Sunday History Photo / SA

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During the 1940’s the South Australian Railways had a need for a vehicle to patrol the standard gauge line from Port Augusta to Cooke. The main requirements were to keep an eye on the important railway line, as well as looking for possible escapees from the prisoner of war camps established in that area. The railway workshops situated in Islington obtained a bare cab/chassis from one of the many imported from the USA and proceeded to build a custom built body onto this. The finished car ran on large railway type wheels, had two hatches in the roof and was finished in a camouflage pattern of green, brown and sand. The railway vehicle also carried an Australian Army rego number, which suggests that the Chevrolet belonged to the army and not the railways.
Some time after the war the ownership reverted to the South Australian Railways who used this unique vehicle as a pay car travelling from Port Augusta with the paychecks for all the railway staff in this vast outback area of South Australia. The railway Chev was finally retired in the1970's and was saved from destruction by the Port Dock Railway Museum. It was displayed by the museum for 15 years until lack of available display area meant that the Chev was moved into out door storage. At this time the South Australian Military Vehicle Museum made approaches to the Port Dock Museum to move the vehicle to their site so that it would be able to be viewed in an undercover area set up specifically for it.
An area in the vehicle museum was set up in preparation of the move. It was the intention of the museum staff to finish restoring the Chev to its original army configuration including all numbers and camouflage. The Chev is a most unique exhibit as it is the only one ever built for the army in SA, the only surviving standard gauge rail motor vehicle used by the Commonwealth Railways and most likely one of the few railway vehicles ever owned by the Australian Army.