Chicago R models

[ajdereicup]

Hands down favorite Mack I’ve seen in person 

[mowerman]

Typical dirt truck they’re all passing everybody. I got them gone by me all day long at 80 miles an hour but yes, it looks real good.

[ajdereicup]

Little bit of older photos but you can’t talk about Old Chicago Macks without bringing up Crosstowns.

These guys are what started my love of Macks as a kid. My dad actually leased to them when he bought an old R Model from a previous company he worked for called PTL (Pennsylvania Truck Lines). He ended up with 2 old PTL Macks running for Crosstowns until he grew tired of the headaches of finding competent drivers. Some of my first memories is sitting on the front stoop waiting for him to come down the hill to pick me up and bring me into the city for the night.

 

Any trucks working for Crosstowns back then had to be painted the green. According to my dad, Art Kanark (spelling might be off on the last name) wanted them green because he was Irish. Another friend whose family is involved in Chicagoland Warehouse (another company that loves their Macks in Chicago), said they were that green because Crosstowns bought old Chicagoland Warehouse Macks. 
 

They are still in business I think but I’m not usually in their areas anymore. I know they were selling their shop on Wood St which is where all the trucks would park inside (hence the shorter stacks). They had a beautiful old Ford 9000? hidden in there that a friend of my dad used to drive but that’s all gone now.