Amt Passenger Cars

Superflex wire on the rollers and you're good to go.  

I've been collecting the Santa Fe one's myself. I have almost all of them, but I have noticed that on some of them, no matter what I do, I can't stop the lights from Flickering. At least one in each car. I've replaced the lamp contact wire and resoldered them, I've also replaced the rollers with new ones, but they still flicker. Short of buying LED strips, is there anything else I can do?

Thanks,

Adam

Hi all,

   Well here they are, still need a little cleaning here and there but there looking

good. the observation car has new LED lights which bring out the blue glow which

I really like. One thing, is there a way to safely bend the truck frame on these guy's

it seems the bracket that is in the center and goes across is slightly bent out can

I bend it in a little or will it crack?  

Work slowly/carefully, and you should be fine working the bolster back into shape.

I had good success with the jumper wire fix. If the roller bounced over a track joint, it seems like it bounces just a micron, for a split second, enough to interrupt conductivity, the jumper will maintain contact to that other roller which "fills in" for that instant.

MTN

    Thank you for the tip on the wiring will try it out today, by the way which 

color lights do you like in the cars, I like the blue LED's.

Tin 

I like the blue window strips myself.  Have fun tuning up your cars...

Thanks, these cars are turning out to be nice to work on and fun to run.

Tin 

One of my AMT NYC diner's with the fast angle wheels and jumper wire added between the rollers for more constant electrical flow:

Pennsy smoothsides - 3 are pretty rough, the 4th is in better shape, possibly a repaint although the lettering matches the cars that got an overcoat of cruddy paint - their lettering outlines are faint but visible.  The observation is missing its rear door/drumhead - I'd hold it in abeyance if someone had those and could see fit to parting with them, or knew where I could locate those parts...  

Closer shot of the ok looking City of Fort Wayne...

Those are nice looking, if they need parts I would make them yourself, check 

around for other passenger car parts and with a Dremel tool I would cut 

them to size or look on ebay for messed up cars and try that. I just got 

couplers from Olsen's they might have more parts. Oh thanks for the wiring tip.

Tin 

The Keystone drumhead is unique to the sandcast car, as is the door.  I might have to break down and just make up a door with an AMT drumhead from the ribbed sided observation.

I like'm 

They have their charm!    They also weigh a ton, and I can see a single motored 2332 GG1 trying to lug a set of three of those around a layout, wheels spinning wildly...

Anybody else have smoothside cars from AMT?  I've never seen clean Pennsy cars, or any NYC cars in person.  

just what makes them so heavy? I don't mind not so clean rolling stock. saves on the weathering process...

Thick metal casting makes them weigh a ton.  The paint on my set looks like crap, but given their rarity I'm leaving them alone.

I'd agree with you. Looks I'll have to start looking for a PRR set myself.

For such a long thread, we need more pictures, there are essentially only 3 posts with original picts, the C&NW, a christmas tree photo and the Pennsy Cars.  How 'bout a photo line up of the various cars?  That would be interesting.

a man after my own heart....

I'm hopeful some other folks have AMT cars available for portraits - mine are buried in storage tubs since my layout came down.  Mine are almost all unpainted/fluted models with SF and NYC letterboards,with a stray Southern and Pennsy car.

Hi all,

  Hope everyone had a great holiday or holidays. Here are some pics of the 

latest New York Central Coach car I just got and the two Santa fa Diner and 

observation ready to run. the NYC gave me a bit of trouble the rollers are 

just touching the rails on one truck, so I have to look for a slightly larger dia.

size roller that might do the trick if I can find it.

Does the spring on the roller assembly with the roller that isn't making solid contact  providing much tension?  Is there a groove in the roller?

No, there's no groove it just doesn't touch the third rail at times, like it doesn't 

hang low enough to good contact, I did try something I switched the side frames 

from one side to the other to see if that helped I just turned it on and they both 

lite so I'll run them tomorrow and see, plus I did change the spring to a heavier 

one and it did help on turns but straight it will go off.

Tin 

Where'd you get the spring? I have a couple cars with week springs that I'd like to replace. I tried making my own, but that did not turn out well.

I had it in a parts bucket I had, I just cut it down and seems to work good.

Tin 

Still blinks a lot have to find a new roller or truck, trucks I know are hard to find 

but a roller may be easier.

Tin 

Here are some profile pictures of AMT Santa Fe passenger cars.

 AMT catalog number 2001. Santa Fe 3407 U.S. Mail Railway Post Office.

AMT catalog number 2002. Santa Fe Indian Scout roomette.

AMT catalog number 2004. Santa Fe Buena Vista - Vista Dome.

AMT catalog number 2005. Santa Fe Indian Arrow observation car.

AMT catalog number 2008. Santa Fe 4170 baggage car.

What engines are you using to pull the sets?

I have 4 of these cars, will be adding 2 more.

My 675 can sorta handle it

Lionel Polar Express handles them with Lots of SMOKE!

Old Kusan Alco can't pull through curves

1990's Lionel diesel just spins the tires

would a 736( or any w/ Magnatraction) pull these?

I'm using a dual motor late fifty's F3, I even used a EP5 that I have with no problems.

I think a 736 should pull them, but I will tear the trucks apart and really clean them 

and use a light grease, I'm using a medium oil now and the oil is running.

Tin 

The Santa Fe passenger cars look good when pulled behind postwar Lionel Santa Fe F-3 ABA units.

Your right they would look good running behind those.

Tin 

Tin,

   Both the NTC & the Santa Fe cars are just fantastic, would not mind adding a set of them to my layout either.  They must look like a million bucks with your War Bonnet engines!

PCRR/Dave

Here are some photos of the Texas Special passenger cars.

The Texas Special Bowie roomette.

The Texas Special Diner.

The Texas Special Crockett Vista Dome.

The Texas Special Sam Houston observation.

And The Texas Special F-7 engine that pulls them.

That's what AMT was hoping for - the perfect cars to go behind those 2333 and 2343 SF and 2333 and 2344 NYC F units.  A purist would eschew those Lionel diesels and lug them with the AMT and later KMT NYC lightning stripe and SF diesels (although AMT painted their SF F units in the blue freight scheme).  

Nice to see folks adding comments and pictures of their AMT/KMT passenger cars.  

Chicago & North Western passenger cars.

Chicago & North Western Northern Pines roomette.

Chicago & North Western Northern Streams Vista Dome.

Chicago & North Western Northern States observation.

The Chicago & North Western F-7 AA units that go with them.

Those Northwestern cars are in great shape - it's tough to find any of the painted C&NW or Texas Special cars without paint chips due to poor paint adhesion on the aluminum.

thanks for all the great pics guys!

Here is an explanation of how to disassemble and assemble the AMT/KMT aluminum passenger cars, obtained online some time ago.  Note some cars have a 3 piece body (separate sides and roof that slide together), but most seem to have a one piece roof and sides extrusion.  The passenger cars and F7 diesels from these companies are among the most treasured parts of my train collection.

CNW Don

Disassembly of an AMT/KMT aluminum passenger car:

*Turn the car over and you'll see 4 slotted screw heads in the corners.

Those need to come out.

*Once they're out grab the trucks on one end and pull up, then do the same on the other end. The skirts at the ends of the body are curved in - tilt the entire frame to one side and the chassis and trucks should come out (You'll need to gently pull a car side out a little to free the chassis - don't use gorilla power force, but you'll have to pry a bit).

*If the car has never been opened there should be 2 plastic doors that slide into the cast car ends. Slide those out, and then remove the single screw holding each car end in place. The ends are in a channel, and you'll have to wiggle them a bit to listen them up - they'll slide out, but they're a tight fit.

*If the shell is a 3 piece type the roof will slide off of the sides. To reassemble, just go backwards with the steps above.

The bulk of cars disassemble like that, but cars like the baggage and combine are a little more involved. When you reassemble those the sliding doors a real pain to keep in place.

*There's a tiny channel that the top part of the door slips into - no sweat there, but when you go to put the chassis back in place you have to get the bottom of the doors lined up, keep the doors in place to get lined up in the chassis' channel, and then push the frame in. Not for the faint of heart - you'll never get 'em on the first try. Big Grin

Put a piece of scotch tape across the back of the door door and car side to hold the door in place on the inside of the shell (leave a small gap between the door and the door opening so you can remove the tape after the floor is back in place). Don't get the tape on the blue plastic or white translucent window strips as you might pull them loose.

The wiring on these is usually pretty brittle - rewire with a good quality, flexible wire (the wire used for rewiring Lionel roller assemblies or whistle tenders works fine). The bulbs have a tendency to wiggle loose as they're screw base types. Make sure the bulbs are screwed in snugly. Test the bulbs to be sure they work (they came with good old made in the USA GE bulbs that are pretty durable). If they light up, here's a trick to keep them shining - get a bit of clear nail polish, then place a tiny drop of the polish onto the brass base of the bulb and the cast in socket in the chassis. Let it dry, and then reassemble the car as above. The bulbs won't wiggle loose during running, but will come out with a twist when it's maintenance time...