I have several Locos(11) and 20+ freight cars from AHM but cannot find them on the internet. How do I find out when they were made, where they came from and what their value is. Five of them are still in the original boxes and 2 are 85’ passenger cars modeled after the 1920’s and 1930’s. I do not want to sell them but would like to know what I have.
Check on Ebay…
or contact their successor company…
http://www.ihc-hobby.com/
Doug, in Utah
I would guess that that stuff is from the 1960-1980 era. If you tell me what the boxes look like, I could narrow it down for you. Also, give descriptions of the engines and cars.
By the way, AHM is no longer in business. IHC has picked up some of their line, although quality has suffered. An Italian manufacturer by the name of Riverossi once was the main supplier to “AHM”, The “RIV” line is still sold today, although at greatly inflated prices.
Todd C.
Todd, 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.
1-Baltimore & Ohio 0-4-0 Dockside 5017 B&O made in Italy by Rivarossi
1-MDT Diesel Switcher 5006 Baltimore & Ohio 0-4-0 made in Yugoslavia
*1-ALCO RS-2 Diesel Loco Baltimore & Ohio 4-0-4
this one is Blue, Gray and Black
*1-FM A-Powered 5026 New Haven 4-0-4 Red, Black and White
*1-FM A-Powered Northern Pacific8 4-0-4 Dark Green, Lt Green, Gray and Yellow.
*–These 3 all look to be the same FM A-Powered style but with different paint and details.
1-1920 85’ Coach 6205 CL Made by Rivarossi Crescent Limited Green and Black
1-1930 85’ Coach 6404 IC Made by Rivarossi Illinois Central - Fulton Brown, Orange and Yellow.
These were all in their original boxes with the Yellow foam inside and clear plastic on the face.
I have 5 other Locos and 20+ stock. Is there a way to find out when they were made? where they came from and what they retail for now? Also, all the Locos are very heavy the undercarriage are all made of metal with metal wheels.
You can contact me direct at Chewy864@msn.com
Thanx for your help.
The older Rivarossi-AHM models had very deep wheel flanges, and the locomotives had noisy rough running motors.They are a collectors’ item to some, but virtually never sought out for actual railroading.In the mid-to-late 70’s, Rivarossi switched to ".039"flanges, which were not RP25 wheels, but at least they didn’t bounce thru turnouts.AHM printed “with .039 flanges” on one end of the box on these newer units.
Value is always whatever anyone is willing to pay.The suggestion to check ebay is good,it tells you what people are actually paying.
I sell equipment at train shows several times a year.
Most older AHM-Rivarossi steam locos go for the equiv. of (USD$) :
Switchers $20-30
Pacifics, Hudsons $50-60
Articulateds $80-100
diesels $12-15
freight cars $2-3
lighted passenger cars $12-15
“New in Box” of all these gets maybe 10-15% more $.
Your ‘made in Yugoslavia’ models are made by Mehano, in Slovenia, who make a lot of stuff for IHC and for ‘house-brand’ grocery and hardware train sets.Not much value for ‘old Mehano’.
regards / Mike
Mike, thanx for the info. I will keep all this in mind. Is there a way to find out when they were made? I would like to keep note card on all my Locos even if they are not being run. I will take your advice and check out ebay.
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
Sounds like 1964-1973 era stuff, judging by the boxes and roadnames. Collectable for sure, but I don’t know about prices. Sorry.
Todd C.
Dave, most everything you say is right on…one thing, the AHM stood for “Associated Hobby Mf’rs Inc”, not “America’s”…you are probably thinking of AHC…“America’s Hobby Center”, one of the oldest and longest surviving discount mail-order outfits in the USA,in New York.They are gone now, but used to carry nearly every make of stuff,domestic and foreign, at least it seemed.
Early AHM offerings also included a European ‘collaboration’ of Rivarossi and Aristocraft, known as “Aristo-Rossi”.
Do you remember such engines as “Little Shoo Baby” which was an imaginary diesel shape like a boot…with SIDE RODS ?
regards / Mike
Chewy, it’s a bit of a challenge to find out when they were all made, but maybe I could help by email sometime, especially if you can send JPG images of equipment and boxes ....robmik@bmts.com
regards / Mike
Mike you are absolutely corrrect I was thinking of AHC – I must have ordered one too many “spur deals”
Dave
Mike, Thanx for all the help, my next weekend off is in two weeks and then I will take pics of what I have and send them to you. I only get one weekend off a month and one nite a week usually, so it makes it tough to get on the net every night. Also, trying to get things ready to start my layout. I am still trying to move my wife’s office into the den, then move my daughter’s room into the office then my layout into her bedroom, more wall space without closets and doors getting in the way.
Again, thanx for all the help.
Chewy864@msn.com
FWIW, AHC is actually still in business, albeit much smaller. Just last month I found a catalog or website of theirs, now I can’t remember which (old age is setting in and taking it’s toll). I just did a google search, but could not find them again on the web. I seem to recall they weren’t into trains as much, mostly RC, plastic models and such. Maybe an MR staffer can help out on the details.
Also take a look at:
http://tycotrain.tripod.com/ahmhoscaletrainscollectorsresource/
I found the link to them:
http://www.ahc1931.com/Privacy.html
They do very little trains these days.
Dave Nelson - you reminded me of the Woolworth “Christmas”, and also “Christmas in July” train sales in the mid/late '60s featuring incredible deals on already low MSRP prices for AHM HO trains (incl some real early, almost nonrunning HOn30 European prototype-sorta industrial equipment that was so finnicky and so light, that if you got it running, it would fall off the first curve, slide backwards going up a grade, and stall in every turnout. I bought (new) an AHM cab forward and a N&W Y6B for around $20. each, as well as a beautiful for the time Nickle Plate Berkshire for around $15. Their Rivarossi pass cars were between $.99 and $1.99, and were the best looking scale heavyweight cars available in plastic at the time. And they were full length, making Athearn’s hw cars look stubby, which they are. AHM freight cars were junk, and didn’t compare to the more expensive ‘blue box’ kits that cost around $3.00, or less ! AHMs early diesels -EMD BL-2 and F-M C-liners were absolutely awful, at least the ones I saw.
AHM did make a couple of neat , relatively inexpensive, plastic unpowered O scale (Rivarossi?) steam engine kits - a 4-6-0 Illinois Central “Casey Jones” and an Indiana Harbor Belt 0-8-0. Motorizing kits were apparantly available as a separate kit, and I remember MR or RMC doing a neat feature on kitbashing the O scale 0-8-0 into several variants - think article was by Vic Rossman. . .
It was my understanding that AHM filed for bankruptcy, and that IHC was resurected from the ashes of AHM, because I think they had the same address for years in Phila. Their product offerings, packaging, and ads were similar to each other, and much of the same tooling survives today. The early IHC and AHM engines make great shelf dust bunnies, unless motors are changed out, weight added, and wheels either replaced, or flanges cut down.
I too remember the AHC ads, incl.their specials, that were crammed pack w/ just about everything available on
I wish I had fouf this forum before I bought some AHM freight cars on line (Ebay) Oh well, live and learn. They won’t couple to my Lionel stock.
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.
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