Hello fellows, I friend of mine has found “in the attic” an H.O. scale 4-4-0 Prairie (?) type engine manufactured in Italy by Pocher in the mid sixities or maybe early "70’s. The tender contains the motor, a driveshaft from the tender powers the drive wheels on the loco. The engine’s name is Genoa. It’s a nice little piece of work, worth more in sentimental value than anything else, it does need a pair of wheels for the rear of the tender… Any info or leads would be helpful, Thanks.
Does it look like this? http://www.hoseeker.net/otherhotrains.html Select the Rivarossi menu and look for the 4-4-0.
Jim
Jim, I’m getting an error message, “403”. Does Rivarossi make these engines now?
Slick, does it look like this?
This is an AHM locomotive from the mid 60’s & the motor is in the tender.
Gordon
I fixed the link, the instruction sheet says AHM on it but it is listed under Rivarossi.
Jim
Poor runners because they had the oversized wheel flanges and could not go through an Atlas turnout without stalling. As others have mentioned, they were made somewhere in Europe and were sold by Associated Hobby Manufacturers, which is now known as International Hobby Corporation.
I have two of them and they are suitable only for static display purposes.
I have no problems with mine on my layout as I use Peco & Shinohara turnouts & I also use code 100 rails as well.
For a 40 year old locomotive, it runs pretty good.
Gordon
Put electrical wipers on the tender trucks and they will crawl through Atlas turnouts.
I have a “what I do” at:
http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/1879/locomotives/wipers/
Thank you if you visit
Harold
I have the Reno and the Genoa, and they always ran well for me, at leaston Code 100 track. They don’t handle Code 83, flanges are too deep. But mine NEVER stalled on Atlas turnout - they were pickier than other though, so I used the Reno as a test - if the Reno would run smoothly around my layout, then I could run ANYTHING.
–Randy
thats the old AHM lokie.
Came out from Rivarossi in the late '60’s or early '70’s, if my poor old mind can remember. Tender driven, VERY smooth runners FOR THEIR TIME (I cannot emphasize that enough) still run okay on Code 100 track. They were based on Virginia and Truckee prototypes, especially the locos that were loaned to Paramount pictures for their 1939 epic UNION PACIFIC. “Reno” and “Genoa” were 4-4-0’s, they also made a model of the “J. W. Bowker”, a 2-4-0. Deep European flanges (you can replace the tender wheels with 30" RP-25 sets from NWSL, but the drivers will be another matter), and I never had trouble with stalling on turnouts. Nice little locos. Mine went the way of a lot of my early plastic steam power, but they were pretty trouble-free. I still have one left, run it occasionally. Still works.
Tom
Thanks Much, everyone!.. Yepper, you guys found it. I’ll get back to my buddy and let him proceed with obtaining a pair of tender wheels…Again, thanks for the help.
These locos are also not to scale. They are about 30% too large. At least that is what I have been told.
Jeff
They are to scale just not HO. They are OO scale, 4mm/ft rather than the 3.5mm/ft of HO. The only compromise in scale is they run on HO track. It is the predominate scale/gauge combination in the United Kingdom.
It makes modeling the 1870’s easier. I have found that the 4mm/ft of OO scale is a much better size to model. I have an article on modeling the 1870’s in OO/HO at:
http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/1879/why/
Click image to enlarge
An IHC 4-4-0 with the correct OO scale figures
Thank you if you visit
Harold
I have this same loco and im missing the driveshaft from the tender to the engine and im looking like crazy to find it anyone know where i can get the part??
That company has been out of business so long that the only place you might find a replacement drive shaft is to purchase another one on eBay and hope it isn’t missing.
I have two of the Pocher 4-4-0 models with motors in the tender and a missing drive shaft. Personally, I don’t consider them worth trying to repair because they have extremely deep wheel flanges that would stall on every turnout frog.
I believe Rivarossi bought Pocher in the 70s. Pocher was also known for high priced intricate large scale automobile kits.
I inherited one of these in my great-grandpa’s HO collection. It runs just fine on my code 100 track, even pulling a few passenger cars that must’ve been part of a set. I did have to buy a replacement driveshaft…found that on ebay for a couple bucks.
Although some of their products appear at first glance to be similar, there is AFAIK no connection between the old AHM and the more recent IHC. Certainly the AHM passenger cars made by Rivarossi (and later sold under the Rivarossi name) are not the same as the IHC passenger cars.
AHM (Associated Hobby Manufacturers) and IHC (International Hobby Corporation) were owned by the same man, who first owned AHM and, I believe, went bankrupt; and then formed IHC.
When he entered a nursing home and had made no arrangements for anyone to take over IHC, the empoyees were left out in the cold.
AHM models were made in Italy by Rivarossi, and IHC models were made by Mehano in Slovenia.