Wheels: Ford on track — railroad track, that is

I saw an old photo of Henry Ford driving a Model T on railroad tracks and I admit, I got a little excited. I know, that’s pretty transportation nerdy but that’s how I roll, pun intended. It wasn’t just the combination of trains and cars that piqued my interest, it was how the Model T rode on rails on what appeared to be its stock wheels, sans tires, with little else in the way of modifications.

Now, old Henry Ford the first was a bit of a tyrant, but history has cemented his reputation as a genius industrialist and persistent business man, perhaps plagued by an excess of hubris but seeing that photo blew my mind. Of course! A Model T riding on train tracks couldn’t have happened by accident. Henry Ford was onto something (no pun intended this time). The standard U.S. railroad track gauge (the distance between the rails) and the similar track width of the Model T surely must have been intentional.