I am looking for a photo / name of this old railway "device/machine" -?

Question

iIn which 2 people sit on both sides and in order to make it move on the rails the push down a pole one at a time, it looks like a seesaw.

Answer 1

Right, it was a handcar which usually was used by track repair,inspectors, and messengers.

Answer 2

Believe it or not they were simply called hand cars.  There is a company that is still building them today.  It is a near perfect replica of the Sheffield made in the 1800's.

Answer 3

Hand cars.  

They were replaced in the 1920s by motor cars.  Seems there was a farm engine company in Fairmont, Minn. who was looking for a market for their engines.  Some exhausted gandy dancers pumped by on a handcar.  BING!  The rest is history. http://www.fairmonttamper.com/

Fairmont doesn't make motor cars anymore (Hy-Rail replaced them) but NARCOA is a hobby organization to preserve them and hand cars.  http://www.narcoa.org/

I'm one of those NARCOA types, so for safety reasons I don't endorse, but do mention for completeness' sake, these links.

http://www.handcar.org/

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/200...

http://www.handcar.org/results/2002/nz2k...

Answer 4

Here's a cgi picture for a train simulator program

http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/In...

Its a push cart.