fact to see life.
—Agatha Christie—
Stan, I thought that was the Marshall Tucker Band. Anyhoo,
it’s neat, but what could I do with it?. As a kid, I recall seeing the
railroads using Dodge crew cabs
with either train wheels behind the regular tires or some type of
apparatus with guide wheels on it
that looked like a guide for a slot
Car that retracted so that you can
drive it like a normal pickup truck.
Okay all you model railroaders out there, here’s your chance to
build a replica for whatever size
track you have. I knew a kid in
school that had a model railway
set AND a slot car track that ran
together. I wanna say it was an
Aurora setup but I can’t be sure
Anyway, it was fun to watch.
Different tunes, same title. It was the Deads song from Shakedown Street record Ken.
I love the Marshall Tucker one too. Have that album on vinyl. 🎶
https://youtu.be/nryOuYgV998?si=3vFEWG9VBf20Rbty
You and Stan piqued my interest Ken so I looked it up and they both did a song called Fire on the Mountain but Marshall Tucker’s was first in 1975 and it was on the album by the same name:
https://genius.com/The-marshall-tucker-band-fire-on-the-mountain-lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5GbDkRcaYo
Then the Grateful Dead did one that came out in ’78 on their album Shakedown Street:
https://genius.com/The-grateful-dead-fire-on-the-mountain-lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_YcGpQmYSU
I’ve watched Youtube videos of whole groups of these traveling on abandoned stretches of track, usually through mountain passes. The hard part would be hauling something this big to the starting point. You’d be the only one there who could accommodate a whole family!
lot of money for yard art. might be able to get some back selling the flat head.
Love these articles. Gives all of us a chance to learn. Thanks so much to all of you
John
What would you do with this railroad car? Where would you put it; what would you do with it; how would you transport it to your house??? Weird!
As we said in another age-different strokes for different folks. These are easily moved on a car hauler, and here’s what people do with them:
https://www.narcoa.org/info/email_list.htm
some how i landed up with 3 fairmont motors,used in smaller fairmonts,to back up you reversed the motor like a golf cart,no electric start so waited till the motor almost quit spinning and moved the timing lever,looked easy till you tryed it
I remember when I was a kid, it had to be the coldest days of the winter and you would see one of these putting down the track with six or eight men all huddled together on top. I’m sure they had to be thawed out before they could get off to go back to work.
A flathead powering this? I thought they were powered exclusively by those 2-strokes that putted forever…
Geo, I’m not sure if humans were tougher back then, but I have my suspicions. That could open up a whole’nother can of worms and/or Pandora’s box if I suggested such a thing… (cough)
Rick’s Restorations restored a somewhat similar speeder with a flathead V8. It’s seen around 4:48 into this little video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbpR1UnVG3A
Interesting…..
I rode in one of these back in 1964 for the Alaska Railroad, a four or maybe a six seater. I was with a crew straightening out tracks between Anchorage and Fairbanks after the BIG earthquake. I was a Ballast Regulator operator; I can only hope to see a ballast regulator here on BF.
If the heads are any indication that Ford V8 is a 1949 to 1953, which would have at least 100 HP, not 85.
Rick, you are probably right! That’s my fault for not researching that and just going by what the seller had listed. Sorry about that, thanks for the correction, sir!
It’s been mentioned on previous listings, NARCOA, (North American Railcar Operators Association) NARCOA.ORG, is the big organization to belong to. They have 35 excursions currently listed, for the remainder of the summer, all over the country.
Yes, I was involved with one of their events a few weeks ago. They were an added attraction to the visit of the BIG BOY. Even got a little ride. They not only run abandoned spurs. But also get to use “seldom used spurs” with permission/arrangements with the rail road. And they have a whole program/system for unloading and reloading off trailers and onto tracks.
Wow, I don’t think I’ve seen this many comments on a BF in a while! Local railroad museum here (shout out to NY Museum of Transportation) has at least on track car. I’ve ridden in it and that one has the same mechanical bits as a Ford 8N tractor.
This isn’t a bad price for an A Car. My dad had a Fairmont S-2. with a 2 stroke engine. His had belt drive with a lever for reverse. He belonged to the Cotton Valley club on the old Wolfboro RR. His had no suspension and you felt every joint bar in the track.(20mph felt like 50) Some A cars had springs. You do not want to get caught riding on track without permission. If caught, they can take the car or torch it into pieces while you wait. These are very heavy so a modified car trailer is a must. NARCOA is the way to go but you need working lights, thick wheels and safety gear.