Seeing a potential for the unused E&N rail line on Vancouver Island, a Parksville resident has built a recreational rail bike to ride along the tracks of the once functioning railroad.

Russell Ramsden, 71, said he found plans for the Bentley Railbike while scanning the internet. He built the attachments for the bike using wood and metal and added an outrigger on the left side of the bike that attaches to the opposite track for balance.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just a bicycle with an attachment on the front,鈥� Ramsden said. 鈥淚 was interested in building this because the railroad bed is maximum a one-per-cent grade, so that鈥檚 pretty flat. I thought this would be a kind of cool way to look around and see what鈥檚 around here that you can鈥檛 see from the road.鈥�

He said riding the bike along the railroad is surprisingly easy.

鈥淚t does glide very well,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he one down side鈥� there鈥檚 a fair bit of growth on the tracks in certain areas which is really too bad. (The bike) has a little cow catcher on the front which pushes stuff out of the way. When you hit some broom or something it鈥檚 pretty tough stuff.鈥�

Ramsden said he gets a lot of his creative ideas from the Oceanside MakerSpace group. The group holds an open house on Wednesday鈥檚 from 6- 9 p.m. downstairs in the McMillian Art Centre.

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鈥淚 joined because there is a lot of creative people there,鈥� Ramsden said.

Ramsden, who is a former college woodwork teacher, is in the works of making another railbike for his wife and is also planning on making a four-person bike.

鈥淭hat railroad is just sitting there, it has such a huge potential,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ll our politicians don鈥檛 seem to be able to reach an agreement with what to do with that. I鈥檝e been thinking about the possibility of, once I get the four-seater bike done, possibly thinking about a tourist attraction using the rails if we can get permissions.鈥�

鈥淚f you look up rail parks online you鈥檒l see there are lots of areas where there are abandoned rail lines where they鈥檙e being used for tourism.鈥�

Ramsden has not yet received permission from the Island Corridor Foundation (ICF) to ride along the tracks.

鈥淚鈥檓 sure (getting permission) would take forever. (The ICF) had seven years to do something with it. Why can鈥檛 we use it and get some use out of it? Ramsden said. 鈥淚 think we need people on the respective governments with some vision that can see the bigger picture.鈥�

Ramsden believes it will be 鈥渁 matter of liability鈥� if the ICF contact him about his railbike.

Phil Kent, co-chair of the ICF, said the rail is private property and still considered active.

鈥淭here could be maintenance vehicles moving up and down the rail. I would suggest that (a railbike) is not safe and it鈥檚 certainly not an approved use,鈥� Kent said. He said that people who want to access the rail should go through the ICF.

鈥淭hey would be referred to the rail operators who are responsible ultimetey for safety and liability on the rail,鈥� Kent said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not that somebody couldn鈥檛 get permission to use the rail but there鈥檚 a process for that.鈥�

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