Mack AC 5ton Logging Truck To get my mind back on the right track (Yes, I do loose my train of thought sometimes) I have been working off and on this little beauty. I did some internet researching and found a few photos of this era. I posted the best one below my creations photos. Enjoy! As you can see from my photos, the little Truck and trailer are still Works in Progress! I'll post photos of the finished product in a few days! Hobo Tim
Tim, The truck is fantastic! Is it Z or the N scale one from RLW? It's a little bit old for me, but could have a place on a farm rusted up a bit.
This Mack AC 5ton Logging Truck would be great on my "Needle Eye" Lumber Co. modules. Nice details it even has the chain drive intact
OK Mr. modern guy. What are you doing waisting valuable time on such a antique. By the way, it looks great.
Republic Locomotive Works I recall, some many months ago, alot of hoop-lah about an old timey logging truck mistake! Yes, I said a mistake. It's vague, but as I recall, the rumor/hoop-lah stated that this little beauty was produced by mistake. The company sent it to an etcher and said they wanted the smallest model railroad size, which was suppose to be N scale, but the etcher, knowing about Z scale, scaled the program to make a Z scale Logging Truck! Now, I can't atest to any of this being true, but it is a fact that Republic Locomotive Works does have this little beauty for sale in their inventory. How many do they have left? It's my guess, that as soon as this post is viewed, some of you will go and purchase some. I know Torsja is! This lil truck will look absolutely fantastic on his module! Republic Locomotive Works is a supplier of N scale and more so, Nn3 Narrow Gauge locomotive parts. They have hundreds of cool N & Nn3 stuff, with photos to show about 45% of their stock. It's my guess that the 1926 Mack AC Logging Truck is their only venture into Z scale and that was purely by accident as I have spent about 2 hours scouring over their inventory. 1926 Mack is it. http://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com is the company home page link while the following link will take you to the Z scale logging truck; http://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?ItemID=968 They also sell a 12" piece of miniature chain that boasts 40 links per inch. I have some coming in the mail to lash down the logs. http://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?ItemID=589 for the chain. This Mack Logging Truck sells for $19.95 which includes a set of 2 frets of brass. Warning, the pieces are very small, and some are even smaller. I used needle tweezers for most applications to bend and assemble this Truck! The frets of brass do include extra pieces in case some get lost, are cut wrong, or just disappear into thin air. The hardest part during assembly, minus working with the small pieces, is the bending/forming of the uniquely shaped hood. They include 2 hoods. Trust me when I say uniquely shaped. Please note the actual truck in my original posted message is a 1924 Mack. This little Z scale Mack claims to be based on a 1926 Mack. The difference is minimal. No front headlights and an actual truck chassis length, for logging operations, was about 3-4 feet longer. But, that doesn't take away from this Gems Beauty! Mack did make short chassis like this for trailer toting other than logging operations. Here are a few photos to show the difference in short & long chassis Macks. The first shows a Mack Logging Truck up in the mountains. Notice the longer chassis of the truck. The trailer is a perfect match for RLW's trailer. This truck looks like it has been stripped of most of its cab. Probably from rough operations or convienence. This photo shows the short chassis version of the Mack. This version was used to tote trailers around like the one shown, or oil/gas tanker trailers of the era. I have a photo of one of these Mack trucks pulling a triple lash-up of tanker trailers with the big words HUMBLE OIL on the sides. The short chasis version would not have been a good choice for logging operations. These next two photos show what I believe is an HO scale Mack AC 5ton Logging Truck. This shows more so what the actual length of the chassis would have been for Logging operations. The trailer, on the other hand, looks like a scratch built creation to complement the truck. Note the chain lash-up of the log. Does not allow any movement of the trailer. How was this truck going to make a turn? Hmmm! Only one chain was lashed to the chassis and one, possbily 2, to the trailer. There you have it from the Mack AC 5ton Logging Truck Institute! Instruction given by; Professor Hobo "Mack" Tim
Great work Tim. I've got a couple of these kits already because I feared there would be a run on them when Robert mentioned them a year or two ago. The story I got from Robert was that they were made for Nn3 and the designer adjusted them down to Z by mistake. ;-) The Mack AC was one of the most common trucks between the wars. It first showed up during WWI, possibly even 1911 (I don't have my references at work) and was produced until something like 1939, although by the end of production it had pneumatic tires instead of solid tires. It came with no cab, open cab or closed cab. Was used for tractor/trailers, straight trucks and lot's of fire trucks if anyone is ambitious enough to attempt a kitbash. ;-) Randy PS - Tim - we need to talk to work out details before I come to Atlanta this weekend.
Mack Truck is Complete! With a little bit of detail painting, weathering, and gluing, I have finally finished the little itsy bitsy Mack AC 5ton Logging Truck! Here are three photos. When the miniature, 40 link per inch, chain comes in the mail, I'll lash the logs down. Enjoy! Hobo Tim p.s. Jurg, I am also working on finishing your Maersk Sealand Train. The decals are being a pain to create. Almost finished though. Soon!
Tim, Nice job on the Mack. I have a couple of sets of these that I still have to assemble.These trucks were actually in use (in some places) up into the 50's. The depression slowed new product development, then WW2 greatly reduced the resources (materials and production time) for producing new trucks (civilian), so many of these were kept in service for a very long time. Dan S.
S&^$#(*&$*t I did something resently that I regret! If I could have, I would have kicked myself so hard, I wouldn't be able to sit down for a week! What did I do? I dropped my AZL C44-9, Santa Fe, on my shop floor. Thank God their was no visible damage to the outside of the shell. Awesome. But, when I picked it up from the floor, the front truck assembly fell out of the chassis. UGH! Carefully taking the shell off and investigating the damage, a small molded section of one side of the chassis, had broken off with the impact. The piece in question holds the truck in the chassis and allows it to rotate in the chassis to negotiate track curves. Man-o-man, talk about a sick feeling in my stomach! Ugh!!! How do I fix this? Can I fix this? If I can't fix this, will it still run? Does Rob Kluz have any chassis pieces available? Questions, questions, questions!!! What do I do? Some time back, while at Radio Shack, I found some Silver-Bearing Paste solder weld. Paste like this is used in attach Surface Mount Devises electronics to PC boards. I bought both tubes, not because I wanted 2 of them, but they were on sale for .94 cents each. Good deal! Anyways the back of the package states this paste can be used to solder many different types of metals together. I wondered if it would be possible to repair the AZL Chassis. I took the chassis apart. I used my brass wire wheel in my Dremel tool to clean up the parts where they broke off. I applied a hefty amount of solder paste to the broke areas. I then used a spring clip to hold the broke piece in place. I used a 45 watt soldering iron to heat up the solder. It gets really Hot, so hot it actually worked. I removed the spring clip after a minute of cooling down. To my surprise, the paste worked good. I applied a small amount of pressure to the welded piece. No movement. Awesome! The solder left two small raised areas that needed to be filed down. The photo below shows the two places I filed the solder. I then re-assembled the chassis and the shell to have a working AZL C44-9 again. Works with no apparent problems, as if the accident never happened. The above photo may show the C44 chassis very large, but the repaired section is very small. This was a delicate repair job. I actually did not expect it to work. Ok, if you ever goof up and have an accident like mine, Radio Shack has the answers and this post is your repair instructions. Hobo Tim
Wow! Tim you ARE lucky. I am surprised the chassis actually cracked. This is the first time I have seen this. I word of caution. One customer tried to solder a piece on their trucks (SD45). This customer actually melted the gears in the truck. Also, the Faulhauber motors can easily be damaged by heat. Make sure they motors are removed before soldering the chassis. Rob
Total dis-assembly Rob, I dis-assembled the chassis to make the repair. No chance of plastic melting or motor over heating. Only the metal chassis was affected. Went back together easily. Thanks for the concern! Hobo Tim
Ouch Tim!, a Z-nightmare! I had a similar accident with one of my N-scale trains. My 10-car Thalys dropped off the shelf and behind my computer desk! The front engine slipped off and "thanks" to the excelent Kato couplings the whole thing fell down on the floor. I thought that the cars would have all kinds of scratches but they have none at all! I guess the carpet and pc wires broke the fall. Phew!
My US-Module for Z-Friends-Europe I buildy my US-Modules for Z-meetings to for 9.12.-10.12.2006 in Zell/Mosel(River) Germany see pictures heres: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/5836 and not yet completely finished
