News Update 12 – X-Cart Progress
One critical component of the overall plan for Mechanization of Railroad Maintenance and Expansion is the fabrication of the X-Cart, a two-foot gauge rail car specifically fabricated to host a small excavator. This will allow mechanization of ditching, tie replacement, brush cutting, and other critical maintenance tasks needed to sustain and grow our operations.
On Aug. 1, 2024 the X-Cart was tested with our Kubota excavator. Everything fit perfectly. Now we will be adding outriggers and a hydraulic propulsion system to the X-Cart, so that once the ballast hoppers arrive, we can get to work maintaining our railway.
At this time, the hopper cars are stored at Edaville Railroad, waiting transport to Maine. We hope to have them on the rails in Alna sometime this fall.
Meanwhile, our friends and followers from around the world have raised 35% of the cost to bring the cars to the WW&F! Join the worldwide narrow gauge movement by contributing at: www.wwfry.org/africa