WAGR Hirail

  

This road-rail is a GEMCO unit.

GEMCO - George Morris Pty Ltd, produced a range of railway equipment, including Sylvester Motor Cars for Queensland.

They were a little more broadly known for the other equipment that they produced, including road-rails, benders, pullers, and so on.

WAGR were quick to see the benefits of road-rail over the traditional section car, and converted over starting in the 1950's.

The hirail above is a standard gauge unit, based on a Toyota FJ40HT short wheelbase unit.

A stab in the dark would give a date of early seventies for this unit. It could be earlier, as the standardisation project had begun back in 1966.

The WAGR had an issue with hydraulic systems after one of their engineers was given a shower in Hydraulic oils.

GEMCO was purchased by Futuris Industries in the '80's. In the 1990s, a review of the business saw it being split up. Two directors formed a new company to maintain lines in Australia. See the GEMCO RAIL website!

if you have any info on the other types of WAGR road-rails - even recent ones - I'd love to hear from you.

Uploaded December 5, 2004, Updated April 2014

© Nic Doncaster

Thanks to Ken McHugh for providing the scan of the brochure