The Industrial Rail handcar is a spunky little gizmo crewed by two small guys who spend their whole day cruising layouts looking for track to repair and tending to other railroad right-of-way chores. The handcar has some nice scale-like detailing, such as a toolbox, and the deck has great wood grain. The figures are realistic, nicely painted, and bend quite appropriately at the waist and arms as the hand levers move up and down.
The smooth-running can motor and drive system is geared to move slowly, so don’t expect the handcar to keep very far ahead of locomotives that might be chasing it down from behind. The handcar doesn’t have a reverse unit, so if you launch it down your pike against traffic, the trip will be very short but memorable! At the end of the deck are molded prongs that could grasp a coupling pin on a lightweight trailer, so with a little creativity you can rig your handcar crew to pull cargo or supplies.
On the go, the lightweight handcar crossed through switches of several different manufacturers with only minimal bouncing, and it seemed to be happy running on several different brands of track. In short, the handcar gets two thumbs up for fun.
