AHM C-LINER CONVERSION

[Anonymous]

Hello, I'm new to the registry, but not new to this forum. I've been reading a lot of interesting things on this forum. My question is, I have a "AHM C-LINER " shell and the road name: is Burlington Northern. I purchased it as a dummy (non powered) and I have a "Athearns" F7 chasis, (Noisy) I took the "C-Liner shell and mod it to a Athearns F7 chasis. Now I have a powered C-Liner. What I'm highly thinking of doing is getting a "P1K" C-liner chasis and flip flop shells. P1K don't make C-liners in Burlington Northern road name. This is the reason why I'm considering to do this, plus My C-Liner is very rare to have today. I was wondering if I get a PK1 C-Liner chasis, would it fit a AHM C-liner shell or is there another manufacture chasis that would fit a C-liner shell better. I really don't want to buy a PK1, because there not the quietiest locos around. I would prefer Stewart or Kato or even Atlas. If I'm limited to buy a P1K, then that's what I'll do. I'm modeling in HO Scale.

Any suggestions folks...........................

[nfmisso]

You can do what ever you want.

The AHM C-liner shell is not to scale, and a rather poor rendtion of a C-liner.

The Burlington Northern never had FM C-liners, which why LL P1K will not ever do a factory painted version.

The AHM C-liner is rare today because all of them where trashed when the P1K model was introduced, totally eliminating thier value as a model railroad (as opposed to toy train) item.

Mehano produced the C-liner for AHM, and until recently for IHC, and it may still be in production.

Have fun.

[ndbprr]

I would go one of two ways:
1. Go on E bay and find a powered AHM C liner and swap the shells.
2. Buy an Undec Proto 1000 engine and either paint it or have someone do it for you. It would be a better engine all the way round.

[jrbernier]

The old AHM shell is real junk - I would not waste time on it. There are a lot of P1K engines that run very good. BTW - BN never had any C-Liners and what you have most likely has a poor paint job to start with. I had 3 A units and a B unit in my junk box until the P1K units came out. I think I sold a box of old shells(including the AHM C-Liners) for about $5.00 at a model train show about 3 -4 years ago(one less box to haul back home).

Jim Bernier

[Anonymous]

I'd say to get hold of a P1K and repaint it - Trainworld have them for $19, I doubt you'd be able to get a mechanism any cheaper. The P1K C-Liner is a fine loco - it'll pull almost anything, is well detailed, and is nearly silent.

As Nigel said, BN never had any C-Liners - they were all retired and scrapped long before BN came on the scene. I was wondering if one of the roads that became BN owned them but I don't think they did, however, if you want to paint one for BN I'd suggest taking a look at the E8/E9s they ran in Chicago-area commuter service for many years and basing your paint scheme on that. There should be plenty of photos at www.railpictures.net of these locos. Hope this is of help!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all advice. I think I'm going to scrap the whole thing. When I saw the AHM C-Liner at my hobby store, I knew it was a rare loco so I bought it thinking I could use it in some way. I like the C-liner style, so I may just buy a P1K . I didn't know that "BN" didn't have a C-liner in they era. The paint job on my shell could use some re coloring. I guess that explains why it looks the way it do, but in so many words, I don't like to quit on something. I may just keep the darn thing and some how fix it up real nice. If that do happen, I'll post pics. I can't mess around with 6 axle pick locos because they are too long for the curves on my board. I have 18' radius curves on a 4x10 layout, so the "EMD E9 is out of the question. I'm looking to move forward to the "Stewart F series".

[dknelson]

I have a few old AHM C Liner shells (I intended on following an old RMC article and making an Erie Built out of them using an Athearn PA frame - never got around to it) and it appears that at some point they changed the tooling a little. Likewise at some point they changed the trucks from a fairly decent version of the Fairbanks Morse to some odd mix of FM and ALCo., or maybe the other way around
My recollection is that the original C Liner shell was Rivarossi, going back to the 1950s, but AHM in the 1960s then had its Yugoslavian source make a knock off. I think both Mehano and Pocher may have been involved.
The P2K is finer and more accurate but junk is a bit harsh for the AHM.
By the way somewhere I have an AHM C Liner "B" unit - that is rare.
Dave Nelson

[rivabruc]

I am a ahm and rivarossi collector for fourty years calling the ahm cliner junk is unfair and harsh i got my start in model railroading because they were affordable and easy to work on I bet many others did too I also liked the informationthey gave you about the certain locomotive i just bought iam not going to junk any locomotives ive got

[Darth Santa Fe]

This is an odd one to bring back.

The AHM C-LINER can be made into a decent looking model with some work. The oldest ones with the 5-pole motors also ran pretty decent. They got pretty hit and miss later on though, as they kept getting cheaper and cheaper until they were essentially a toy you'd find at department stores.

I've got quite a few "junk" trains myself. They're nothing special, but some of them are kind of fun!

[doctorwayne]

The mechanism from the Stewart AS-16 is pretty-much a drop-on fit for the AHM C-Liner shell, and Detail Associates offers C-Liner sideframes which are a push-in fit for the Stewart trucks.

With a little work, the AHM loco can look quite decent.  I did this one for a friend:

Paint and lettering are Accupaint and Accucals respectively.

Wayne