Bicycles on Tracks
Trains are not the only vehicles moving on the railway tracks in Costa Rica now, bicycles are, too.

Railbike Adventures Costa Rica is now offering tours on bicycles adapted to travel on the unused railway tracks of the Pacific Railroad.

Foreign visitors hail the experience as unique, since it includes traveling cross country and trekking places such as the Grande River bridge, which is 200 meters long and 95 meters high.

Accordint to their website, Railbike Tours, research shows that railbiking has been around nearly as long as railroads and bicycles. A railbike patent in the U.S. Patent Office database is dated 1869. Scores of patents for railbike systems were filed between 1880 and 1920 around the world.

Railbikes were once used by railroad companies for track checking, moving workers at work sites as well as going for assistance when the locomotives broke down. Telegraph companies also used railbikes to maintain telegraph lines that often followed railways. In the Midwest and other regions with sufficient winds, workers using railbikes sometimes put up sails to power them along the tracks

Like its contemporary, the bicycle, railbike design went into decline with the advent of the internal combustion engine and the automobile. A few independently minded designers and tinkerers kept the concept alive for the last 90 years and today there is a resurgence of interest in railbiking.

Using modern materials and fabrication processes, Railbike Tours, Inc. says it  builds safe and efficient railbikes for use on authorized railroad lines for the enjoyment of the general public.

Railbike does have set dates for tours, but you can call the number listed on their website, or send them an email, for more information.