Here’s a great website operated by a guy named Dave for Willys Wagon lovers called Willys Country. He wrote telling me he had a single page up for a while, but chose a few months ago to expand it into the present version. In particular, The Willys Hy-rail Vehicles Page of the website has some great pictures of willys designed for the railway that I’ve never seen in one location.
The site also covers normal wagons, 3 door willys wagons, 4 door wagons, a 3 door wagon that came with a suicide back door, a limo used at an airport, and more. And how about the flattie with the soft half top — I haven’t seen many of those tops in that style.
If you happen to see some of the rare Willys Wagons he seeks, please contact him via his website, as he does attempt to track them.
From the website:
“Willys made a variety of Hi-rail vehicles – trucks and wagons – for use on both highway and railroad tracks. These were US manufactured and titled by Fairmont and referred to as Hi-rail vehicles. Hy-rail is short for Highway-railroad.
Fairmont Railway Motors Inc, located in Fairmont, MN, developed road-rail technology in the 1940s to improve flexibility of vehicle use for railroad maintenance. Fairmont was bought by Harsco in the late 1980s. Hy-rail is still a trademark of Harsco Track Technologies and they still sell conversion kits called Hy-Rail Guide Wheel Attachments.”
