Improving AHM ore cars

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I just found 9 of the older AHM ore cars with the pizza cutter wheels and talgo style couplers in the bottom of one of my train trunks and would like to put them in service on our club layout.

These are some quite nice looking cars so really would like to use them

Changing the wheels to Intermountain 33" metal wheels should be no problem I’m just wondering how difficult body mounting Kadee number 5 couplers is going to be,or maybe just making up short strings of cars using short drawbars would be easier,in that case what would be the best train length,hopefully these will be a permanent fixture on the layout.

With a mixture of our Walthers,MDC and the AHM cars the train length now stands at 50 cars with a Akane DM&IR Yellowstone on the headend.

2

If you look at Kadee’s conversions for AHM, they recommend #5’s for all AHM freight cars if you’re going to body mount them: http://www.kadee.com/conv/pdf/ahm22.pdf

Some of those old inexpensive cars can be made to run respectably and look quite nice with a little work. Those ore jimmies were made by either Roco or Liliput, and were also sold under the ATT name. http://tycotrain.tripod.com/ahmhoscaletrainscollectorsresource/id5.html

3

I used kadee #33 with short centerset shank. I drlled a hole for self tapping screws to fasten them to the plastic bottom pieces at the end of the car.

The trucks held my metal wheels sets too snuggly, and I corrected the problem by simply bending the truck journal box outward. Not too prototypical, but it works.

Mine will never look as good as yours because I don’t have a DMIR Yellowstone locomotive for pulling them

4

I converted a AHM (IHC from President Choice train set) quad hopper this week using #5 Kadee with the pocket. Quick and easy conversion. I also replaced the truck with old MDC truck wth Kadee metal wheel set. I guess it’s not very different for the ore cars. Those little cars, even if they are cheap, stand out quite well when repainted and weathered.

Good luck with your conversion, such large ore trains need a lot of cars on thight budget!

5
6

I could care less about the DMIR Yellowstone locomotive. It’s only a steam locomotive.[zzz]

What I like are the Baldwin diesel switchers assigned to the steel mill on your layout.[:)]

7

Let me guess, it runs like a “swiss watch” and will pull the track up behind it? Those old Akanes are terrific engines, maybe not dripping with the “cold soldered” details of the new ones but built to run forever. This one looks as though somebody has replaced some of the detail castings and with the gray paint looks beautiful. I’ve had these in the past, also the “Gem” version, sprung drivers and brake hangers with more details, another great engine. Currently I have a pair of the Westside versions because they were leased to the Rio Grande during the winter months.

Beautiful engine that you can leave to your grandchildren when that day comes.

I also have a bunch of the old Roco ore cars I picked up somewhere, a future project but they certainly are nice especially considering the age.

Mark

Mark