Is AMT postwar rolling stock and possibly engines compatible with lionel? Specifically their couplers, and the guage of the wheels?
AMT should be compatible with Lionel and most other brands of trains made today, as they were competing with Lionel during the post war years. When AMT was in business they were selling their trains for about 30% less than Lionel. The only problems that happen is when you mix two rail O gauge and three rail O gauge rolling stock, Weaver Trains makes both two & three rail stuff, so be careful! Two rail tries to be more scale like and the couplers are mounted differently than three rail.
Lee F.
Is there any way to easily tell the difference between 2-rail and 3-rail AMT?
I don't know if AMT made any 2 rail locomotives. I am pretty sure all their cars were made to work with Lionel couplers. I am also pretty sure their wheels had "Lionel" sized flanges, so they would stay on tubular track. If they were made for two rail O, the cars would still be compatible if the above is true. The wheels or the axles or both would be made of plastic. The downside to that is that if you use insulated rails to activate blocks or signals then these cars wouldn't activate them.
Hope this helps,
J White
I run a lot of AMT rolling stock on the layout, both passenger and freight cars. The couplers do match up with Lionel couplers but due to the configuration they may not couple by backing in to an open coupler. The other problem that I have run into when backing into a siding, the slower the better, the AMT trucks do have a tendancy to derail going over the frogs, going forward no problems. A lot of AMT rolling stock over the years have been converted to Lionel trucks and couplers.
I am not aware of any 2 rail AMT locos or rolling stock. Over the years through buyouts AMT eventually became Kusan Electric Trains which did have 2 rail locomotives.
Bill T.
Thank you guys for the help. Now would you recommend AMT equipment? As far as the quality and design go.
During the 50's AMT freight cars were as good or better than Lionel freight cars. Closer to scale and more protypical paint jobs available. The aluminum passenger cars were also outstanding during the fifties.
But IMO, Postwar freight cars and passenger cars that are 50 to 60 years old are not in the same ballpark as the modern equipment offered today as far as free wheeling and detail. If you are into a Postwar layout and operation they are as good as anything out there.
Regarding American Model Toys passenger cars, I have owned and operated 3 of them since the early 50s. One problem which I was able to fix was the cracked dome. pictured here:
I was able to locate a similar dome for a Lionel car, and with a little dremel work, this is the result:
The editor would not let me continue with the previous message.
Through the years, I have been able to get them to back up over the O22 O31 switches by adding some weight to each car. This year there were virtually no derailments.
The couplers are plastic, and do not uncouple. To solve this, we added a Lionel 2533 passenger car to the consist as the lead car. It is a bit longer, at 16 5/8" versus the 14 3/4" of the AMT.
There are no plastic wheels nor axles to contend with.
I was curious about whether the couplers were scale. I went up to a real oil tanker car, and measured the moveable part. It was 11 inches. That part of a typical Lionel coupler measures 3/8". That would be 18" full scale. But the AMT coupler measures 0.23" which if multiplied by 48 is just 11". So they are to scale.
One minor problem is the wiring of the interior lighting. Since these wires flex underneath the chassis, they tend to break regularly, requiring replacement. Adding wire clamps underneath is a help, but a redesign where the wire connecting the 2 lights was inside the car would be a help.
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