This 15 minute YouTube video is mostly a slide show collection of some of the strange and unique railway vehicles produced over time.  It makes for fascinating viewing as well as being a tribute to the engineering innovation of decades and centuries past.

My favourite “strange” locomotive of those featured in this video is the “Fontaine” designed by Eugene Fontaine, of Detroit. Two of these were actually built and tried out on numerous railroads. One of these (pictured below) shows one of them arriving at St Thomas, Ontario, Canada, in July 1881, for trials on the Canada Southern Railroad.  For the full story of this fascinating design, click here. 

Posting by Russ Milland

Fontaine locomotive at St. Thomas, Ontario – July 1881