The Life Like/AHM PRR A3 0-4-0

One of my early locos I started the hobby with after college was the Life Like/AHM PRR A3 0-4-0. This site says Life-Like brought the loco out in 1972 for a $10 retail price, which is about the time I got mine. It was made by Mehano in then-Yugoslovia. AHM marketed the model later in the 1970s for a higher price.

The model is based on the Pennsylvania Railroad A3 0-4-0, which dated from 1895. I detailed the one I got in 1972 and painted it for PRR. It was the main power on a small shelf layout I had in my first apartment, and I used it for several years. It's still packed away somewhere.

I would say that, even for the early 1970s, it was pretty marginal, though for $10 even then, it was at least worth the money. It had a noisy 3-pole mtor that was mostly plastic, and power pickup was only from the four drivers. I don't seem to have minded too much that I had to nudge it frequently to get over my switching layout when it stalled. It really isn't a serious option 50 years later -- it wouldn't be a bad choice for a new model designed from the ground up with pickup on drivers and tender wheels, 3-point suspension, and DCC control with keep-alive capacitor, but the 1972 model ain't that locomotive.

These turn up on eBay now and then, sometimes reasonably priced and sometimes not. I wouldn't buy one to operate at this stage, but if I see one at a good price, I'll pick it up for use in a dead line of scrap locos for layout detail. Not long ago I saw one in the $15 range, and the prior owner had removed the motor. (I'm not surprised, though mine lasted over several active years.) Here it is on my layout:

I intend to remove the lettering and paint it in variouis shades of rust and weathered paint. But since the previous owner removed the motor, the loco will coast, so I replaced the rear coupler on the tender to see how easy it would be to have another loco hostle it around.

Well, the Badhmann Porter 0-6-0T can pull it, but it has a lot more trouble pushing it, so I guess if I want to hostle it, I'll need something bigger.