The actual history of AHM (America's [Correction: "Associated"] Hobby Manufacturer -- an odd name since all of is was imported -- is actually rather complex. They had a market presence in the 1950s (a Milwaukee Road Hiawatha, a C&NW Atlantic, a European Consolidation, B&O Little Joe, a camelback 0-4-0) but with an entirely different line than they became known for in the 1960s. Some of the stuff was Rivarossi but some was a knock off of Rivarossi. The Fairbanks Morse C - Liner veered between the two as I recall, and one sees differen trucks and details depending on which knock off or Rivarossi is involved. And AHM also imported some Japanese brass. When they imported their Rivarossi steam locomotives they were remarkable for the low prices, which is why people today rebel at paying hundreds of dollars for old tooling and undersize wheels, although better motors and flanges. My 2-8-8-2 was about $30 when new and that was low even for then. At the time the drive was quite quiet. Other engines were noisy. Quality of paint and lettering was for the time quite high. The trucks rolled OK but with two piece wheels on axles the gauge was unreliable. The passenger cars were Rivarossi; the IHC cars are not and while IHC did seem to be AHM reborn there are now many differences. The most annoying thing was that when the flanges were huge all their wheels were undersize to compensate and they made the flanges closer to scale size they did NOT increase the size of the wheels. Their passenger cars are on 31 inch wheels for example versus 36 for the prototype. The Hudson looks absurd with its small drivers. The great thing about AHM was their Funeral Sale. You could get three damaged cars or engines for the price of one and you were virtually assured of getting two that could be canabailized to work. They also had Roundhouse Rubble where for $10 you'd get a box stuffed with busted trains. I used to go nuts ordering that. Dave Nelson
Does any one know where I might find a motor for the above engine
Does anyone have an idea how to re-motor?
Last September I was passing through North Carolina on my way home from Virginia and saw a billboard for a hobby shop at exit 49. I took the exit and found it about a half mile down the road. When I walked in the store it looked like he just bought an inheritence of train stuff because it was scattered throughout the store. On the backwall of somewhat organized HO stuff, he had shelves of nothing but AHM stuff brand new in the box. I was amazed. I hadn't seen an AHM product in about 35 years.
Copper Line Foreman Does any one know where I might find a motor for the above engine Does anyone have an idea how to re-motor?
Wow, old threads never die I guess. Which engine, Copper Line? Dozens were mentioned in the various postings to the old thread.
The B&O Dockside 0-4-0T? That went through several iterations and changes over the years. Fortunately I have a good set of old AHM parts catalogs to try to keep up. But as a rule, what with Bowser no longer offering steam stuff the best bet for AHM re-motors is usually to seek out a junker at a swap meet and just swap out the parts. This is not as rare as it might seem because as it happens, there was a high mortality rate for the front pilot on the Dockside and a lot of them got set aside while the motor was still OK .... or maybe I should say, while the motor was still "like new" -- in some cases they never really were "OK"
Dave Nelson
You are thinking of "Madison" Hardware and the Carmen you are thinking of is Carmen "Webster".
Mark
WGAS
bill mathewsonI too remember the AHC ads, incl.their specials, that were crammed pack w/ just about everything available on the market onto two pages in every MR issue. A trip to their store on W23rd St. in Manhattan was unforgetable, for that store was as jambed w/ trains to the ceilings as was their ads.
I too have some fond memories of AHM trains from the early 1960's. You should realize that it was a different era then. When it was first introduced in 1961 their Indiana Harbor Belt 0-8-0 was considered "state of the art", with detail which far surpassed anything that could be found on steam engines from Mantua or Penn Line. I still have two of them today, and they run fine.
As for diesels, even with only one truck powered, the Fairbanks-Morse C-liners and BL-2s ran far smoother than the Athearn rubber band driven F-units or the Varney "gear grinders", and while some of the proportions were slightly off, they looked great compared to such monstrosities as the Athearn GP-30 anf the "droopy-eyed" Varney F-3.
I had several friends in high school who had Athearn Pacifics that would barely even move down the track, let alone pull a train, and the Athearn GP30 with the original motor would get hot enough to roast a turkey on while barely moving 7 or 8 cars!
True, the rolling stock had large flanges, but where else could you find a plastic model of a New York Central Flexi-Flo hopper for a buck? Their 3-bay Pullman Standard covered hoppers released in the early 1960's were quite well detailed, and have only been eclipsed recently by the new Athearn versions with the metal roofwalks.
The thing that put an end to my AHM locomotive purchases was the introduction of the small 3-pole motors in the late 60's-early 70's. They overheated and burned out VERY easily. Coupled with that fact, Athearn got their act together in the mid-60's with the introduction of the SD45s etc. with better motors and excellent pulling power.
My whole point here is that these models should be considered in the context of their time, and for a time in the early to mid-'60's, as far as affordable plastic locos and cars went, AHM was the best deal for the money.
One of my favorite steamers I had in the 60s was a AHM IHB 0-8-0...I used that engine at the Columbus MRR club for about 2 years then I bought a used United Models UP 0-6-0 and sold the 0-8-0 to another member.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
The exact evolutionary chain for the company from the 1950's until its recent demise goes as follows:
H.O.Train Co. = AHM = IHC
They were all one and the same, just re-organizing under a new name when they experienced difficulties. From the outset they were strictly importers and never manufacturers of anything themselves. At the very beginning they also apparently had ties to Polk Hobbies in NYC, who was the first to import Rivarossi models, along with some early brass and diecast models from Japan.
Since the company's owner is no longer with us and Mehano has re-organized recently indicating its main thrust will now be toward European equipment, there will be no further iterations of this outfit.
CNJ831
Check out North West Short Line.
Dan
CHEWY864Todd, the boxes are blue and yellow. At the bottom of each box is a circle in the lower left hand corner with AHM on top of a yellow triangle and under that it says Fidelity, Economy, Quality. At the bottom of the box it says " The Finest HO Trains from Around the World. On the long sides of the box are pictures and prices of other old world trains and on the bottom are scenery pictures with prices or track pieces with prices.
At the bottom of the box it says " The Finest HO Trains from Around the World. On the long sides of the box are pictures and prices of other old world trains and on the bottom are scenery pictures with prices or track pieces with prices.
Are the wheels on the cars made out of metal or are they plastic?
Also the AHM equipment boxes had some outlines of railroad blue prints and said, "true to blueprint" on the box. Since you didn't mention that I am guessing they were manufactured between 1970 and 1983. Fairly recent stuff and definitely not their best, as they were heavily going toward the economy part of that trilogy at that time.
I have over 150 Rivarossi, IHC and AHM passenger cars from the 60's-80's as well as many of their engines from that time period and still run them. Most have been repowered and I use code 100 track to get around the deep flanges. I still collect and use these cars as well as some of their freight cars that I converted to knuckle couples either kadee or McHenry. As far as value... Heavyweight in the original box is about $15-25 dollar range, except for certain road names that limited productions were made, then the price jumps to about $30-$40 range. Smoothside in the original box is about $10-$15 dollars for RPO's and Baggage cars, $10-$25 for 85' passenger cars. Observation cars vary depending on the road name and the Vista Dome cars are much harder to find and they get a higher price. I have 14 domes mostly the rare ones such as B&O, C&O, NYC, BN. the most common dome is GN's Empire Builder. Also the Delux sleepers go for about $15-$25 range. As for engines I have alot of 4-6-2's they go for about $20-$40 dollar range, 2-8-2 go for about $30-$50 range and the mallets 2-8-8-0 and 2-8-8-2 run about $120.00. If you are interested in doing some trading I am interested in the B&O RS-2 you have. Let me know and perhaps we could do some trading if you are interested. Hope to price guide helps you.
Ray
Well IHC Texas does seem to be evolving, the web site has been updated and there are a few more things from the old IHC product line on the site. http://www.ihc-hobby.com/
Mehano on the other hand, still has the entire US loco line on the web site and now show that some of them are available with DCC and sound.
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum