A Post Office telephones Series III 88-inch on four triangular caterpillar track units — the Snowtrac conversion, registered MAS 461R and photographed in 1985 — for reaching lines and stations through snow a wheeled Land Rover could not cross.
BASE VEHICLESeries III 88″BUILT BYLand RoverIN SERVICE1976–77OPERATED INUnited KingdomPRODUCTIONUnknownLAYOUT88″
The record
Most Post Office Land Rovers were bought for rough ground; this one was bought for snow. The Snowtrac conversion replaces each wheel with a triangular rubber-tracked bogie, driven from the hub, which spreads the vehicle's weight over a track footprint and lets an otherwise standard Land Rover cross drifts and soft ground that would stop it on wheels. The Post Office listed it simply as an all-terrain vehicle.
The base is a Series III 88-inch hardtop — the registration MAS 461R places it in 1976–77 — carrying roof ladders as telephone engineers' vehicles did. It was photographed in 1985. The Post Office record gives no fleet number or quantity, and no other example is documented, so it is best read as a one-off or a very small batch kept for the districts that needed it.
MANUFACTUREDMAS 461R, a 1976–77 registration; photographed 1985
ENGINE2.25 L petrol or diesel inline-four (Series III 88-inch); the Post Office record does not state which
PRODUCTION RUNUnknown — one vehicle documented
COUNTRY OF ORIGINUnited Kingdom
OPERATED INUnited Kingdom
STATUSunknown
RECORD KINDNamed model
MODEL LINESeries III
NOMINAL WHEELBASE88″
CATEGORYSpecial · GPO/Mail
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Imagery
No published image yetA rendering impression or a free-licence photograph will appear here once one is published — the sources below link to photographs elsewhere
Where it was
GB United Kingdom1977–1990 · Post Office telephones
BuiltLand Rover, Lode Lane, SolihullUnited Kingdom · 1976–198552.43, -1.78
