# American Models Contact



## rjcaster (4 mo ago)

I have sent messages to American Models via their website. Multiple messages have been sent over the last three or four months and no response. Has anyone found an email address that they have had success with?


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Why don't you just call? It is a family run business. The founder passed away, in 2021. I am not sure who filled his place.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Ron's wife Karen now runs the business. I have sent several emails and Karen has always responded within 24 hours. The person who frequently answers the phone is Joe. Several people have been calling about AM track availability. Joe confirmed they just received a large shipment of track from their supplier. The note on the Port Lines website and in their newsletter about AM track is now out of date.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I just called AM and talked to Joe. I wanted to know if AM was going to do a run of E8s. I wanted to put an Illinois
Central train together. He said nothing coming. I could also use a set of Prr bud passenger cars in red. Joe said that a run of passenger cars was a possibility. No dates yet. AM has one 4 car IC bud cars set, but I don't want to buy if I can't get the E8s. They are very scarce. Sounds like they are going to keep AM going. Thats good.

rjcaster, give them a call.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Let me see if I understand what you are looking for. The IC passenger cars are Budd's, but the red PRR's are heavyweights. I own four sets of PRR passenger cars. They are AM red heavyweights, AM silver Budd's with tuscan stripe, AM chrome Budd's with tuscan stripe, and lastly Lionel heavyweights. 
In order of preference if I could only have one set it would be the PRR silver Budd eight car set (4 car set+xtra coach+3 dome car set); second the PRR Lionel heavyweight set with the 2 car expansion pack; third, the PRR chrome Budd expanded set; lastly the PRR AM heavyweight coaches.
I have the AM heavyweight sets in five different roadnames. With each set I have had major problems with coupler droop causing derailments at crossings and turnouts. Retrofitting the cars with six axle trucks and shortening the coupler arms helped but did not completely solve the problems. All of my AM heavyweights now have the coupler actuating weight/lever cut off. The Budd cars operate far better and look much better on the layout. The Lionel heavyweights do not roll freely but they operate flawlessly and couple closer together than the unmodified AM cars. With eight axle wipers on each Lionel car the lights never flicker.
AM seems to find it easier to rerun coaches than engines. Your money, your decision.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I thought AM had Budd red PRR cars. I guess not. I have seen the silver ones with tuscan strip, nice cars,
but I thought red Budd cars would match up nice with my red E8s. Oh well. I will have to rethink this. Thanks for the info.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

If AM made BUDD cars painted in all tuscan I would own a set! I agree that would be ideal.
I realized I forgot the 5th set of PRR passenger cars I have. It is the 5 car set of lightweight streamline steel passenger cars painted all tuscan. These are nice cars made early in the history of American Models. I run them frequently behind my E8. You may recall I purchased them two years ago from a fellow who posted here on the Forum. He was very frustrated because they would not run correctly on his layout. That was because these are full 80' cars, need a minimum 27"R curve and will not go through the curved route of a Gilbert turnout. They run perfect on my layout. These cars are almost impossible to find today.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

In your opinion. Which Budd cars. The silver or the chrome. From AM's pictures I see no difference.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Both are very nice, it is a matter of personal preference. I have the PRR cars in both and definitely prefer the silver. When I recently bought the NYC Budd cars I got the silver ones. My layout is basically scale and the silver to me, appear more realistic although some original cars were polished. The silver ones do not fingerprint when touched.
Here are three side by side pictures in different locations on the layout.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

I model the PRR but my favorite Budd/E8 is still the UP set.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Nice!!! I think the chrome looks more prototypical but if the chrome is anything like Gilbert chrome it will not hold up as well. I like the silver and the chrome but am thinking I should go with the silver. I was on an internet search last night
for PRR videos of the tuscan stripe cars. Never found a video with a bunch of the cars. Most videos had the PRR red
passenger cars. Which look great but does not appear to be an option.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

The AM chrome is far better than the Gilbert chrome and is like a mirror. The layout scenery reflections are visible along the window strip in the pictures above. The chrome cars look great, mine are 12 years old and look the same as the day I got them. I will take some pictures of each behind the PRR E8.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

These are the old 80’ AM lightweights but they look very close to what a Budd car set would look like painted solid Tuscan. AM should make a set of solid Tuscan Budd Cars.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Mopac, I took more pictures to hopefully help you decide. These are hard to take to accurately show the appearance of the cars. My opinion is on a Gilbert layout behind an E8 the chrome may be a slightly better choice but this is a completely personal preference decision. In the pictures the silver car looks a bit white. On the layout it looks slightly more silver.


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## rjcaster (4 mo ago)

To any PRR Fan,

There is for sale on eBay a River Raisin PRR Baldwin RF 16 A-B-B-A in Brunswick green. The seller lists it as brand new.
Asking $1750.00. This is a good price for these four-unit high-quality locomotives.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

I found these pictures from 2014 of the chrome set behind a PRR Y3. The chrome is far superior to the old Gilbert cars.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

I have looked at that RRM Baldwin set for quite some time. Wonder why it has not sold at that price. I have decided not to purchase it because the "on the layout" cost to me will be $2,800, assuming just the two A units are powered. The cost to have TMCC, Cruise control and lighting in the two A units, plus railsounds in one of the B units, plus round trip shipping to/from my conversion expert is about $1,000. The brass RRM engines cost more to mod than the plastic AM diesels.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Tom, thanks for all the decision photos. I am thinking the chrome looks better.
Personal choice for sure.


It just never ends Tom. I am sure it would be a nice engine set.


Its not just your pics that the silver looks kinda white. Other photos have appeared white to me also. I have been flip flopping between chrome or silver. Thought I had decided on the silver. Now on the chrome. I do not want to buy both. LOL. I might order a chrome set monday. I was having a bad day at the casino. Down 700.00. I should not do that. For some reason I stayed with it. Got my 700.00 back and left with 500.00 of their money. About enough for a new set of passenger cars. I was looking for a reason to order a set. I love my E 8s and they deserve to pull a new set of cars. Yes your all tuscan set looks great. Thats what I really wanted but none around right now. I will give that 500 profit back to casino if I don't spend it. Like I said in an above post I think the chrome looks more prototypical. Chrome it is. No more thinking about it. Just do it. I was scared of the chrome flaking off. Wish I was better at custom painting.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Thanks for the info on fingerprints on the chrome. Might need to get me a nice pair of white gloves, LOL. I am sure they need to be handled carefully.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Mopac, I think you will like the chrome Budd cars. They are not fragile. The AM Budd cars with the sprung trucks and wired pickups (no wipers) are the best running and tracking cars I own. They also look good because they couple close together. DO NOT give the $500 back to the casino, get more trains.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

In the event you get an uncontrollable urge to super detail the interior and add passengers here is an AM Budd car disassembled. The rear observation car has a scale coupler installed on mine, looks good. The two screws are the attachment points on the wired pickups. The red and blue wires are soldered directly to the lighting circuit board that sits against the car roof.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I thought the decision was settled. I am not so sure. I wanted the 4 car set, an extra coach, and 1 dome car. 6 cars. The 4 car set in chrome is not on their site. Nor is the extra car. I will call Joe monday. If they are not available this project will be put on hold. Thats the thing with AM. They are not well stocked anymore. Not going to buy my 2n or 3rd choice. I even thought about buying an E8 set of UP AA units. SOLD OUT. Sometimes doing S Scale is not fun.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Ask if there is any chance they will rerun some of the sold out Budd cars. So far they have not. AM did recently rerun the NYC heavyweights and the dark green NH heavyweights so it is possible.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

I was just on the AM site. I see the PRR silver set is scale wheels only, be sure to verify high rail wheels. The NYC Budd sets are now shown as sold out so I must have purchased the last one.
At this time of year there is some direct sunlight into the train room late in the afternoon. I took some pictures in the sunlight. Only the 4013 coach is silver , all the other cars pictured are chrome. Just look at the tail end of the chrome observation, the AM chrome is first rate.
As you can see I pull the PRR Budd coaches with a Legacy ES44Ac. Not really period correct but it runs, smokes and sounds wonderful. The E8 pulls the PRR scale lightweights and the PA/PA set pulls the PRR heavyweight set.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

The chrome observation looks awesome. I will wait till I can find the cars I want.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I did call and talked to Karen today. No 4 car set of PRR chrome budd cars in stock. Bummer. Karen said the Budd cars were good sellers and she was sure there would be another run of them. But not for a year or more. Double bummer. I am going to have to wait. Not going to just buy something. I want my PRR passenger train to be a looker. That means the chrome Budd cars. No choice but to wait. Tom, thanks for all the help on my decision. Maybe if they do another batch of cars they will do Tuscan Budd cars. I did not ask Karen. Just hoping. The all tuscan with black roofs would be #1 choice with the #2 being the all chrome. I could live with either.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

A long time to wait. Have you thought about the engines? What if the PRR E8's are sold out when the Budd's are rerun??? Might consider buying an E8 set now if you do not want to use a Gilbert 313/316 to pull the passenger cars.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I have the PRR E8s AA . Might have to put them in freight service for awhile.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

I guess you told us you had the E8 set and I forgot. Freight service, I need to think about that.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I do not know about E8s, but PA units were put into freight service after their passenger life was over. I will look.
The PAs were regeared.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

After retiring from passenger trains the E8s were put into freight service. Most railroads stopped their passenger service in 1970. With Amtrak beginning. Most of the E8s ran till 1979. So almost 10 years of freight service. I do not think any PAs were still in service till 1979. The E8s were much more dependable engines. The E8s were regeared for freight.
I do not remember seeing a freight train pulled with E8s, but Wikipedia says they did.
450 E8s made, 58 still survive. Amtrak used E8s on their trains till late 70s. E8s had good run for an engine. 30 years. First ones built in 1949.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I like knowing that info on my model trains. One museum is repainting a PRR E8 as a
Illinois Central E8 as they already have City OF New Orleans passenger cars.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

E8's were use to pull (outbound), and push (inbound) Chicago commuter trains. I rode the BN double deck commuter trains to Union Station from 1975 to early 1984. All had green E8's. I do not know the date the E8's were replaced but it was after 1984.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

They certainly had a long run. My dad rode those commuter trains every day also. During the 60s. I 
remember they were F units and probably E8s. At that time they looked the same to me. I was young. We lived in a small town west of Chicago, Cary, and he worked in Barrington. My dad saw one of my HO steamers one day and
told me he had ridden behind it in the 50s. It was a blue B&O steamer. With George Washington printed under the cab windows.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Interesting. Barrington is on what was then the C&NW Northwest line. They may have used F units. The C&NW Northwest commuter line was popular because it had a bar car. The commuter trains that crossed a state line were allowed to serve alcohol. I rode the BN west line, no bar car.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Only real train I have ridden was an Amtrak train I took my family on for just a train ride. About 30 some years ago. About 150 mile trip each way. It was fun, well except the ride home. A baby in the row ahead of us cried almost all the way. Cool trip. we had 3 tunnels each way. When the conductor found out we were just riding for the sake of riding, he made sure to sit with my 2 boys and told them all about his train. I remember him calling it his train.He got each of them a cardboardAmtrak hat. He pretty much ignored the rest of the passengers. We rode from St Louis to Jefferson City, our state capitol. We had time to depart the train, and have lunch, and take a tour of the capitol. And got on a train heading home. Perfect trip. Seems like it was just 25.00 for me, my wfe, and 2 boys, round trip. Thought that was cheap. The boys still remember the trip. Glad we did not go on a Monday or Friday. Many people that worked at the capitol lived in St Louis or Kansas City. They rode to the capitol on Monday and back home on Friday. So train would have been crowded.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Sounds like it was a nice train trip. We have had some nice trips, some just OK, and one in Australia that was so bad we cancelled the return leg and flew back (between two Australian cities.)


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