ugly watzit

Actually that Faegol in the picture is from a 'reborn' version of Faegol not the xompany that Al Peterman bought. It was an atempt to restart the name.

All of this is top of head: most of it exists in references on my bookshelf, but too hard to winkle out. There may be some errors.

The early versions of the classic Queensland Railways light-lines railmotors used AEC equipment.
The vehicle design was based on contemporary truck & bus practice (mid 1920s).
There was a fixed rear axle, driven by a tailshaft.
the motor was at the front, and its weight was carried on a bogie with small-wheels.
The earliest ones were low roof, and hand-crank start. Later ones had electric start.
RM93 is about the fourth such unit on the isolated Normanton - Croydon line, and is one of the last of that long-evolving style. Into the streamlined era AFAIK Gardner diesel.
The mismatched trailers come from a new design of the 1950s.
IIRC the oldest Normanton railmotor was a Panhard.

Victorian Railways also used a six wheel style based on AEC equipment.

South Australian Railways had a couple of similar railmotors, based on Fageol euipment, base on the Port Lincoln division.

Road-vehicle technology was given a huge boost by WWI, and that made railway railmotor technology feasible. In VR's case, railmotor drivers were on a separate roster from steam loco drivers, and may have been recruited from the young men returning from war with internal-combustion experience.

I don't have any photos of Australian variants on the hard drive, and some I never saw; I would have to find web references. Enclosed: a more modern version, with the same layout, in eastern Bolivia.
050103M-08-CochabambaBolivia-RSmith

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor