Introduction: Railroad Train Smashes Shopping Cart Creating a Sweet Lowboy Dolly

By www.mit.edu/people/robot
About: Tim Anderson is the author of the "Heirloom Technology" column in Make Magazine. He is co-founder of www.zcorp.com, manufacturers of "3D Printer" output devices. His detailed drawings of traditional Pacific I…

Some tweaker near here likes to leave shopping carts on the railroad tracks.
Trains smash them which does them no good. Usually.
Today however I found one which the train managed to actually improve,
by making it into a tasty little lowboy dolly.
picture: Will Bosworth savors the joy of this wagon's utter smoothness.

Step 1: Wreckage

Someone likes to leave shopping carts on the train tracks here.
Here's the remains of the basket part of one such cart.

Step 2: Skeleton

The rest of the cart looks like this.

Step 3: Cut Off the Front Bracket.

Use a bodygrinder to cut through the welds holding the front bracket on.

Step 4: I'd Hammer in the Morning

I missed some weld, so I beat on it with a hammer til it came off.
Then grind off the sharp stubby welds with the bodygrinder.

Step 5: Gentlemen, Behold!

I have created this... THING!

Commence using the power of the wheel to ease your labors.

Step 6: Life Just Keeps Getting Better

I passed some nice lumber from discarded theatrical sets.
So I got the dolly, stuck my bike's front wheel on the platform of the dolly and rode back tthat way. It didn't work very well but was fun.

There I loaded up the wood, tied it on with an innertube, and threw my bike on top. I pushed it back by foot.
I could have carried twice as much. If it were further I'd have rigged a tongue and dragged it with the bike.

Now I think I'll make some shelves.