Mack Trucks von Athearn

Thomas, der Mack B ist erste Wahl für die Fremo-Era.

Zitat:
"Here's the text of the full announcement from Athearn:

The Mack Model "B" was first produced in 1949 and remained in production until 1966 when it was replaced by the Model "R". Both series of trucks enjoyed a long service life with many of the "R" models still in continuous service. Even today, a Model "B" can also occasionally be seen in operation. During their life times both types were converted to any number of tasks. These ranged from two and three axle tractors, to tow trucks, to use as construction trucks. A Mack Model "B" or Model "R" could handle any job that required a heavy-duty truck."

Hi.

So wie es ausieht, ist das Erscheinungsjahr 1949 ( wie von Athearn angegeben) falsch.
Baubeginn scheint 1953 zu sein.

Noch mehr Information aus dem WWW:

The B Model Mack was introduced in 1954 and produced through 1966. It
came in several versions: even numbered model designations were gasoline
powered and odd numbers were Diesel powered. They came with either
single drive or tandem drive, as a cab and chassis or tractor. B Model
Macks were NOT used by the Santa Fe. SP did use several gasoline powered
tractors to load piggyback cars in Los Angeles in the late 1950's and
photos show up in the SP in Color books. The B-model Macks did not run
over the highway with PMT (I never saw any working for SP while I lived
in Southern California).

The B model was most often seen in the West pulling refrigerated
trailers from the East even over Cajon Pass. I do not know of any
western trucking company (common carrier) that used B model Macks
either. The Blue Diamond rock pit in Irwindale, CA (north of El Monte)
had a fleet of B Model Mack transfer dump trucks from about 1954 into
the 1960's. I used to drive by their yard between my parents' house and
where my grandmother lived in Arcadia/ Pasadena between 1954 into 1968.
I stopped going that way when they opened I-210 into Pasadena about
1970. The Blue Diamond Co. also had concrete mixers, I don't remember
if any were the B Model Mack however.

The B-model Mack was not a 'west coast truck'. Mack produced 'western'
models specifically for west coast use, usually with longer hoods and L
series cabs (even though they were catalogued as in the B-series, it was
only the fenders that were used). Occasionally, they would be seen in
the West, they just were not commonly seen. In other words you can use
one, but more than that would look out of place.

The R series was produced from 1966 into the 1990's. The cab was
derived from the F-Model Cab Over Engine truck introduced in 1963. The
first conventional cab using the same doors as the F-Model was the
U-Model introduced with an offset cab. Remember, the early 1960's was
the 'age of the COE truck' because the overall length of the combination
of vehicles was regulated, generally under 55 feet east of the Rockies
and 65 feet west of the Rockies. The R-Model came in a 'western
version' as well, the main change was the liberal use of aluminum parts
for the chassis (the side of the chassis mounted polished aluminum
battery boxes and air tanks are a visual spotting feature) and a
different grille (not the vertical radiator shutters of the Athearn
model).

The photos of the Athearn models suggest they will arrive with east
coast details. Spoke wheels, high dump bodies, Eastern Express
trailers, Holmes wrecker body are all 'eastern features'. West Coast
trucks used steel disk or aluminum disk wheels, low-sided dump bodies
and single boom wrecker bodies (like the Wiking Peterbilt model).
Athearn just came out with 10 circular hole aluminium wheels on the
Kenworth tractor pulling a 20 foot container. This is a 'west coast
truck'! The ten hole aluminium wheel was not available until 1967 (my
earliest photo is a COE Kenworth working for Transcon lines) and five
hole aluminium wheels were used commonly between the early 1950's until
about 1970.

Western concrete mixers were also very different from the 'rest of the
country'. Long wheelbase truck chassis were used with conventional
cabs. Tandem drive was adopted in the 1940's with chain drive on
lighter Ford, Chevy and GMC chassis using gas engines and separate gas
engines to run the concrete drum. The first change occurred in the late
1950's when the drum drive was a power take off from the truck engine.

The International R-190 series was used by Graham in the LA basin to
build a number of freeway bridges. In the early 1960's Peterbilt and
Kenworth marketed a shorter hood version of their 'standard' over the
road truck with a long chassis for the Ready Mix market. Other
builders, like Diamond T, Reo and International also provided short cabs
on long wheel base chassis for the mixer market.

The biggest change in ready mix trucks occurred about 1969 when
Roedeffer Industries added a 4th axle at the rear of the body, called
'boost-a-load'. It consisted of two tires attached to the rear intake
chute that was then placed on a hinged arm at the chassis level with a
hydraulic cylinder control to take up to 10,000 pounds of load off the
rear tandem. This allowed the truck to carry up to 9 cubic yards of
concrete and became the 'standard ready mix truck of the west' ever
since.

Mack did use the R-Model cab with the 'Mack Western' front end and
aluminium chassis to field a long wheelbase ready mix truck, as did
Peterbilt, Kenworth, International (not the Paystar) and White-Western
Star. None of these truck manufacturers used their standard 'over the
road' truck hood/fenders for ready mix trucks. The reason was the ready
mix truck was only loaded half the time, they were always empty half the
time (there are no back hauls in the ready mix business). They were
weight sensitive so they used smaller Diesel engines and only one fuel
tank since they could carry more if they weighed less. Many (like
International and Peterbilt) had sloping hoods for better visibility
(this is before the 1985 Kenworth T600A 'anteater' truck model).

Bottom line, these look like very nice models that are very detailed and
well done, but have minimal application in the western states. With
some modifications to the wheels and body, they will make some more
accurate models.

The trailer in the Athearn advertisement is their 40 foot Fruehauf
reefer manufactured between 1962 to 1967. I have an entire article ready
about all the detail variations on this semi trailer. The model is
based on the 1963 PFE reefer order and originally (1969 to the 1990's)
came with steel disk wheels. Recent Athearn models come with a very
good 5 spoke wheel more commonly found on piggyback vans.