Most of my engines are 12 wheelers, GE-C’s, FP-45’s, Erie Bulit, E-6’s SPD-45 and a Dash 9. Only 8 wheelers I have is a A&B F-7 both powered and should be here Thursday BL 2.
Well, you folks know me and E-bay[:(] I know the name AHM but never had one so I thought I would give it a try.
I hope it runs like a 8 wheel drive Bachman (never had one of them either) or may be a little better. Old BB I be happy! I know it will not be a PK, but did not pay that kind of $ either.
But for the prices, well it will give my daughter something to post on E-Bay for my estate sale![:o)]
Seems someone posted they had a few and like them.
It has been awhile, but in my experience I would rate AHM right down there with Tyco. Not as low, since Tyco is the reverse pinnacle of the art form, but in the same vein. Not to be too ugly, but did the sequence “ask first, then buy” ever cross your mind?
In general, I have to agree with these guys. AHM are / were better than Tyco, but that is not saying much. I had a SD-40 and it was mechanically inferior. The bodies are not too bad so the best advice is put one on top of a BB chassis. IHC owns a lot of the AHM stuff as well as the old Tyco molds.
This one is kind of odd. Roco built this Century 424 model for AHM and it has never resurfaced. The roof has a GM fan behind the cab, which is incorrect. In the late 70’s and 80’s Roco built a line of Diesels for Atlas and they were state of the art at the time. Roco also built the Model Power Sharks and they ran very well.
Ken, as this is a Roco built unit, I would like to see a picture of the mechanism.
These guys are right, They are not the best engines around. But, I have had an old geep for about thirty years and it still runs. It doesn’t run like my Atlas, or Spectrum engines or even my BB, but it runs. I let my five year old son take it out every now and again. He has two speeds, Stop and ALL OUT. The gearing on this engine must put the scale MPH at 200.
I have seen some of these AHM engine run great for many years. However for each gem out there, there is a probably a dead engine stuck in an engine shop.
The 60 era AHM locomotives was smooth runners and can not be compared to Tyco or the train set Bachmann.Of course these locomotives was made by Rivirossi…
It’s not as bad as people think it is. If you clean the motor up and give is some weight it can be a pretty smooth running loco. I had the same exact one. This is how I know. What’s not good about it is that it’s not Prototype at all. Now BN had C424’s and 425’s and I think that supposed to be close to a C425. The paint scheme is nothing like the real one. It didn’t have the white stripe running through it and there was no such road number 853. PLUS, everything on it is not to scale meaning the handrails, ect.
What I did to it since I got it to run smooth without any jerking on the track.
Solder additional wires to the trucks for constant power
Added Weight
Remove the handrails and get some Athearn metal ones
Stripped it bare and repainted it to prototype
Add correct decals
Presto. Everything in MRR is not useless unless it don’t work at all.
AHM stuff was made by a wide variety of manufacturers, and sometimes they would find cheaper copies of their own stuff, so that some Fairbanks Morse C Liners are Rivarossi and others are Yugoslavian knock offs (yet the knock offs had slightly more accurate trucks so go figure …).
They were inexpensive and you got what you paid for. I bought two used engines of the kind your picture shows at a swap meet and I think I paid $15 for the two, and the guy threw in a freight car or two if I recall correctly.
The major problems with AHM engines are/were these, and I speak here mostly of the diesels. First for a long time they had horribly oversize flanges that will not run reliably on many makes of Code 83 (and smaller) rail – even some makes of Code 100 turnouts have problems. Over time they addressed that so look at a model carefully before buying if you have Code 83 or Code 70 rail.
Second, the motors were decidedly cheap. Often three pole motors, meaning that slow speed operation was erratic. Also the motors were often small and heated up under load (risky because many of their engines have rubber traction tires, so burn out of a motor is not unheard of). Also in their early engines they used an odd combination of carbon and wire brushes on the motors – the brushes wear the commutator and the carbon needs replacement from time to time. Some of their “flat” motors are particularly poor runners.
Third the diesels had truck mounted X2F couplers and therefore big gaps at the pilots of the engines.
Fourth often the paint was applied too thickly – or they would color the plastic and not paint the engine at all which gave some of them a translucent look.
And many details were poor such as handrails, horns, stanchions, etc.
Having said that, for the time they often had quiet and smooth mechanisms meaning repowering with a can motor often gets good results. Ho
AHM was the original importer of Rivarossi and their engines were the equivalent of P2K today (in their time). Most have a three pole open frame motor that had ball bearings and most ran pretty well but noisy. The AHM/Rivarossi GG1 is a fine runner and very smooth because the motor is mounted vertically and a worm drives the wheels directly rather than through a series of shafts. I’d take everyone of those I could get my hands on and do. I’ve bought 28 of them on E Bay for my fleet.
It looks like AHM used the scheme BN had on their E units. These did have the white stripe. BTW, has anyone seen one of Tyco’s “BN” E units? I have one of their E7s in a similar “fantasy” scheme. This one has a green nose and roof, but with silver sides.
Since you like ebay why not go for like a kato or one of the newer atlas, you can pick them up for as little as $25.00. I’m mostly into steam really, but have picked up 0-8-0 proto’s for as little as $65.00 so you might do even better on the diesels ( hey I finaly learned how to spell diesel, I’m so proud of myself ).
One thingie about AHM lokeys is they can be a great starting point for kitbashing. There have been articles in past MR’s about modelers who have taken AHM power and turned them into first rate runners and well detailed to boot. I don’t use stock AHM stuff, but have found them to be a great start for kitbashing. I took one of their GP18s, kitbashed the daylights outa her (fun project to boot), and she came out looking like a respectable unit that modelers tell me it couldn’t have been an AHM unit.[C):-)]
AHM’s quality depends on who the manufacturer was. The quality of their engines was from the less detailed but smooth running Mehano made stuff to high quality brass.
The engine you got was the only one ever made for them by Roco. It should be a smooth runner, and the detail looks pretty decent except for that EMD type vent behind the cab (RMC magazine accidentilly put it in their diagram of the engine). If you want to know just what kind of drive is in there, there’s an exploded parts diagram in the Literature section of http://hoseeker.net (it will be under the Rivarossi name, since they made most of AHM’s stuff).[:D]
While it’s true they run well, pull good, and look very nice, one thing to watch out for is that ALL the Rivarossi GG1’s have flanges that are deeper than RP25 standards, and will NOT run on code 83 track. If you use Code 100 - no problems.
The newer Mehano versions use the same tooling, but seriously need more weight, they can barely move themselves let alone a decent train of passenger cars. They have the same spaces for the same size weights used in the Rivarossi versions, they just saved a few cents and leftout the metal plates used as weights.
Welll it sounds like it is going to be better than the Life Like Pancake engines I started with. Mainly looking for something that would pull around 10 to 15 cars. My long trains are pulled by PK’s and BB’s.
As far as buying good engines, I do. Mainly Athearn and PK’s. But NIB and $10.00 with shipping what the heck.
Reason I did not ask, well to be honest I forgot about it while I was watching the auction. Went to watching section and there it was with 5 minutes.
Some of the folks here and gotton on my caboose about buying old worn out engines from E-bay and rightly so. Yep, got to buy parts, bug you fine folks about what wrong with them and then fix them. But, another way to look at it is with the way I run my board (Tuesday 6 hours a lone) I am going to ware out the new stuff as well, might as well start learing about fix this stuff now than later. Either way break downs are coming.
Thanks on the tip about Hard Wiring the trucks as well.
You tell 'em, Ken. And let’s not forget that while you are doing all this, you are learning a great deal. There will soon come a time when you will be an authority about fixing modest stock on this forum; instead of someone who needs to be guided, you will be able to guide others. At the same time, those who opine that the hobby is getting too expensive will begin to appreciate that it takes someone with a dogged and methodical approach to developing a decent model railroad to fix and improve the less fine and expensive items that can still be had on ebay and other places for just a few dollars.
Thanks for the kind word’s Selector. Yep it has been a jounry but I have learned alot. My cheap rolling stock with up grades roll as well as my Athearns.
Have all so found away of taking the slop out of the push in trucks. Couple of Kadee spacers, part of a paper clip and some liquied nail and ready to roll and no slop. Off the rails tuck hangs just like a Athearn RTR (was not impressed with the one I bought I will add). Just because it cannot work does not mean it won’t work!
