This week, the Washington man put his homebuilt “steam speeder” up for sale on the online auction site eBay and Bendixen says it’s already getting a lot of attention.
“I just took a speeder to the next level and added a boiler to it,” he tells Trains News Wire.
Bendixen worked as a metal fabricator for 38 years and owned a shop until eight years ago, when he started building boilers for steam engine enthusiasts. He says he sells about one stationary engine and boiler every month, mostly to steam hobbyists. Bendixen first got interested in steam engines back in the mid-1990s when his wife got him a small table top engine.
Bendixen first built a steam-powered speeder in 2012 and he soon sold it to a man in Pennsylvania. About a year ago, he finished his second steam speeder. Like the first, Bendixen built it from the rails up. The boiler can be fired with either wood or coal and it can operate at about 80 psi. The speeder can go forward and reverse. Bendixen says he’s run the speeder a few times but he’s never opened it up to find its top speed.
Although Bendixen says a lot of people are interested in the steam speeder no one has put a bid up for it so far. The asking price is $14,000 and the auction closes on March 1. Bendixen says once he sells this one he’ll get to work making a third. Even though the steam speeders are not flying off the shelves (Bendixen says he’s put this same speeder up for sale on eBay multiple times in the last year), he says they are fun to build. He adds that he only knows of one other person who has ever constructed a steam speeder in the United States.
“I build these because they’re just so fascinating,” he says.
Of course, anyone who does decide to buy their own steam-powered speeder will have to follow the rules of the railroad, just like any other motorcar owner. Owners and operators of motorcars, speeders and rail bikes should always get permission from the owner of a rail line before operating their vehicle, even if they think the line is abandoned. State and local laws on pressure vessels (boilers) may also apply to these unusual rail vehicles.
