1:1 scale 1901 Buda hand car project!

This project is just too cool not to share! So my neighbor and good friend asked me to help on a project that was given to him by the Greeley Freight Station Museum and when I went over to his house I found that he had a broken 1901 Buda No.1 hand car in his garage! One of the museum volunteers had purchased it from a guy in New York and brought it back home to Greeley, Colorado to donate to the museum. It had been "rebuilt" in 2006, but the previous owner seemed to have no clue what he was doing because there are a lot of issues with it. Anyway, when they had gotten the hand car to the museum they decided to take it out for a spin on one of the old Great Western tracks out here and the fun began when they were approaching a switch and noticed that the points weren't aligned right. Instead of pressing down hard on the brake, they held the push bar in place hoping that stopping the gear would stop the cart. The torque from this practically ripped the A frame "pedestal" from the car. So now it is up to Bob and I to rebuild this thing. I will keep you all updated as it goes along.

Here is a link to the pics: Hand Car Project!

What a great project. Kit bashing for real!