Official Website for Mack #4!

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An 84 year old locomotive, unique even in it's early years.

This is the history of a rare locomotive that had been rusting away since the mid 1970‘s. The old #4 box cab on March 01, 1924 was originally built by GE as a trolley freight motor for the Southwest Missouri Railroad Company at a cost of $15,450.00. With the closure of that line in 1939 the Mack Truck company of Allentown, PA purchased #4 and identical box cab #3, rebuilding them into experimental gas electric locomotives. The retrofitted locomotives were offered for sale as new products, but were never sold causing Mack to exit out of the locomotive business. The #4 and #3 were eventually placed into service as the plant switching locomotives until the closure of the entire Mack railcar department in 1960.

The journey of Mack #4 continues throughout Pennsylvania.

The Mack #4 locomotive has had and interesting journey since that time, and in 1962 it was acquired by and moved to the Rockhill Trolley Museum. Then during the last two months of 1968 it was moved to Mount Union, PA where #4 preformed the last offical switching duties at the dual gauge rail yard of the East Broad Top railroad. In March of 1970, RTM loaned #4 to Jimmy McHugh, Sr.   to assist a eastern PA short line railroad. Then #4 in January 1971 was moved to Penndel, PA were it was placed into storage with three other RTM peices of railway equipment. The Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern railroad owners of Mack #3 obtained #4 in March 1986 and moved it to Kempton, PA were #4 was again placed into storage.

An uncertain fate, many others decide #4 is not worth saving.

In late 2007 it had been rumored that if new guardians could not    be found for either Mack locomotive that they both would see the flames of a cutting torch and become scrap iron. The two Mack locomotives previously had been offered to several railway and trolley museums, railroad tourist lines, the Mack Truck Museum,  and private collectors. All of these prospective clients declined     due to the amount of investment required, considering the intial  sale price, transportation expenses, purchasing of replacement truck assemblies with traction motors, and then the restoration cost. One outrageous railfan did desire to make the Mack carbody's into storage sheds, but the WK&S did not consider this odd idea. The former owner felt that they could find a party who was interested in preserving one locomotive, that also had the capabilities to follow through and complete the project.

A family, not a museum comes to the rescue of Mack #4.

A relationship had devoloped between the WK&S and the McHugh family with a favorable outcome for Mack #4. Although a few people had made comments that neither Mack locomotive #4 or #3 should be saved. These remarks did not discourage the McHugh's who were adamant that they would restore #4 when others felt it was not worth the effort to do so. The McHugh family nostalgia for this rare old box cab, and that #4 was also a part of Pennsylvania's industrial railroading heritage is why they wanted to see it preserved. In June 1970 on the last day Mack #4 was in serivce, Jimmy McHugh, Sr. placed his son on the engineers seat and it was the first locomotive JC McHugh operated. This childhood memory of JC's is why he has a fondness for Mack #4, and is the reason the McHugh family saved it from becoming scrap metal.