Came across this beauty when I should have been doing other things
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/149542/

From the comments;
"I would have never believed it if I didn't see it!! This Mini was actually used as a track inspection vehicle and came equipped with a hydraulic turntable for turning it."

Fascinating, especially the part about the variety of rail gauges used in this country.

why is standard gauge 4ft 8.5 in?

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65 panel van Sprog
73 panel van Iggy

It suddenly makes sense if you hold the tape measure differently.
The gauge is the measurement between the two inner faces of the rails, standard gauge = 4ft 8.5 in.
If you were to measure the outside faces you end up with 5 foot.

I wonder how it looks like when running..

standard gauge comes from the Romans ,it is the width between the wheels of a chariot
and that is dictated from width of the usual two horses pulling the said chariot therefore standard gauge is the width of two horses bums

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65 panel van Sprog
73 panel van Iggy

And the chariot wheel track comes from 2 Romans in full armour walking side by side

and all of this is why when the designers designed the space shuttle the width of a horse arse was one of the design parameters.
The solid rocket fuel boosters were meant to be short and stubbier but being made in Arkansas they had to travel by rail to Florida and trains go though tunnels and as the trains track width and subsequent tunnels are all based on the width of a horses bum the boosters had to be longer and thinner to fit, so long story short the Most expensive complex vehicle of our time had part of its design set by the a horses bum