Boring Holes
Drilling holes may seem trivial, but it is quite a complicated task when each of the dozens of holes found on the handcar need to be perfectly lined up. To…
Making Gears
We manufacture the 90 spur gears that will make up our first run of touring handcars. Our gears arrive from the foundry as cast iron blanks. Before teeth can be…
Handcar Manufacturing
Mason is currently working over 100 hours a week on the handcar manufacturing project. Seven days a week he begins at 9am, and works in the shop until 6pm. Then…
Handcar Lumber Arrives
We took delivery of 1500 board feet of white ash and hard maple lumber to build our handcars. This lumber order is particularly sad as it will be our last…
Touring Handcar Testing
We finished a shake down run for our new touring handcar in Ely, Nevada. We put over 100 miles on the handcar testing it over the grueling railroad grades of…
New Touring Handcar Shown at Cal Poly Pomona
Our new touring handcar was displayed at Cal Poly Pomona. Hundreds of students, staff, and industry representatives stopped by to look at the handcar. The university featured the handcar on…
Clark Family Vacations
Over the years the Clark family enjoyed a number of vacations riding aboard Mason's handcars in California and Nevada. Most families go to Disneyland. Not the Clark family. We spent…
Manufacturing Handcars
Mason is 22 years old, but he has been manufacturing handcars since he was twelve. Building these machines is not a trivial exercise. Handcars have complicated wood joints and contain…