A train enthusiast friend offered the following on this interesting machine: “As soon as there were railroads, operations staff sought light, low-cost ways to get track inspectors and maintainers to work sites. Initially this was accomplished with manually powered rigs like the classic hand-pump handcar, or the three-wheeled, pump-type velocipedes. Mindful that small scale gasoline engines hit the market in the 1895 to 1910 time frame, lots of tinkerers looked for ways to make these inspection/maintenance cars self powered. The NL&O machine bears a front crank, confirming a gas engine behind that simple radiator. I don’t see sign of steering linkage, but presume that it was present for street running from shop to rail line. The wheels are unmistakably meant for light railcar service, as is the very basic, negligibly-sprung platform of the car. The elemental box seat over the rear axle was probably toolbox as well as seat.”
Typically these speeders lived adjacent to their rail lines. They were manually lifted and swung around to get them onto or off the rails. The area at the end of the timber “railway” in the photo should be about at the main rails of the primary line, at right angles to the timbers. The mainline would have planking between the rails and along the outer edges of the rails. The speeder was run our so it was sitting crosswise of the steel rails on the planks then swung around by the crew so it would drop down onto the mainline, and away we go.
At the turn of the century,Oldsmobile offered a 1 cylinder rail car as
a normal offering.