Old AHM Engines - Are they that bad?

The early stuff was basically toy train models and operated as such. 3 pole motors and tall gearing often made the stuff run at very high speeds. In addition, some had poor gearing that made a lot of noise which would make a poorly adjusted Hobbytown loco sound quiet.

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works every time it is tried!

They also have rubber/neoprene traction tires that are hard to find now a days.

If you want an RS3, spend the extra $$'s and buy a Kato or atlas or even Stewart.

"Bob May" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news-1.nethere.net:

They also had "pizza cutter" flanges, not the RP-25 flanges used on nearly all modern models. These deep flanges would work with code 100 rail, but would hit on the spike heads of code 70. I don't know about code 83, but I would bet that you could have problems there also. On the whole, I learned to stay away from AHM 35 years ago. Their freight cars weren't too bad if you replaced the trucks and put Kadee couplers on them; although, they were a bit more crude than the contemporary cars.

Dave wrote: Any idea what they sold for originally?

-------------------------------------------------- Ads in a 1981 issue of Model Railroader has most AHM Diesels for around $8-15.

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

Dave,

Do not waste your money. The AHM engine was an RS-2. First came out about 1970 with 4 wheel drive, and very poor body/handrails. Later came out in the late 70's with 8 wheel drive, and somewhat better body/handrails. This model had RP25 flanges, but the cheap motor was still there. I bought a pair at the local discount place around Christmas time, rebuilt the pilots and made them into CGW engines. Got rid of them when Kato announced their RS-2 in the CGW delivery scheme!

Jim Bernier

Dave Rutan wrote:

Crude detail, deep flanges, and poor runners. Very difficult to mount Kadees.

If you can get them under 10 bucks apiece delivered, fine. Anything more, not worth it.

Don

-- snipped-for-privacy@prodigy.net

Strictly a toy train. If all you want is a toy train then they will do fine. If you are interested in scale model railroading, that is, something more than just watching a toy train go round and round at breakneck speed, then don't bother with the thing. They are cheaply made, poorly scaled, poor runners and are not worth spending any money on fixing-up. There are far better models of RS-2 and RS-3 locomotives on the market than these.

Captain Handbrake

They're good for practicing kitbashing if they're cheap enough... Jay The Canada Goose is living proof that birds have cross-bred with cattle and rats.

To answer the question in your subject - Yes.

Thanks for all your responses. It's unanimous, I'll leave it be. Stuff like that is fine if it drops in my lap for free, but I'm not paying money for it.

Dave