Vintage.es has pictures of railway inspection cars. Some were fully converted, others have hydraulic guide wheels so they can run on roads then switch to rails when needed.
Most are regular sedans or wagons. Two are interesting.
The 7th pic is a 1955 Imperial Ghia limo, with a uniformed waitress standing on the gravel beside the track, offering a tray of drinks to the rail executive inside. Ghia limos were RARE and EXPENSIVE. Only 170 were made that year. I guess money doesn’t matter when you’re the CEO.
The 11th pic is a four-door Willys wagon operated by Chesapeake and Ohio. The four-door was never produced by Willys in US. A few foreign branches like Brazil developed their own. Did C&O buy it in Brazil? It looks more homemade than the Brazil version, so it was probably an in-house conversion. The better question is why Willys never sold it here. Four-door wagons were always more popular, and Willys could have copied their Brazilian tooling.
All US auto companies had the same odd blindness. Their own foreign divisions often came up with good ideas, which were totally ignored by the US branch. Australians turned our wagons into utes, but the big three ignored their own Aussies until Ford broke the ice with the ’57 Ranchero. Even then the Ranchero didn’t follow the typical Aussie ute. In response to the Mustang, AMC wasted money on the misplaced Marlin instead of reusing the beautiful IKA Torino from its own Argentines. The Mustang was Rambler-sized, so Rambler should have responded with a better Rambler-sized sport coupe. It was easily available.
I suppose Not Invented Here explains the obtuseness, but when ‘not here’ is inside your own company you could save lots of money and avoid patent problems.
Around 1980 the big three finally broke the barrier with Ford’s Escort and Chevy’s Chevette. Both were based on designs already widespread in the foreign branches.
Polistra's Mill 