'Ramblin' Rose' the B-Model

This is a rig that needs no introductions, the 1959 Mack B-61. This is the Mack that really introduced Australia to the true Bulldog tenacity that Mack has come to stand for. A few old Wartime Macks and a few A-model units had been floating around but most of the companies were using various British makes of trucks up to that point which were not at all suited to the hot and dry Australian climate. Tha Mack B-Model changed all that and was a firm favorite in the Long haul department as well as for everything else. It had a 6cyl 210hp Diesel engine which gave it reliability and pulling power.

Interesting story with this truck. in 1964 a man bought it second hand and spruced it up for his haulage company, naming it 'Ramblin' Rose' and working it hard until around 1976 when he traded it in on a newer F-Model Mack.

Many years later, after this man had died, his son (who had worked for his dad's company as a diesel mechanic, bought an old B-Model to restore as a tribute to his father and intended to build a replica of 'Ramblin' Rose' to serve that purpose. He then set about finding a donor truck for parts. Thanks to a tipoff from a friend his search led him to a chook yard out west where another B-model sat with a blown Motor, but it was not just any B-Model, It was 'Ramblin' Rose' herself.

He bought it and used the originally planned project truck as a donor vehicle for Ramblin' Rose and spent upwards of $80,000 building the old girl back up to the standard that you see here. Sadly he has also passed away and his wife has offered this old truck to us to put on display for at least the next 6 months.

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Taken at the Queensland transport Museum on the 15th of December