I did manage to get 2 minutes of seat time on a tricycle yesterday. It was a train track tricycle, at the National City Santa Fe Rail Depot Museum. The name is bigger than the 3-room museum.
Don't know about Train Tricycles? Neither did I. Think Handcar. According to Wikipedia, other names include pump car, pump trolley, draisine, Gandy Dancer and Kalamazoo.
This stereotypical railroad hand-car shown below is much bigger than the tricycle I tried. The museum has two larger cars, each retrofitted with a small motor to save the riders from having to sweat.
Here is the Trike, being observed by my skeptical family.
And here I am. Not seeing any STAY OFF signs, I climbed on and went a few feet on the stub of track
I can assure you that the boards serving as a seat are uncomfortable, unyielding, and unattached. Apparently the seat is missing, and they've re-assigned the boards which formerly served as the luggage carrier. The front left outrigger wheel keeps you from falling over, and nothing else.
I did a quick scan of the web and found a few other images. The one above from Illinois 102 years ago; the one below of a fellow looking like he was having just about as much fun as I did.
Until next time ...
