Elvas Tower: M.A.C. Model 4-40 Gas Rail Car - Elvas Tower

The M.A.C. Gas Rail Cars were built by the Skagit Steel & Iron Works of Sedro-Wolley, Washington during the 1920s. The M.A.C. stands for “Motor Appliance Co”, the name under which Skagit marketed these rail car, and should not be confused with with the “Mack” trucks and rail busses built in Allentown, Pa.

A total of 43 Model 4-40 rail cars were produced between 1921 and 1929. The model number refers to the number of cylinders and to the tractive effort in hundreds of pounds. Thus the 4-40 had four cylinders and could produce 4000 pounds of tractive effort.

The Model 4-40 was powered by a 40 hp Buda gasoline engine, weighed about 6 tons and could haul 5 tons. They could reach 20 mph in both forward and reverse, and were used for light switching and for hauling loggers and supplies to the woods.

This model was built from plans in the May/June 2004 Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette, and the above historical data is from the same publication. As with most of my projects, I had a lot of help from several persons. Herb Kelsey and Derek Miller performed the testing, Herb Kelsey made the cab views, and packaged the model for uploading, and supplied the screenie. Howard Saunders performed final inspection, and file compression.

To install, unzip the file to a location of your choice. copy the MAC_Railcar folder to your Trainset folder, create a consist, and have fun.

Hope you enjoy it, Bill