AHM - 4325 - Boxcar, 40 Foot, Steel Combo Door - Alton & Southern - 905

Model Information: These cars were made by Roco under contract for AHM. Later the body style was produced for Con-Cor and JC Timmer. It features a distinctive combo door configuration along with standard 1st gen rolling stock features such as Rapido Couplers and nickel-silver plated wheelsets with deep flanges.

Prototype History: The plug-and-sliding-door or combo-door boxcar is a versatile car that can act as either a double door boxcar or a plug door boxcar. If you were loading 8' studs in the car, you would load the car just like any other double door boxcar. But if you are loading paper, you would seal the far doors with duct tape, load the car and close the slider. Seal the slider with duct tape, and then shut the plug door to seal the car.

The main reason all the large box cars today have mostly plug doors, is that large sliding doors just get too hard to move. Trying to open regular 8' sliding doors, unless the cars were fairly new, is quite challenging. After a sliding-door car was several years old, you'd see where the sliding door was getting all banged up from people using forklift blades to open and close the doors. Plug doors, however, run on wide runners and rollers, and are therefore easier to move. Also, since the doors are out away from the car side, there is no problem when a car side becomes bulged out due to wear and tear.

Road Name History: The 32 mile Alton & Southern is the second large belt and terminal line in the St. Louis area, concentrating on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.

This line was assembled in 1913 by a predecessor of Alcoa. Power in the steam era was provided by Mikados, 0-8-0’s and a rare 0-10-0 heavy switcher. Dieselization began in 1947 when the first Alco RS-2’s arrived. The fleet would remain all-Alco until 1969. Because ALS was free of EMD diesels, they did not benefit from the EMD design department in developing paint schemes. That is why their green and yellow paint schemes appear a bit odd compared to their neighbors. These paint schemes were also used on other shortlines owned by Alcoa during the Alco years. In 1966, Alcoa closed their large facility in the area and put the railroad up for sale. Missouri Pacific and Chicago & North Western each bought a 50% stake. Since the sale by Alcoa, the locomotives have been painted in a combination of MoPac "Jenks Blue" and C&NW harvest yellow. The logo has the shape of C&NW's "circle and bar" logo but the circle is an MP style "buzzsaw."

Just 5 years later, C&NW faced a cash crunch sold their half to Cotton Belt although that has not been reason enough to change the logo or the paint scheme. Now the ALS is owned entirely by Union Pacific but given its position as a terminal railroad, it is operated independently of the UP system. Alton & Southern now has 16 EMD locomotives (14 of which are switchers), and typically calls 10 crews per shift, 3 shifts per day. Their Gateway Yard sorts around 5,600 cars per day.

Brand/Importer Information: AHM is the initials for Associated Hobby Manufacturers, Inc. The company was founded in 1959 as a reseller of other companies' model railroad components. Initially an HO company, they entered into N Scale in the early 1970's as an importer of products made by Roco in Austria. For N Scale products, AHM apparently contracted to use the exact same molds as were used by Roco to produce early Atlas models. They also contracted with Rivarossi to make locomotives.

When AHM went out of business IHC picked up some of their line. Also, at least one body style was taken over by Eastern Seaboard models.

Manufacturer Information: The company was founded in 1960 by Ing. Heinz Rössler and started with a plastic Minitanks series of military vehicles. After export to the USA became successful, the model line was expanded with model trains in HO scale and the smaller N scale. TT scale was also subsequently added to the product line. The model rail product line covers many European countries including Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands, and also the USA.

On July 15, 2005 ROCO Modellspielwaren GmbH was declared bankrupt. From July 25 the company continues as Modelleisenbahn GmbH, but still uses the Roco brand and associated logo. On October 1, 2007, distribution of the 'Minitank' product series was assigned to the German model car manufacturer Herpa.

Since February 2008 Modelleisenbahn also owns Fleischmann, which like Roco had gone bankrupt. The two companies continue as separate brands under Modelleisenbahn GmbH, while benefiting from economies of scale through joined development projects, marketing and procurement.

From Wikipedia