Handcar

A typical design consists of an arm, called the walking beam, that pivots seesaw-like on a base, which the passengers alternately push down and pull up to move the car.

An even simpler design is pushed by two or four people (called trolleymen), with hand brakes to stop the trolley.

[citation needed] Rail tracks have a tendency to develop various defects, including cracks, loose packing etc., which may lead to accidents.

Because of their low weight and small size, they can be put on and taken off the rails at any place, allowing trains to pass.

Thanks to draisines it is possible to make use of sections of abandoned railway lines, allowing visitors to discover beautiful natural landscapes that would be otherwise inaccessible.

[2] The usage of draisines in Europe has also spread to many Northern countries, such as Sweden and Finland, but also Belgium, Luxembourg, in Germany.

This number is obviously a gross underestimate because many sections were shorter than 10 miles and railroads also had spare handcars for use in unusual circumstances.

Many companies made handcars in the years following the American Civil War as evidenced by the number of advertisements in contemporary publications such as The Car Builder's Dictionary.

The disagreeable nature of this experience must have been heightened by the dead weight of typical section crew supplies such as railroad spikes, track nuts and bolts, shovels, pry bars of various sorts and other iron and steel equipment.

[4] There is a push car service along the railroad tracks between Anguiatú in Guatemala and rural towns across the Salvadoran border.

The official carries instruments to measure and check the condition of the tracks and monitor the work being done by the trackmen, keymen, gatemen etc.

On routes carrying high volumes of traffic, such as the suburban section in Mumbai, push trolleys cannot be used and foot inspections are being resorted to.

In Japan, dozens of commercially operated handcar railway lines, called human car tramway (人車軌道, jinsha kidō) or human car railway (人車鉄道, jinsha tetsudō) existed in early 20th century.

As the human-powered system was fairly inefficient, many handcar tramways soon changed their power resources to either horse or gasoline.

Hand built Trolleys are illegally used on suburban railway tracks as an unauthorised commuter service in Manila, Philippines.

In 1933, its peak, there were more than 50 lines in the island with 1,292 km network, transporting local passengers, coal, factory products, sugar, salt, bananas, tea leaves, and others.

Handcars are a recurring railway-themed plot device of twentieth and twenty-first century film, such as comedy, drama and animation.

[13] A multi-faceted festival, it centers around races of numerous widely varying human-powered vehicles operating on railroad tracks, including traditional hand-powered carts and others powered by pedals or pushing.

Therefore, on sections having gradients or poor visibility, the push trolleys are not allowed without traffic blocks.