The Track Velocipede

Before motor cars and pickup trucks, this is how a section foreman covered his miles of track. The velocipede — a light three-wheeled car worked by hand and foot like a rowing machine on rails — let one person ride the line, inspecting rail, ties, spikes and joints.

Its great advantage was its lightness: when a train was coming, a single worker could lift the whole machine clear of the rails and set it back down after the train had passed. Track walkers and inspectors relied on velocipedes like this one across the country from the 1880s well into the twentieth century.

The signal lamp and model cabooses displayed alongside it show the everyday tools of keeping a railroad safe and running.