Repainting Hartland Mack - what colour?

Good luck with the search! I'd quite like another myself, if I ever see one, to do something like Mike's conversion - but these two (mine and the other one that Rob got from the same seller) are the only examples I've seen on UK eBay for ages. I'm not even sure if there are any used ones available in the US at the moment, a quick search for Hartland or HLW on US eBay didn't find any. I assume you can still get them new from HLW, at least their website seems to indicate that they available, but though they are not too expensive there is still shipping, customs etc to consider.

I don't know, maybe if two or three of us wanted a new one each, we could share the shipping and other costs....?

Jon.
 
C&S said:
My only trouble with the Hartland design is the tiny body perched on top of a massive steel-plated chassis, which looks way too heavy for the upper works.
Click to expand...

Judging by the loads hauled:-
b66b42b05db34b7ba80dfb0d12432959.jpg

I would imaging the prototype had a good deal of adhesive ballast in the lower regions.
 
MRail said:
C&S said:
My only trouble with the Hartland design is the tiny body perched on top of a massive steel-plated chassis, which looks way too heavy for the upper works.
Click to expand...

Judging by the loads hauled:-
images

I would imaging the prototype had a good deal of adhesive ballast in the lower regions.
Click to expand...

That is the only shot I have seen of a real live Mack.
The upper works are even smaller than on the HLW version.
 
KeithT said:
MRail said:
C&S said:
My only trouble with the Hartland design is the tiny body perched on top of a massive steel-plated chassis, which looks way too heavy for the upper works.
Click to expand...

Judging by the loads hauled:-
images

I would imaging the prototype had a good deal of adhesive ballast in the lower regions.
Click to expand...

That is the only shot I have seen of a real live Mack.
The upper works are even smaller than on the HLW version.
Click to expand...

I bought a secondhand book on Mack locomotives and railcars, published in thev late 1950's, when I was at the Danbury Railroad Museum in Connecticut a couple of years ago. It has photos of the prototype of the HLW loco in it, along with its history.

Will have to dig the book out - assuming I can find it!
 
The boxed-in chassis is well suited to a tram loco in appearance but that is only the second I have seen.
 
Nothing really to do with what colour to paint one, but a bit of history of the HLW prototype.............

I've found the Mack book, which was published in September 1959 by the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the NRHS, based, rather appropriately in Allentown PA (the home of Mack Trucks!). A very interesting book, it deals mainly with various railcars, but the locos do get a mention at the rear of the 68 page publication.

The HLW model appears to be based on a one-off petrol (gasoline) loco built in May 1921 and which was used as a shunter at their No 5 plant in Allentown, lasting in service to 1946 when it was scrapped.

It is described as a 33 ton, chain drive, steeple cab loco, powered by 2 four cylinder 40hp AC gasoline engines. The transmission was set beneath the cab floor in a sub-frame mounted within a 4" thick cast steel side frame. Top speed was 9 mph.

So now you know..........

The only photo of this model in the book appears to be a Mack official builders photo as shown below..

526705dbc1d642e7a90a091f24d39559.jpg


Various other locos were produced between 1929 and 1937 (20 gas-electric locos) and 1939 (2 diesel-electric) and that was it, but these looked nothing like the HLW model.
 
Stephen.
Interesting history and photo. That is the first side view I have seen.
4" thick cast steel side frames!! A proverbial brick chicken house - with menaces!
 
Zerogee said:
Good luck with the search! I'd quite like another myself, if I ever see one, to do something like Mike's conversion - but these two (mine and the other one that Rob got from the same seller) are the only examples I've seen on UK eBay for ages. I'm not even sure if there are any used ones available in the US at the moment, a quick search for Hartland or HLW on US eBay didn't find any. I assume you can still get them new from HLW, at least their website seems to indicate that they available, but though they are not too expensive there is still shipping, customs etc to consider.

I don't know, maybe if two or three of us wanted a new one each, we could share the shipping and other costs....?

Jon.
Click to expand...

I do know that there will be one of the "Sparky" overhead electric ones on the market in a few months time, as the Ipswich Transport Museum will have one to sell!!

Our former Secretary, who died last March, (and was a member on here) bequeathed his model collection to the Museum to raise funds, and we will eventually get round to valuing/pricing his G items - mainly LGB Harz stuff - in the coming months.
There is so much in other scales, we are having "fun" with his N, HO & OO items first!
Anyone want 400 "OO" model buses?!
 
Miamigo259 said:
I do know that there will be one of the "Sparky" overhead electric ones on the market in a few months time, as the Ipswich Transport Museum will have one to sell!!
Click to expand...

Would they take an offer, I wonder, to save the hassle later - or is that a bit too cheeky?
 
C&S said:
Miamigo259 said:
I do know that there will be one of the "Sparky" overhead electric ones on the market in a few months time, as the Ipswich Transport Museum will have one to sell!!
Click to expand...

Would they take an offer, I wonder, to save the hassle later - or is that a bit too cheeky?
Click to expand...

At the moment, all of the G items are stored in a members garage and have not been looked at since we had to dismantle his railway (which was sadly, never finished).
We need to sort the stuff out - possibly late March/April time - to check everything works OK etc. Once the Museum is open again for the 2011 season we can rest a bit easier, as we have too much to do at the moment to get it all ready!

Most of the items would most probably be of interest to people on here (mainly LGB stuff like a Harz 2-10-2, 2-6-2 etc, etc..) so I may post something relating to the collection, assuming the site owners/moderators are happy with me doing such things.

Suggest you keep an eye out in a few months time!
 
Miamigo259 said:
Most of the items would most probably be of interest to people on here (mainly LGB stuff like a Harz 2-10-2, 2-6-2 etc, etc..) so I may post something relating to the collection, assuming the site owners/moderators are happy with me doing such things.

Suggest you keep an eye out in a few months time!
Click to expand...

I certainly dont see any problem with that.:bigsmile:
 
Miamigo259 said:
Most of the items would most probably be of interest to people on here (mainly LGB stuff like a Harz 2-10-2, 2-6-2 etc, etc..) so I may post something relating to the collection, assuming the site owners/moderators are happy with me doing such things.

Suggest you keep an eye out in a few months time!
Click to expand...


Ooohh Im gonna keep an eye out for that....and have cash ready!!!
 
Great pictures. I have never seen real pictures of the Mack. Didnt know they were made in Allentown PA, thats is only 1.5 hours from me. Here is how I repainted my Mack. Mike great conversion of the Mack into a railcar. Looks great. They are great little engines. They look great when hook them up to the HLW mini series cars.
New
72vzom.jpg


After painting etc....
2zqxzrk.jpg
 
Miamigo259 said:
Nothing really to do with what colour to paint one, but a bit of history of the HLW prototype.............
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting the photos. I've never seen any pictures of the real thing before

Ian
 
Hi. reverting back to the original topic (what colour) mine's painted a sand colour which seems to work quite well. There's a picture of it on my indoor exhibition layout at http://www.trainweb.org/DHMRS/Image.... Imitation is the sicerest form of flattery!
 
Bideford Light said:
a picture of it on my indoor exhibition layout
Click to expand...

Nice looking layout. Are there any pictures on the forum? If not, any chance of some?

The loco loooks better with the cab lowered (though it's hard to get the full effect with the aerial view) - always thought it looked too "leggy", which was why I enquired about the possibility of lowering the chassis box, which I think looks a tad too narrow, as well.
 
From some of the pictures offered, it seems to me that the paint job is quite critical.

With a suitable use of colour and weatherin, you can reduce the visual impact of the overheight chasis plates :thumbup:

Looks like the answer is that it needs to be a darkish colour :thinking::thinking:
 
Just a little progress update on the Mack.... I haven't started painting yet, but I have chosen a colour - a deep rich plum purple shade from the Plasti-Kote sprays range. As soon as I try it out, will post some pics.
What I've been doing today is converting the motor block to prepare it for DCC chipping, by soldering yellow and green wires onto the motor terminals, completely discarding the thin brass busbar wires and soldering wires (brown one side, grey the other - didn't have any white handy!) directly to the tops of the brass pickup plunger housings. I had to do some judicious snipping away of plastic from inside the motor block mouldings, in order to avoid trapping the new wiring, but with a little trial and error it seems to have worked OK. The wires are all fed up through the central hole that the cab lighting post used to sit in - the hole having been carefully drilled out to widen it enough to pass the whole wiring bundle. I now have a functioning motor block again with separate track power and motor wires, ready for the chip to be wired in - the decoder will simply sit inside the cab. The block has been tested under analogue power by simply twisting the power and motor leads together, and it seem to run well.
Hopefully I'll find some more time one evening during the week to make a proper start on the body - at the moment the only addition I plan to make is detailing the fuel tanks at each end with filler caps, but I might do a few more bits and pieces as the project progresses.

More soon!

Jon.
 
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