Colombia’s Motorcycle Rail Cars Are Terrifyingly Simple Public Transportation

The world is full of bizarre contraptions adapted to ride on narrow-gauge railways. From the converted Ford Transit vans that roam a historic logging track in Romania to the two-headed Chrysler rail car that brought workers to a gypsum quarry in the ‘50s, we’ve seen our fair share of “trains” made out of machines that were never intended to ride the rails in the first place.

But these Colombian “brujitas,” which transport residents and tourists on a disused narrow-gauge railway deep into the rainforest, are perhaps the jankiest—and the most ingenious. During a recent trip, I climbed aboard to check out one of South America’s most primitive, yet effective, systems of public transportation.

“Brujita” means “little witch” in Spanish. It’s easy to see why these vehicles might look like witchcraft to an outsider, but they’re incredibly simple. A motorcycle sits mounted to a wooden platform, its rear tire resting on one rail track and providing forward thrust. The wooden platform contains benches for passengers and rolls along on tiny train wheels.

Think of it as a hybrid between a rail bike and a speeder, but much more cobbled together. Some now have tarp roofs to protect travelers from the oft-soaked rainforest, but as you can tell from this English-subtitled video from 2019, that wasn’t always the case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s6pOYDqsVQ

The brujita's simplicity has a few key advantages. First: fuel efficiency. My colleague and resident rail expert James Gilboy pointed out that there isn’t much rolling resistance between a single motorcycle tire and four greased train wheels. Even with a full load of passengers aboard, the motorcycles’ small-displacement engines move the platforms along at 20-30 mph with little strain, and their fuel tanks can be topped up with a jerry can.