The rail minivan has its own built-in turntable: eastern Europe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zeBIxI7n1I

I wonder if a setup like that can be done that is motorized.

I'm sure the operation could be automated, but this is southern Eastern Europe.

I'm amazed the vehicle didn't tip over not only while being turned but also during the journey that track wasn't exactly in the best shape either.

Track maintenance cars or whatever you call them speedsters perhaps? in the USA quite often had something like this except it wasn't quite so ramshackled.

Cheerio John

The idea of a track maintenance/inspection motorcar than can be fairly easily rotated in place on the track sounds neat. That van looks kind of shoddy though. Being in eastern Europe such shoddiness is not surprising. The vehicle apparently was well-balanced on its jack. It looks kind of dangerous to crawl under it to jack it up with that mickey-mouse setup. A wind could topple that thing. I would think the mechanicals to convert it to rails as shown in that video would be costly though unless rail conversion kits are ready-made and mass-produced over there. It still might be cheaper for eastern European railways to convert those old Ford minivans in poor countries like Romania where Count Dracula and gypsies hail from than to buy brand-new modern MOW trucks. A new MOW truck with a Ford chassis/cab might cost at least $100 grand in America but American railroads are rich and fat-profit. You as an American consumer of rail-shipped goods foot the bill on those fancy railroad maintenance vehicles. American MOW trucks have rubber highway tires intact and no complex custom drivetrain seems to be needed. It looks like an ordinary medium-duty Class 4, 5 or 6 commercial truck with the rail adapters added on by a truck upfitter. They have a simple-looking set of rail guiding wheels at each end that I guess are hydraulically raised and lowered coming off the transmission PTO,unless they are electric.

I guess the American MOW trucks are driven off the rails and re-railed again if they need to be turned around and there is no wye or turntable handy. Speeders are light and can be easily flipped by hand.

American Hi-rail vehicles have a hydraulic/pneumatic lift system. I've seen them work before it's cool. The driver drives the vehicle on to a grade crossing and faces the direction he wants to go on the railroad. He then presses a button and the wheels drop down and engage into places while rubberized rollers rub against the road tires. The same motor and mechanism that drives the vehicle on the road, then drives the rail-wheels. As complex as it may look, it's operation and principles are pretty simple.

I might suggest that the guy drive a back-a-wards, and employ a back-er-upper camera, with second man supervising the back-up move ... rather than the 45 minute, git' down on the dirt on yer' bellly, and jack up the highly sophisimacated' doo wacky, an' turn it cady' whompus' mechanizum