Dovrebbe farti comodo questo indirizzo:
http://tycotrain.tripod.com/ahmhoscaletrainscollectorsresource/
Qui un po' di storia presa qua e la' dai vari forum
. . .Unfortunately its pretty impossible to determine the years of manufacture of these items. AHM was an importer that used foreign manufacturers, sometimes owning the dies and tooling and switching the tool around Europe and the Far East as those manufacturers died or left the model business. Sometimes the manufacturer owned the dies and tools and sold them to multiple importers. For example over the years Rivarossi sold their trains boxed in boxes named Lionel, Rivarossi, Atlas, AHM, Polks, Aristo-craft, that is for all these American "manufacturers". More over many of the European and Far Eastern (Taiwan, Japan, South Korea) manufacturers no longer exist, some have been bought out by Hornby, Life-Like (Walthers) or Bachmann and production has moved to mainland China. Globalization in the model business started 20 years ago. For HO there are no general websites or published books as there is for British models or old American manufacturers like Lionel, American Flyer or Louis Marx. There aren't enough collectors in HO. Most of these cars were produced in the thousands and the value is low. Some of them are still being imported by IHC (International Hobby Corporation). They advertise in the model magazines.
The actual history of AHM (Associated Hobby Mf'rs Inc -- 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.
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" ( la Badoni americanizzata : vedi Pescaraferr: il Museo dei RRicordi ) which was an imaginary diesel shape like a boot...with SIDE RODS ?
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.
Confermo che su MRC c'e' la storia del modellismo fin dagli inizi nella rubrica Collector Consist, ma non ho tutti i numeri.
Rivarossi e' citata per le sue prime importazioni di treni in bakelite
( definiti 'rather coarse' ) e per il tentativo della scala 0 dove pero' i modelli sono ricordati perche' a stento trainavano se stessi e i motori andavano arrosto.
Spero ti basti per iniziare, Antonello.
PS ho postato qui perche' penso possa interessare anche ad altri
Login
Iscriviti
Home
FAQ
Cerca
