This was something I had always wanted to do, was ride on an old fashioned railroad speeder. They were so named, as I understand, that they were faster than a handcar. Speeders were used to examine maintenance of the railroad track. You might have seen the modern version were pickup trucks that have flanged wheels that can be lowered onto the rail, and I think that would be fun too.
I’ll second all of that, but that does not look like a railroad work crew to me.
Tim
Not sure of the year. 1951/52 F.G.S. Co. sold all the rails from the main line Of W.P. to camp Stanford. They hired an inspector to grade each rail. My Father driving the speeder from the left seat the inspector on the right, and me riding shotgun in the back. He could only grade one side at a time so we started at Camp Harvey going East to Stanford and
and then back to Halls Flat and ending up back at Harvey. Indeed for a boy of ten it was a fun Summer.