| Tasmanian Railway Mokes |
 The photo on the right here taken by Nic Doncaster, a rail buff, was taken in 1986 on the Eyre Pennisular in South Austraila of what is believed to be a TasRail Moke. This one has a soft top however it is believed they wore metal hardtops when in use in the 70's.More information on the Nic Doncaster TasRail Moke page. In the National Archives these two documents can be found that provide detailed drawings of a Spacer and derailer for the Tas Rail Mokes. Thanks to DirtyPaw for finding them.    I was talking with someone recently in Tasmania who remembers his Father driving one of the TasRail Mokes and bringing it home after work where he and his Mates used to play on it. He is going to look through some old Family photos and see if he can find any pictures of the Moke. There is rumoured to be one or two still in existence, however efforts to find them have drawn a blank on each ocassion. Michael Dix of RailTasmania.com has provided some more information regarding these special Mokes. There is a reference in the Annual Report (either 1964 or 1965, would have to check) about getting these vehicles for road/rail use after evaluating various light vehicle types. They were eventually replaced by the Toyota Dynas, but there was still a fleet of 16 Mokes around in 1977/1978 when AN very thoughtfully did a very detailed report on the system. These were allocated to the various Track Supervisors and Permanent Way Inspectors at various locations and were given fleet numbers between 475 and 491, although 489 was allocated to the Chief Traffic Manager's fleet, 488 was listed as spare, and 490 was allocated to the erecting shop for some reason. Only 487 doesn't seem to have been around at this time. The allocated values varied widely, from $6900 for 477 down to $501 for 489, suggesting that there was a range of age for these vehicles. Photos are very rare, I certainly don't have any in my collection. If you know anything else about the TasRail Mokes then please contact this website. October 2007 A number of people have commented that the TasRail Mokes were yellow with a metal hardtop and that perhaps this one is not in fact a TasRail Moke. |
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