I Built a Go-Kart for Abandoned Railroads

this is my homemade railroad go-kart that I'm about to take on these abandoned railroad tracks They lead to this 100-year-old train bridge that I am dying to see I love Bridges and I don't really know why this one in particular is in the middle of the desert and the only way to get there is by train so I'm going to have to build my own the only problem with that is I'm really no engineer but for some reason this year has been the year of me trying to build things a lot of it has just felt like adult Legos like I'm connecting things to other things this on the other hand will require me to mount a real 200C engine to something that fits on a railroad and somehow get it all to move and travel 10 mi into the desert to see a bridge so sit back relax and watch me try my best stop number one the dollar store Home Depot also known as Harbor Freight where you can buy a lawnmower engine basically for $150 212 CC's this thing is no joke I immediately regretted doing that now that I have the engine I'm realizing that I don't really know how I'm going to build this thing I've got a bunch of leftover wood from the tiny house boat which is a start but I got a lot of questions kind of rattling off up here number [Applause] one what gole say so I will trust what I on it's internet come on 5645 it is [Music] 56.5 in wide that's 1.43 M the screws I used were probably 2 in too long so just grinded those off and then the next day cut some more leftover boat wood to use as the floor of the frame I don't really know how to cut wood and that's okay because although this thing is janky it is less than 56.5 in wide so it should fit perfectly between the rails on the railroad ah all aboard One Way TI get to I'm really blank in here huh the goat Canyon Trestle Bridge sorry I forgot the name it was built in 1932 on what ended up being nicknamed The Impossible railroad it earned this nickname because of the challenges that come along with building a railroad on the side of a really Steep Canyon in extreme desert conditions eventually one of the tunnels on the railroad collapsed and the Goat Canyon Trestle Bridge was constructed to reconnect the railroad to the other side of the tunnel the railroad was abandoned in the ' 70s but somehow 100 years later that bridge still stands today at 200 ft tall 750 ft wide but in order for me to see it I've got to start assembling the wheels and the axles that will hopefully get me there I began with the axles got it the wheels I bought are not for railroads those would cost $200 popcorn so I bought these $36 Amazon ones that I drove holes into and attached metal plates to and yes some would call this sketchy but you know I prefer for DIY Innovative Etc I will say that I did make sure to mount all of the wheels within 56. for the next 6 days I worked on the engine and this sucker about ended me look at how hard I'm trying I mean it was exhausting but somehow I got that engine mounted I got a chain on it and all of a sudden it was time for me to find out if this thing worked at all and I was feeling nervous because this this was the Moment of Truth here goes nothing weeks of work for this [Music] moment oh my god really bad news the wheels are going in in the opposite direction which means the engine needs correction in other words I put the engine on backwards why am I stupid and then it wouldn't start for me please just start so I called that cold aggressively then gave up and used the w warantee replaced for free a 90day guarantee and finally after weeks of troubleshooting she was ready to see the bridge I added a few bells and whistles right at the end like this bull bar the horn the lights but then it was time to put the go-kart on the trailer and I don't really know why I thought I could do this by myself [Music] yeah this is a Twan job thank you Eric for immediately getting out of bed right when I called you to help me move this thing it is 5:30 in the morning and it's time to go to the desert getting up at the crack ofon to accomplish something that you have been working on for weeks and weeks is a special thing I was lucky enough to do it with my friend MO yeah I knew his coffee mug was appropriate for what we were about to do but I don't think either of us knew that this adventure would begin so quickly no no first time I I'm pumped oh for real I think it's going to be really great uh never been that's not that's not for me yeah is he pulling me over yeah yeah dang it should I keep filming yeah I just keep keep oh so sorry so sorry going license regist yes yes I'm I'm sorry I I didn't realize you don't want to pull I I guess I was I was was I speeding I I actually don't know keep pulling you over because Shopify is an easyuse allinone Commerce platform Shopify empowers more entrepreneurs than anyone in the world and they celebrate that in pretty big ways to be honest just look at what they did with the sphere to celebrate Black Friday Cyber Monday they love the sphere I love the sphere that's it you're under arrest you have the right to start a business anything you say can and will be used to promote that business oh like the t-shirt business I started with Shopify to sell my pmer engine t-shirts wait dude that was you yeah that was [Music] me you have the right to a custom business name okay if you cannot afford a business name one will be provided for you using shopify's free business name generator all you have to do is type in what your business is about and then AI spits out all these fire business names that's all you have to do wait wait wait wait wait for real yeah that's it that's sick yeah start a business with Shopify today at shopify.com pressed and goes what was that I don't know what did you test it on it all spun like everything spun but you never tested it to see if it would actually go forward it just spun it just spun okay so what's going to be riding with us a cooler full of beverages a gas tank full of gasoline tool bag with every single tool just in case wait The Impossible real room how crazy is that is that crazy for a second it felt like we were in the final scene of like an Indiana Jones [Music] movie oh my gosh what are we doing I don't know now level of off-roading continued for 45 minutes yeah baby I was a little stressed we stopped at checking the go-kart a few times somehow it was still one piece and before you knew it we were pulling up to the entrance of the impossible railroad it was about to happen and I could immediately see that the width of these rails were actually 4T 82 in also known as5 it is why 1243 m go I was oddly excited to measure [Music] it no no two things hit me in this moment number one 56.5 was inside to inside not outside to outside this infographic would have been really helpful before I started building number two although I built this to be adjustable in this exact moment I'm remembering that there's only one tool I need in order to adjust the width of the go-kart and I left that in the backyard so what you're seeing here is an adult man slowly unraveling oh man this sucks um and then I decided that I'm I'm going to I'm going to drive home now that is the laugh of a guy who doesn't let his friends give up my guy Mo said we should drive to the closest Home Depot rebuild in the parking lot spend the night at a Motel 6 get wake up the next morning brush our teeth at 7-Eleven Drive 2 hours back to the same spot and try again oh my gosh yes yes okay okay okay let r [Music] it's [Music] also well kind of ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking Welcome to The Impossible railroad sit back relax and enjoy this go-karts main voyage to the goat Canyon Trestle Bridge [Music] this thing is still one piece somehow so we're going to double the speed y'all may want to buckle [Music] up [Music] we were [Music] cooking we're okay we're good W unfortunately we were not while Mo was looking for the phone I found this this is a broken wheel and we were 2 mi into our 8mile journey to the bridge and I was pretty unsure if this was recoverable so we decided to turn around when the strangest thing happened you may have noticed this earlier but there was another car parked next to ours when we started on the tracks at the time we thought it was really weird but didn't really think much of it and here we are now hours later in the middle of the desert realizing that those people are doing the exact same thing we are worst comes to worst what will happen is we'll come back down and we can stick your whole cart on our cart wow huge blessing thank you guys we are not staying out here past dark so we're going to be back down well you guys are the best have the best our Guardian Angels continued on to the bridge that I so desperately wanted to see well we stayed here and tried to fix this thing without their help and it feels kind of possible because I brought this bag full of nuts and bolts inside that bag was this big boy washer it was just big enough to kind of cover one of the holes and hopefully hold the bolt in place it was pretty wonky but it fit in well with our PVC pipes and zip ties we used to rebuild at Home Depot unfortunately any weight would immediately break the wheel so we'd have to push it all the way back to the car hey where'd you get your shirt do you like it I love it man if you'd like to support the channel feel free to grab a shirt because you know sometimes the answer is to just put more engines other times like in this situation the answer is to start the engine and just send it all the way home with your fingers crossed you know cuz why walk when you have one of these see if we can make it back [Music] our Frankenstein wheel was doing the impossible we didn't make it to the bridge and that's okay because I'm hooked I have to do this again if any of you would like to see that video please let us know in the comments this is my last upload of the year and just want to say thank you so much it's been one of my favorite years I've ever had and that's because of you guys I was like actually so epic

Channel: prestongoes

Views: 3,276,984

Keywords: rail kart, railroad go kart, prestongoes, Archie moreno

Id: 1TSQ9nNm1_U

Length: 13min 59sec (839 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 23 2023