Macungie Truck Tour

[james j neiweem]

I had the opportunity and privilage to attend the Mack truck tour at Macungie last Friday. I had a great time. Thework personnel were friendly and appeared to be somewhatcontent with their jobs. The outside temperature was 95degrees but the factory was relatively cool and wellventilated. The tour guide said that the factory is presently turning out about sixty trucks a day and will go up to approximately 90 in the fall. Now back to the tour guide an 85 year old gentleman named Roy Earnst. Early in the tour he mentioned that that he started at mack in 1946. I let that sink in for a while as we toured. 46-56-66-76-86-96-2006 +4 + 18= 82. I was off by three and a half years. This guide was as sharp as a tack. most 85 year olds have trouble figuring out how they got where they are. Roy started as a parts runner and had several production jobs before going to Quality Control and upper management. He was quite remarkable. Another guide told me that he was a B-25 pilot during WW2. They don't make them like that any more. I could tell that there was a real sense of comaraderie(?) amongst the old timers that I saw. I am not sure about the current employees but Roy said that morale should be better than the South Carolina/ Virginia Days. The grey Chrysler Mack pinnacles are pretty sharp. There were two titans there that I saw one white with grey trim and a black one with a red frame. They lifted the bonnet and allowed tour people to go up into the cab. I declined. You need to be a young guy to get up into one of these things. I bet Roy could get up there though. I saw what appeared to be a Titan frame on the chasis line this thing was massive and a mile long. Could have been a terra pro concrete pumper frame. There was a beutiful blue CH with a mid rise all chromed out on the line. Not sure if it was a rawhide. A real interesting thing is the way the trucks come down the line. It looks as though they come down the line in a sort of a random manor. A red one, a white one, an ABF, a rawhide, a chrysler, a titan an MR a granite. I am sure many of you Watter Mackers have been on a tour there but if not I strongly recommend it. My wife even enjoyed the tour. She especially enjoyed seeing women on the cab lines and Roythe tour guide. They were even selling nice black Mack hats for five dollars/and buy one get one free. Any color you want as long as it is black. I strongly suggest that volvo brassdo a study here and see the strong Mack family that probably does not exist in volvo ville. long live the Legend.

[granitefan713]

Glad to hear you enjoyed the tour. I too had the privilege of having Roy as one of my tour guides and he was definitely one of if not the best one I had. I am a bit jealous though, because it sounds like you saw quite a few awesome trucks. There is only one downside to a guided tour...no pictures.