AMT-AUBURN-KMT HO ALUMINUM PASSENGER CARS

In addition to their innovative line of O gauge passenger cars, AMT also produced cars in HO scale. They were similar in construction and appearance to the bigger O gauge line, but there were only six different cars made. The car bodies were extruded aluminum with cast frames and ends and the method of assembly including cast-in light sockets on the frames was the same as the bigger cars. Their catalog numbers were based on the O gauge system: H-02 roomette, H-03 dining car, H-05 observation car, H-06 day coach, H-07 combine-coach, and H-08 baggage. There was never a mail-express or dome car, so no H-01 or H-04. They came either as kits or ready to run. The R-T-R cars were also catalogued in AT&SF sets, three cars headed by a single F-7A or four cars with an F-7AB. The diesels were made by Athearn, not AMT. The cars are 10 inches long, which scales out to a bit over 72 feet, so they are more representative of real cars than are the O gauge cars which scale out to roughly 56 feet. They are lighted, and the early cars had non-operating couplers. Later cars have small versions of the lift-a-matic couplers used on the O gauge stock. The car ends were castings. There are two different castings used. Each has an interior vestibule with a door to the inside of the car. One casting includes an extended external section with a door on each side for station platform access to the car. The other casting consists of just the end details and the vestibule with the interior door. The diner and baggage cars had only the short casting without the external entry door. The observation car had only the bigger casting with the external entry door. The day coach, roomette, and combine had one of each. This arrangement is prototypical, as neither a baggage car nor a diner typically had an external door for access from the station platforms, just the internal connections between cars and the large baggage doors on that car, while the other cars would have a platform entry door at one end.

The kits came with small strips of aluminum to which decals or other lettering could be applied. There were two 4-inch strips for the railroad name and two 2-inch strips for the car number or descriptive lettering, DINER, for example, which would then have to be glued on the cars. As shown in the catalog, neither decals nor any other lettering was supplied, this being left for the purchaser to decide. The R-T-R cars in the Santa Fe sets, however, were lettered.

The HO cars were introduced in 1951 as American Model Toys, and, like the O gauge equipment, transitioned to Auburn Model Trains in 1954, then Kusan-Auburn in 1955, and Kusan Model Trains from 1956 to 1958.

Courtesy of Ken Morgan