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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 16, 2015 21:48:40 GMT 12
I discovered this rather interesting photograph on the National Library of NZ website.  Click on the image to learn more. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 16, 2015 22:21:14 GMT 12
Great photo. That truck looks Italian, what do you reckon? Captured?
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 16, 2015 22:45:21 GMT 12
You can see there are actually two trucks, coupled-up back-to-back, although I wouldn't have a clue what make they are. Perhaps they are coupled together that way so they can beat a hasty retreat if necessary without having to turn the truck around. A bit like a double-ended locomotive set, or railcar. However, the collection that photograph comes from looks really interesting. There are literally thousands of images, taken in Italy as well as North Africa. CLICK HERE to access the image gallery that photograph is part of. You could waste many enjoyable hours trawling through that lot. |
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Post by delticman on Feb 17, 2015 11:18:42 GMT 12
As the are not Hi-Rail type vehicles like the ones at KiwiRail, they would be used like motor trolleys. The trailing one is out of gear, no engine running and towed like an unbraked wagon. The leading truck and use all gears and go as fast as permissible. Once at destination, the trailing truck takes the lead and the process is reversed.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 17, 2015 11:26:08 GMT 12
That railway line must have been built by the Poms.
Look at the “chair” mounting of the double-sided rails sitting above the sleepers.
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Post by camtech on Feb 17, 2015 11:46:33 GMT 12
Fordson truck, perhaps
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Post by delticman on Feb 17, 2015 12:16:26 GMT 12
It was a British Railway, my father drove their Railcars for a while. The photo perhaps portrays a British ROC.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 17, 2015 13:57:19 GMT 12
I have heard the NZ Army built a railway line across the desert in WWII. I wonder if it is still in use today?
I'll bet that mode of transport seen above was a welcome sight to the troops, better than walking the patrol!
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 17, 2015 14:21:03 GMT 12
It wasn't the NZ Army who built railway lines in North Africa, Dave.
It was track gangs from the New Zealand Government Railways Department.
Likewise, the trains were operated by Mechanical Branch staff and Traffic Branch Staff from the NZGR.
Although they came under army discipline, the NZGR workers remained as employees of NZ Government Railways and held their seniority positions while on overseas service.
Sadly, other returned servicemen didn't recognise the railway workers as being returned servicemen and they were barred from joining the RSA on their return from overseas.
I worked with old-school locomotive drivers when I was a boy on the job at Napier back in the mid-1970s, who were still really bitter about how they had been treated by returned servicemen and the Returned Services Association.
A lot of those chaps had heavy-drinking problems (including while on the job) and I have often wondered since if that was their way of dealing with the way they were treated.
After all, those chaps were under constant attack by the Luftwaffe and the Africa Korps, even though they were operating a railway and not shooting back.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 17, 2015 17:56:47 GMT 12
But is the railway line still in use today?
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Post by delticman on Feb 17, 2015 21:00:43 GMT 12
Yes, the NZ ROC's did build railway rather quickly but the Indians did it faster. I had a bit of a google this arvo and there is quite a bit on activities.
Libya pulled their section up in 1946 but part still remains in Egypt as a branch line.
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Post by Andy Wright on Feb 17, 2015 22:31:47 GMT 12
Truck is a Ford, I reckon. Commonly known as a "beer barrel" Ford.
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Post by camtech on Feb 18, 2015 8:39:25 GMT 12
Looking closer, appears to be left hand drive.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 18, 2015 10:04:16 GMT 12
Though similar I cannot find any pictures of a beer barrel Ford truck that looks to match. The windscreen arrangement is different as is the fact this is a soft top, and the wheels look German/Italian to me, but it's the sill behind the doors that is distinctly different from the Ford. Unless they changed the whole back of the cab, and the windscreen when it was converted to a soft top? And added some wheels from something else?
When I first saw it the first thing that entered my head was Fiat. But I can't find a match for that brand either.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 18, 2015 11:09:27 GMT 12
Those are flanged wheels designed for running on rails, so they wouldn't be the original wheels that came with the two trucks.
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Post by nuuumannn on Feb 18, 2015 17:51:57 GMT 12
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Feb 19, 2015 14:45:11 GMT 12
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