# Choo Choo's pedal powered car



## NIMT

This is a pedal powered car that I'm building for Choo Choo, I'm 3/4 the way done and hope to have it finished up and off to him by next week.
It has a full floating suspension and rotating front truck.
15 speeds and both rear wheels are powered.
Hand brakes for the rear trucks.
I just have to build and install the brake Assembly and install the main drive gear and shift linkage, the seat and a little more frame work.


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## Prospect193

WOW!!!!!! That thing looks awesome!!!


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## gunrunnerjohn

That is seriously cool Sean! I love the sprung front trucks, did you fabricate those yourself? Do you turn those wheels or buy them? The wheels look flat, or do they have an angle to the face?


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## xrunner

Sweet!


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## tjcruiser

HOLY MOLY!

*That's the BIG BOY of pedal cars!!!*

Fabulous work, Sean! Fabulous work!!!

Hey Greg -- you're gonna need a bigger shed!


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## sstlaure

Looks cool. I assume an additional sprocket/chain tensioner will replace the zip-tie


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## tooter

Hey Sean, 

Looking good. :thumbsup:
I'll be installing a side by side track in the shed to make an extra parking space. I'm using a couple of tiny 12 tooth idler gears for chain control on the pull car, and they work great.

That's a smart design feature to locate the point of attachment for the pedals right over the center front truck pivot. Pedaling produces a side to side oscillation so that particular position is the best spot to minimize it.


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## T-Man

Very Impressive! :thumbsup:

I gotta see this thing in action!


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## Ranger

That is awesome looking.


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## Carl

Excellent chraftmanship


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## Big Ed

Very nice.:thumbsup:

I would want a little engine on mine.

15 speed.  
What is top speed, 100 mph once you get it wound up?

You better wear your helmet with that Greg.:thumbsup:


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## NIMT

Well another day in the build...Almost done.
Got the idler gear installed and finally worked out the lower gear shifter, it works perfectly!
All that is left is the brake assembly, front gear shifter, coupler pockets, foot plates and the shifter handles.
Was really worried with the gear ratios so I set it on the floor and gave it a quick whirl...WOW WOW WOW worked perfectly low is low enough to climb a really steep hill and High...well I think most would need a change of under-roos if they get it in high gear!
Mad Scientist at work
















Vixen even inspected it for quality!


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## tooter

Looks like you're doing a* really* nice job, Sean... :thumbsup:

On the coupler pockets... I'll take an exact measurement from rail tops to center of the box and send it to you tomorrow so that the railbike will match the standard 1/8th gauge height. I've had some sets of high quality operating couplers on order for about 6 weeks now so they should be arriving pretty soon. 

The plan is to join the LA Live Steamers and run the railbike around at the meets and we'll find out if there is any interest...

...so make sure that everything you're doing now can be repeated. 

(...and check out the pull car video I made today)

Greg


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## Big Ed

Nice Sean.:thumbsup:

But Greg doesn't need brakes.:laugh:


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## tjcruiser

Incredible design, engineerng, execution!

You may have your work cut out filling new orders, Sean!

TJ


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## gunrunnerjohn

That's an amazing piece of work, I think you have a new business model.


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## tooter

That's the idea, John... a business model. 

I'll find out if there is any potential customer interest in the LA area. Sean designed a truly unique product with its own niche that no one else has ever offered.


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## Kwikster

In the words of Frank on Everybody loves Raymond "HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!". Nice work Sean, can't wait for the video.

Carl


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## lilskul

It looks to me like you may be some sort of genius.

Nice work. I'm jealous.


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## gunrunnerjohn

When does this masterpiece get delivered? We're eager to see the video!


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## NIMT

Soon still need to put on the final touches but it's been raining non stop for the last couple of weeks.
While I'm not afraid of melting in the rain, Cuz I ain't made of sugar, I am afraid of electrocution from the welder and power tools and it's also 40 deg and that makes for some awfully cold rain drops!


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## gunrunnerjohn

40 degrees? Where are you, in the southern hemisphere?  It's 77 here, and that's cool, it's going up to 90 by Monday.


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## NIMT

I think even the Canadians up the road are warmer them me! It's almost cold enough that I was thinking it might even snow!


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## sawgunner

so you're shooting for the whole christmas in july thing a little early huh? time to pull the sleds back out!!


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## annieshalt

nice build ,ever think of fitting a small 50cc engine. takes the hell out of all that leg work.


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## tooter

The whole idea is to be human powered because while there are hundreds of motorized engines to choose from, there are almost no pedal powered vehicles in existence.


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## gunrunnerjohn

Maybe there's not much of a demand for pedal powered ones.


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## tooter

We'll find out... There doesn't need to be much demand if Sean is the only guy building them.


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## New Berlin RR

ehh I service some of these pedal power things and they arn't all that cracked up to be when it comes to them...now granted what I work with is mostly home brew or simple build but if I had to get new im sure ill look into seans ideas...so yea make sure someone else could replicate one of these for demo units...lookin great so far tho!! and its not that big a deal, its only a little frozen rain Sean...it don't hurt that bad...


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## gunrunnerjohn

choo choo said:


> We'll find out... There doesn't need to be much demand if Sean is the only guy building them.


Good point, a few orders could keep him quite busy!  Maybe a nice streamlined cab on it for long-haul service?


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## Dave Sams

I'm looking into joining a 7 1/2" railroad club in my area.

From what I've seen, I think they would frown upon pedal powered cars. I heard of one guy who ran his locomotive without a body and was commented upon. 

Either way, it could be a lot of fun for a lot less than the cost of a loco and a few cars.


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## tooter

New Berlin RR said:


> ehh I service some of these pedal power things and they arn't all that cracked up to be...


Hey Berlin, 

What kind of service did you perform on rail bikes? And in what manner did you come into contact with people who have built rail bikes? Is it through a bicycle shop, through a live steam club, or in some other way? 

Greg


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## tooter

Dave Sams said:


> I'm looking into joining a 7 1/2" railroad club in my area.
> 
> From what I've seen, I think they would frown upon pedal powered cars. I heard of one guy who ran his locomotive without a body and was commented upon.
> 
> Either way, it could be a lot of fun for a lot less than the cost of a loco and a few cars.


I'm going to find out soon... as I'll be joining a big one here in the local area. Since I'm as interested in the mechanics of laying rail as I am in the trains that run on it, I'll be offering my "services" as a railroad worker.


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## New Berlin RR

they call them the Live city steamers (i think, i forget the name honestly LOL) and its hand cars, but same principals here (your is feet and our are hand powered), honestly, but when things break im the first they call...so that being said im looking into a way to keep the chains (bike chains) where they are put...in place, but the head won;t let me tear the cars down to really do a full blown job with them so mostly what I wind up doing (sadly) is a patch job...next time we get the cars out ill snap a pic or two for ya if interested, and heck perhaps we can look into getting one done properly, my way....LOL!!!


You know what they say, you want it done right do it your self....and yes I do help them with the track laying and thats (all custom built track) a pain in the caboose...so im half tempted to build a custom machine to tamp the land, lay the track and just use man power to either join it together or have the machine do that for them...(bunch of more experienced in life people...)....but yea its a pain in the caboose to coordinate 5 guys who all want to have some say in the process...so I figure take the people out and put a machine in there place and they will shut up real fast and just get the track together....LOL


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## tooter

New Berlin RR said:


> they call them the Live city steamers (i think, i forget the name honestly LOL) and its hand cars, but same principals here (your is feet and our are hand powered)...


Ah, that's what I thought... hand powered vehicles. There are a wide variety of commercially manufactured ones from the little kiddie cars to full sized adult speeder styled ones. believe me, I've scoured the web and as far as I know, no one manufactures a 7 1/2 inch gauge pedal powered rail bike.

Track laying is a tedius process, but I thoroughly enjoy it and have spent many happy hours playing in the back yard...


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