Does anyone know who did these Locos? Did he repower them too? I found the pictures on The Western Prototype Models Meet page from 2002. Anyone out there go to these meets ? I have two of these old units and I am thinking about how to repower them and detail tem.
I’ve always wanted a pair of these to use as helpers on my line, any idea where to get them besides E-Bay?
Cheers!
~METRO
No idea, I’ve had mine hanging arond for 25 years or more, just dying to be worked on, Ones powered and does run. I’d really just find this guy and ask him a million questions.
I’ve seen them at shows before. They are not real common and usualy kinda pricy for what they are. I’ve always kept my eyes open for them b/c i would love to get one… or two… or three… they are cool engines. Stock i know they would need a good bit of detailing work, like the ones pictured, but they would be sweet to run.
~matt
AHM/Rivarrossi made them (unless theres a brass version)
It would have their usual gear train design of a vertical motor over the truck.
I dont recall if NWSL ever had any direct regear kits for it or not.
PSC I believe has a 6 wheel self contained power truck.
I owned one but sold it.
Rivarossi made them for AHM in the 60s, and re-released them in their own name in the 80s and continued making them until the mold was destroyed by a fire at the factory.[:(]
When you say “Did he repower them too,” who are you talking about?
OMI made some brass Krauss Maffeis, but they did the hood units instead of the wide-bodied ones that RR made. They can be found on eBay once in a while, and the chassis should fit the RR shell with probably only a little modification.[:D]
If I bought one, I’d personally keep the old drive and not even think of changing anything on it, just because they’re pretty much rare collector’s item now.[:D]
There is some information about this engine at the link below:
http://www.hoseeker.net/otherhotrains.html
Larry
Gappleg,
I’ve got one of those in the original SP paint. I’ve had mine for at least 15 years and bought it used. The engine in the background of both of your pictures looks like mine. The front one has a bunch of detail parts added.
Mine originally had about 2 pounds of lead weight in it, so much that it cracked one of the plastic centers of the drive wheels. Took forever to get it replaced. (I took most of the weight out.) The motor is 3-pole mounted vertically over the rear truck. It powers 2 of the three axles. The front truck picks up power on one side. Surprisingly, it runs reasonably well. I’ve added headlights, and a backup light - it’s really neat to see the offset light in action on backup moves. Pulls pretty good for having only two powered axles.
Get yours in paint and on the layout. They are interesting to watch.
Mark C.
Gappleg,
There is a Yahoo group for Railroad Prototype Modelers moderated by Jim Six,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RPM-forum/
If you Yahoo I’d join that group and ask there. There are guys from all across the US in the group, I’ll bet someone there would know. Or maybe the owner is a member too?
SP & D&RGW were the only railroads to own them. Rio Grnde sold theirs to the SP. SP made them in to camera cars for instruction purposes. The problem was reliability of the hydraulic drive on the engines resulted in high maintenace costs. They were therefore retired very early…
I think you misunderstood the questions. GAPPLEG was asking his questions about the specific locos in the photos he posted, not about the AHM Krauss-Maffei in general… They have obviously been super-detailed, and GAPP was asking who did the detailing, and was also asking if the person responsible for the detailing had repowered (remotored) them. : )
Jeff
Oops, sorry.[:D] But on the plus side, you still get a little more info about them.[:D]
Can’t argue that![:D][tup]
Jeff
hi,
you can find them from time to time on ebay.it,the italian ebay.
they are not pretty much search items over-there.
rgds,
nick
Yeah, I prettty much know the history, thanks to everyone who chimed in. I really would like to find this guy in California and chat with him. See what he did. Like I said above the pictures were from the 2002 Western Proto models meet in La Hambra ?Californa.
You most likely are looking for Dr. Harry Wong. Or perhaps another veteran Espee modeler. You can tell the work on the AHM units is custom because of the carbody filters. The AHM model represents the three K-M D&RGW units. The headlights were different on the SP units. The model in the foregraound has the proper SP headlight package and the one in the rear has the as-built D&RGW package. Carbody filters were also different between the two roads.
The trouble with the K-Ms was the engines, not the hydraulic drive. The Maybach engines were high RPM V16 diesels and required constant attention to keep them on the road. The twin V-16s produced a little under 3600 horsepower. When the SD45 was introduced with 3600 horsepower out of 20 cylinders the K-Ms were shortly thereafter retired 1967-68. One hood unit was converted into the camera car by SP, the rest were scrapped. There is a K-M hood unit preserved in South America in Brazil IIRC. [8D]
Another note on repowering. The OMI wheelbase on the hood units is the same as the Rivarossi, but the truck sideframes are completely different.
The Kato SD-40/45 chassis makes a great repower for these units. The biggest job is grafting the KM side franes onto a filed down SD sideframe.
Are they plastic? ? They actually are great looking engines, have these ever been painted ? ? Were these locos ever used in Germany or built specifically for the U.S. ? And, are these particular locos any good?? questions --questions-- questions.
Yes those are plastic, but they don’t look like that out of the box. There’s a LOT of work that went into those to make them look that way. The originals were well detailed for when they were new, in the 1960s, but by today’s standards they’re practially toys. Good luck getting your hands on any, they’re gold to SP modelers in America.
The prototypes operated on the SP and DRGW for a while but where quick out of service for mechanical reasons. They were really distinct and really there’s nothing else in America that has a look like that of the KMs.
Cheers!
~METRO