For both train AND vintage auto buffs.

[Brinybay]

The paragraphs below went with an email with pictures a friend sent me.  Her brother is an engineer with Northern Pacific, so it must have come from him, although he's not the author of the paragraph, he's not that old.

When I was a 16 year of kid (1943) I worked on the MKT railroad one summer out of Parsons, Kansas with a group of my high school buddies from Caney, Kansas.  I was finally promoted to "timekeeper" on the work gang and so got to run up and down the track checking on different gangs.  I had an older model car rather than a snazzy one like some of these.
 
You had to know the schedules of passenger and freight trains so you could "set off" on a siding at the appropriate time, otherwise you were in danger of getting smacked.

[Brinybay]

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[Brinybay]

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[Brinybay]

Last two:

[bwanna]

thx briny for the cool photos

[Wallphone]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing those with us Briny.
I remember seeing a website during the Y2K scare (scandal) that had kits for your car for this.
That way when the panic set in and all the highways were clogged with traffic,
you could take the nearest railroad track out of town.
The person that told me about the website was making a killing ($$$$) at the time (1999) installing home generators that automatically turned, on and switched your home current to backup supply.
Dougpav

[Dan/Panther]

Briny;
Thanks for the great photos. Even a couple Cadillacs in the mix.
D/P

[Craig T]

Awesome post Briny!

They still make those, they are called track guide systems. They made them for many years too. I used to work for a Railroad salvage company (was that ever bull work!!!) and we had the track guide system on a extended cab Chevy truck.

It was the coolest thing ever, when you finished up an area and moved to the next. It was like having your own train! We would ride and see all kinds of wildlife and woodlands. It was very hard work, but very interesting in some respects.

You pull up at a crossing where the tracks cross the blacktop, then you set the guides down, lock them in and away you go, chugga chugga chugga woo woo~

Very cool post Briny, that was a nice blast from the past 

[Brinybay]

Awesome post Briny!

They still make those, they are called track guide systems. They made them for many years too. I used to work for a Railroad salvage company (was that ever bull work!!!) and we had the track guide system on a extended cab Chevy truck.

It was the coolest thing ever, when you finished up an area and moved to the next. It was like having your own train! We would ride and see all kinds of wildlife and woodlands. It was very hard work, but very interesting in some respects.

You pull up at a crossing where the tracks cross the blacktop, then you set the guides down, lock them in and away you go, chugga chugga chugga woo woo~

Very cool post Briny, that was a nice blast from the past  

Reminds me of a scene in an old George C. Scott movie, "The Flim-Flam Man."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8H0Iz2gaiU

[bingster]

Great photos!  Several Packards up there, too.  Very interesting.

[AtomicEraTom]

Very fascinating.  Just goes to show how versatile we can be, and still oh so very stylish!

[Bill]

I've seen a number of track guides on RR maintenance pickup trucks in Maine. I didn't understand how they worked until I took the time to walk up close to one and examine it. The ones I saw are mounted on a hydraulic system that can be raised and lowered at will. To my surprise, they didn't appear to carry the weight of the truck. The weight is carried by the rubber tires on the rails (how handy that the truck's track width is about right), and the guide wheels are just that - guides. The guide wheels are steel, and since they don't carry much weight, they are a lot smaller than the wheels on railroad cars, or the wheels shown in most of the photos above.

Fun stuff. I'd love to ride around in one for a while. As for using one of these to escape the city in an emergency - I don't think so. You would get smacked by an oncoming trail before long - and the emergency co-ordinators would be wildly PO'ed at you for clogging up the only means of transport that was still open.

Bill

[teka-bb]

This one is from Denmark.

[Craig T]

WOW    With the tear drop headlights! What an unreal car!

[bingster]

That looks like a Lincoln Zephyr. Very cool.