How to utilise abandoned railways?

[no.to...@gmail.com]

Let's assume that the socio-political issues are resolved,
and just concentrate on the technical aspects.

Let's approach the topic incrementally from the simplest principles:

If I've got a perfectly symetrical 2-axes, 4 wheel 'carriage' pulled
along a perfectly straight rail-track via a sky-hook, then what stops
it from 'going off the track' eventually?

If the flanges [are they called?] on the wheels rubbing against the
rails, are used as more than an extra safety, this seems a very
inefficient method.

I'd expect some method, like the dihederal of aircraft wings,
which stabilise the craft from 'flipping over' to be applicable.

For rail tracks which are very irregular, have other than steel
wheels been tried?

Isn't there a big problem where the difference in the height
at the joint of two rails has become significant? A step.

What about a system where a detector monitors the rail
conditions, ahead of the wheels?

To demonstrate this idea, consider the extreme idea
that the forward-monitor would detect that the
left rail was missing. Theoretically the train could
proceed by:
1. lift all the left wheels,
2 slide the carriage's center of gravity so that it's
above the right wheel-line.

Do you remember the Sedgwick?

Less complex would be the removal of load from the
wheel that's comming up to a 'step'.
Now I'm talking about a multi-wheel almost a
caterpillar configuration.

Is there any online documentation about very low
level techology, eg. 2 teams of donkey walking on
either side of the track, pulling a laden carriage
via long ropes, or useing the power generated by a
motor cycle to drive the carriage wheels, in such a
way that the motor cycle can be easily decoupled,
and used to travel over game-paths in the bush.

TIA.

== Chris Glur.