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Thread: Rail bikes

  1. #1
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    Rail bikes

    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  2. #2
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    Excellent find. I have long had an interest in Patagonia based on spectacular photography from the region. This adventure did not seem to get there, but I can see why the flat stretches required missing the beautiful and intriguing mountains. You have to admire the old guys’ spirit.
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  3. #3
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    Twenty years ago I had a plan of driving the Pan-American Highway to Tierra del Fuego in my F-250 which had already been to the northern terminus in Prudhoe Bay.

    At the time, the passage through parts of Columbia and Ecuador were a bit perilous. The road was, at places, only a trail passable by motor cycle or bike and infested with criminals. The safe alternative route was to use an ocean ferry to get around those areas.

    In one of my trips on the Dalton Highway, which is an unofficial extension of the Alaskan Highway and the Pan-American Highway, I met a gentleman who was in his 60's. He was only a couple hundred miles south of Prudhoe Bay, the terminus. He was heading north---and had begun in Tierra del Fuego. I forget now how long he had been on his journey but he seemed almost sad that it was going to end soon. He had been robbed multiple times in Columbia by highway pirates but his spirit remained undaunted.

    I also, on another trip, met two young men in Washington who had just picked up their custom Unimog in Seattle and were beginning their trip north to Prudhoe where they would begin their "official" trip to Terra del Fuego. They were both Swiss and in their mid twenties. Obviously, there was a rich Daddy in the mix! I was, frankly, envious of what they were about to do. I saw them again about a week latter as they started up the Dalton and they were even more excited than they had been in Seattle, I think the reality of their adventure was converting from a dream to reality---good for them. I am sure by this time they are telling their children of that trip
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  4. #4
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    Apparently our visiting Bots have an interest in “rail bikes.”
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by wacojoe View Post
    Apparently our visiting Bots have an interest in “rail bikes.”
    How did you think they get from one site to another so quickly?......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  6. #6
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    Why did I see the title of this thread and click on it expecting to see something around 1800 horsepower on 2 wheels????
    "Illegal Immigrant" is not a race....

    ‎"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." ~John Adams

  7. #7
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    Most excellent find..

    I worked with a guy who was from Argentina.. had an uncle who owned a “farm” in Patagonia, friend would visit in late 40s-early 50s.. uncles farm truck was a half track.. Uncle made his fortune selling diesel fuel to German submarines, had a fuel barge and a tug boat, would meet the submarine in international waters..

    On edit: friend says that in 1950 there were towns in Patagonia that spoke German and flew the swastika.. some ready made sets for Ben’s videos

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