Train Set: Track Two

Next Stop: Goat Canyon, California

Do-it-yourself “rail carts” have really taken off in recent years, often found cruising abandoned tracks in remote places, like Goat Canyon. A sheet of plywood, some bucket seats, wheels, and a motor, and an enthusiast can take a spin with a friend toward the world’s largest wooden trestle bridge. The only catch: it has been abandoned for over a decade, so riders pass over it at their own peril.

It might sound dangerous (and, well, it is) but thankfully these carts don’t weigh a lot. So they don’t have a ton of mass to overstress a bridge, and they can stop relatively quickly if a rider sees an obstacle or some other issue up ahead on the tracks. Plus, people who regularly ride these stretches, they know more or less what to expect.

Not all small-rail operations are illicit — there’s place up in Northern California, for example, near Fort Bragg, called RailBikes. And they rent out four-wheeled, two-seat vehicles that use a combination of electricity and pedal power. For a long time, there was a 40-mile active rail line running between Fort Bragg and Willits. But then, about a decade ago, a key tunnel along the route collapsed, and basically cut the line in two. People on both sides decided to spin up some shorter rail options like this to make the best of a bad situation. And because the collapse was so recent, the tracks are still pretty well maintained.

And there’s all kinds of other rail infrastructure already in place. Stuff like: crossing gates, bells, and signals where the rails intersect roads… which now used to stop traffic so RailBikes can cross, which often gets more than a few curious looks for the car drivers being told to wait.