Fiat railcar???

Seems to be air-braked too, so it can pull those trucks in the siding which it passes at 1'57"? So that's where Top Gear got their ideas from.

Richard

 

Is it just me expecting to see Borat spring up and start telling us about the pride of the Kazakh railway system?

 

The use of car bodies is quiet common in Italy. There are track inspection vehicles made from the old FIAT 600 Multipla bus. A friend has one sitting under wraps ready for restoration. It could be an option for a railcar where there are very limited passenger numbers!

 

Oh I would not want to be in an accident in one of those.

 

Car Based Track Inspection vehicles were very common in North America in addition to the more typical hand carts of motorized speeders.

Several are preserved including a 1938 Buick Special of the Canadian Pacific Railway at the Canadian Railway Museum outside of Montreal.


Image from and more images at http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/inspection/gallery.htm

 

Now that is travelling in style!

 

Having just seen the Top Gear where they built rail cars at the GCR, the Top Gear guys overlooked one critical piece of kit that the Canadian Vehicle Based Rail Cars had, a portable turntable!! Most if not all of the Canadian Track Inspection Cars had a portable jack mounted to the bottom with a swivel plate, strong enough to allow the car to be jacked up and swung around to go back from whence it came without having to reverse for great distances.

That said, the Jag looked like it would have been a fun drive to take out on a track inspection run, assuming someone other than Clarkson was at the gas pedal!!!

 

Here is a version of the track inspection vehicle from British Columbia -- the car belonged to the old Pacific Great Eastern Railway -it is now located at the West Coast Heritage park in Squamish -- and yes it does run - it shows up in parades in Squamish in the summer. It s street legal and has equipment to run on the rails .