Locomotive #35
Photo by John Hartman
Photo by Mike Hartman
WK&S #35 is one of two experimental locomotives build by Mack. The locomotives started out as electric freight motors including trolley poles and secondhand trucks from discarded interurban cars. The motors were built in the 1920s by the Southwest Missouri Railway of Joplin, Missouri. The units were used to haul ore between lead mines and the processing plant. Around 1939 the motors were acquired by Mack and converted to gas-electric locomotives. Mack added a pair of six cylinder 150 hp Mack EP engines and GE GT-1503 300 volt generators. The two locomotives were numbered #3 and #4. The generators were experimentally wired in series for a theoretical output of 600 volts, but they didn't load evenly and it never really worked. However, the locomotives were in service at least through the late 1950s at the Mack #5 division shipping center in Allentown, PA.
In 1978 a WK&S volunteer, who was also a Mack employee, arranged for the donation of #4. At that point in time the number "4" did not conflict with any other WK&S equipment. Nevertheless, the locomotive was renumbered #35. This reflects the unit's approximate weight of 35 tons. Locomotive #35 served the WK&S for several years and was the only practical alternative the WK&S had to firing up a steam engine. Somewhere along the way the #2 engine failed of low oil. Then, in the 1990's, the WK&S acquired diesel locomotives #602 and #7258. At this point #35 became worth more dead than alive. Its valuable trolley trucks were sold off to the Shelburn Falls Trolley Museum. The sale helped defer the cost of acquiring and restoring #7258. The two photographs below show a stripped, derelict #35 resting on a pair of shop trucks.
The photo above shows Mack #3 at Allentown in the late 1950s. Eventually #3 was acquired by Railways to Yesterday and ended up at Mount Union on the East Broad Top. The photo below is at Mount Union in the late 1960s. Note what appears to be a Mack logo on the side.
The caurcus of #3 ended up at the WK&S. The three pictures below show what's left of #3. The unit never had trucks at the WK&S and was only ever used for parts to keep #35 running.
In 2008 both Mack units were sold. The picture below shows #35 in down town Kempton being shoved on to a truck trailer for departure. The day is May 22, 2008. The same trailer just off loaded the tended for the railroad's new steam engine, #4. The shop trucks under #35 were returned to the WK&S. The second picture shows the bare patch of earth by the hole track where #35's sister unit quietly rusted away for all those decades. New owners.
