The Joy Of AHM

I went to the bimonthly Simi Valley swap meet yesterday, which reminded me of how much fun it is to find old AHM cars from the 1960s and 70s. There's a page on AHM freight cars here, with writeups and photos on each type, and often each variation of each type. The overall quality varied, but in some cases, they had paint schemes that, even if they weren't prototypical, are very attractive.

Over the years, I've found a number at swap meets that had a lot of potential. Some of the rarer ones, like the helium car, are more expensive (but it depends on who's selling and what the condition is anyhow), but in other cases, AHM cars are among the cheapest you can find, at prices ranging from 50 cents to a couple of bucks. Then you can get them home, toss the trucks and replace them with screw mounts and metal wheels, body-mount Kadees, add weight, and start to have items that are genuinely fun to see and operate.

I posted here about a Roma Wine 6-dome tank car I found last year and upgraded. Actually, I found two of them, 50 cents each. The other had some missing parts. Tony Thompson dumps all over the AHM Roma Wine car here, which is typical of his approach to the hobby -- if you can't locate a brass version, or his old Thomas car, you're a low creature indeed.

I'm not sure. Searching for 6-dome wine car info on the web, I'm starting to get the impression that no two were alike, or at least it seems that way. There were different builders with different options, for instance. There were more operators of these cars than Roma Wine. Looking around, I found these decals available from Protocraft for a Gibson Wine Company car:

The photos of Gibson Wine cars with the Protocraft instructions show cars with proportions very similar to the AHM car, even if the AHM may be too large. Here is what I came up with, for 50 cents plus decals, trucks, and Kadees:

Here are a couple of other AHM cars I've reworked over the years. In 1996, I had a work assignment in Amarillo, TX. It was in the summer, and when I got off work each day, there was plenty of light available to go railfanning (I'm sorry I missed Amarillo in the 1960s). The last of the helium cars were operating out of the area at the time, and I got a lot of photos:

Here's an AHM car I reworked:

After a lot of seeking, I found out that the AHM pulpwood car has an N&W prototype:

This car will look good with "logs", but I haven't gotten around to cutting them. Here's a shot of the prototype:

It looks like AHM shrunk the model to fit their standard box. It's off, but I like it. Tony Thompson is unlikely to visit my layout and complain, anyhow. Yesterday I found an AHM in-transit heated tank car for $2:

These were developed in 1962 by Union Tank Line to meet a US Steel need to haul molten coal tar pitch. Someone pointed me to an ad from the period:

My uncle, who finished his career as CEO of Illinois Central, worked for US Steel in the 1960s and was involved in the development and testing of these cars, of which at least several were built. He has always been doubtful that the design lasted very long, as what he worked on involved a propane-fired engine and heater and a highly flammable cargo of coal tar pitch. He rode along on tests and was always conscious that these cars were, as he put it, "rolling bombs". On the other hand, there are still pitch cars with in-transit heaters in service, such as a CGTX series 18450-18499 -- too far away in appearance from the AHM car,although an internal combustion engine, fan, and heater seem to be still involved.

Again, I think upgrading this model with new trucks, body mount couplers, weight, paint, and some finer details will be a lot of fun.