Odd NZ Fords

[Bill Murray]

I picked this off of a NZ historical site. Never seen this before and I wondered if any of you had any additional info.
Edit: Sorry, I forgot to resize the pic.
Bill

[cliff]

I have never seen that particular photo before but I do have photos of GMC-CCKW's, Leylands (Aust), jeeps etc being used as rail cars. Most were fitted with railroad wheels and just placed on the rails.

Cheers
Cliff

[Bill Murray]

Hi Cliff:
I too have seen the ones you mentioned and, of course, the Germans made great use of trucks with rail wheel equipment.

Odd to me is that these two vehicles seem to be purpose built in that the bodies are unknown to me and the wheels are really quite unusual for such equipment. As well, although it is hard to see it, I think they are LHD which may mean they may have come from Egyptian stocks. I hope David sees this one and is able to comment.
Bill

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Isn't that a '40 front end? I suspect that these were local conversions by the Ford plant in Alexandria...they were under Ford of Britain control but with a degree of autonomy as they were selling Ford Eifel cars which were of course subsidised and thus caused great consternation amongst the British car exporters to Egypt.

Nice shot!

[Bill Murray]

Hi David:
Actually, it is a 1939 model as evidenced by the "barrel" grille with horizontal louvres
The 1940/41 models had a different grille with vertical louvres as seen in this photo of a NZ fire truck.

It is difficult to tell the difference between the 1938/39 vehicles and the 1940/41 vehicles as there are only minor trim differences which are not always apparent on military trucks.

The difficulty in establishing an exact model year is also compounded by what I have learned from sort of anecdotal sources that often sheet metal that was out of production in the US was shipped to other countries and assembled later and sometimes for rather a long period of time.

We know that after the war a lot of body dies were sent to other countries, several in South America, Australia etc. and older models out of production in the US were produced for some years in these areas. I suspect a bit of that went on in the late 30's early 40's as well.

So, here is the fire truck.
Bill

[Mike Kelly]

Originally posted by Bill Murray
Hi David:

We know that after the war a lot of body dies were sent to other countries, several in South America, Australia etc. and older models out of production in the US were produced for some years in these areas. I suspect a bit of that went on in the late 30's early 40's as well.

So, here is the fire truck.
Bill

Hi Bill,

I don't agree totally , in 1940's here in OZ , Ford and GM generally kept up with the North American model releases , with, of course, the local design/manufacturing variations and input taken into account . Normally , all bonnets and front guards ( hoods and front fenders to you ) and grilles, were imported from either Canada or the USA . The cabs , doors , body shells, trim etc, were made here and followed the U.S. lead pretty much without any long lag.

There were some anomalies though . In N.Z. , the 39 Chev pickups were really odd , GM there had a surplus of 38 model cabs , so , they used up there 38 cabs on the 39 models . The result is real odd ball truck that look like nothing else .

Mike