Back From the Grave - AMT NYC F Unit Flea Market Find

Nice find!   I don't have any of those engines, but have always liked them.

Cool.

I find some of the more obscure 3 rail manufacturers interesting. I also like KMT/Kusan's FA series.  These were offered in some paint schemes like the Missouri Pacific, Frisco, Katy freight scheme... neat stuff.

KMT made a lot of different schemes available for their FA: Southern, Frisco, MKT, Missouri Pacific (freight with blue body and gray stripe, and passenger with mostly gray body and blue strips at top and bottom of shell), Bexel (drugstore promo), Union Pacific, Burlington, New Haven, Silver Star (rarely seen), Army, Navy, NdeM (as well as NdeM fantasy El Azteca and El Internacional schemes), a couple U.S. Space Special schemes for military sets, and KMT Lines.  I've heard rumors of SP shells as well.

Cool find. As I said in the Craigslist thread yesterday, I never find things like this, but I'd love to discover something uncommon one of these days!

A gentle scrub/bath revealed the shell is in superb shape, confriming my suspicion that this was never run, but stored in poor conditions.  I located a pair of clear nylon horns on their original sprue and added those (if anyone has a pair of black or dark gray AMT/KMT horns, please let me know).  

The first AMT F unit I bought was my Southern; I paid a whopping $36 plus a few dollars shipping to get it about 15 years ago.  I haven't seen another AMT version since then, although I have 2 Like New pairs of the KMT version, and a single KMT Southern F that I had to sell awhile back.  If an stray pops up on Ebay these days, sellers typically have no clue what they have, or they're aware of what they have and slap pretty high pricing on their trains.  There's a small group of folks who actively collect AMT/Auburn/KMT/Kusan trains - you have to like the oddball stuff to pursue these items.   

Light bulb over head moment:  the area on the shell where the horns install had absolutely no signs of horns ever being mounted.  I pulled out the wadding material that the engine had been packed with, and underneath were a mildewed instruction sheet, and a small manilla envelope.  One pair of black, nylon horns were inside the package - score!

I really got into the smaller manufacturer's years ago. I came across these:

The couplers suffered from zinc pest, and I think MTN was the one who sent me the replacements. 

I've been on the fence about selling these for some time now. I just never run them, and they sit on the shelf getting dusty. Oddly, they run quite well, just not interested in them anymore. 

Anyway, look forward to seeing you progress on the NYC's. As you stated, it's not like fixing up a 2344 where parts are readily available.

great find and project!

MTN,

Have you tried asking on the AMT/KUSAN/KMT Yahoo group for those horns?

Bill

I haven't checked in there in awhile - I posted a number of snaps of paperwork there, and posted off an on for a bit.  

For comparison's sake, I unearthed my lone KMT NYC F unit.  KMT did a better job handling the paint job: striping under nose was sharper (AMT's striping is a bit wobbly, and touched up here and there; it's similar to the AMT Santa Fe Fs that had red striping applied on some of the units to jazz them up).  The truck's sideframes and chassis are painted dark gray like the shell.  The air filters at the top of the carbody have silver outlining painted around the high points of the filter's framework; the nose herald is larger/more detailed, and the engine's number 1733 (NYC had an F7 numbered 1733 - the AMT/KMT body is a sorta F7, save for the F3 style dynamic brake grids like the one's on Lionel's F unit, rather than a circular fan (which is larger than the other fans on top of the carbody.  Also note the KMT logo painted towards the rear of the shell.  My KMT's shell is a little rough compared to my AMT I just picked up, but again, these are tough to find in any condition.

AMT/KMT stuff is interesting - though the "humped" shell always kept me away from those examples. Regardless, a nice find.

As some of this DNA (body only, I guess) survives/survived as Williams F7's, any of their detail pieces (horns, for example) helpful?

I think Williams changed the horns so they aren't nylon/mount with 2 pegs sticking out out from the bottom of the casting.

As far as the humped shell goes, I'm a native born Hoosier, and I'm inclined to get as much of those Indiana made models as I can.  It's a shame AMT didn't paint up their Fs for Monon or Wabash - I'd have liked more models from railroads that ran through Indiana to add to the fleet.

The "hump" would annoy me terribly even if that's how they usually came when new. I've been shopping some Lionel FAs for a while but all I have found have that problem. I think with how rare these are that I could live with it though.

Think of the hump as a beauty mark...   

I wonder if the use of the clear plastic for the entire shell might be part of the hump on those AMT shells.

Fellows, I don't want to hijack your posts, but do any of you know of Kusan/AMT parts suppliers who carry replacement operating couplers with the armature for passenger cars. I have several with "drooping" cast couplers that I'd like to replace with the operating couplers.

thanks

Peter:

There are parts suppliers on this Yahoo Group: 

AMT_Kusan_KMT_Kris_Williams_Trains - Yahoo Groups

There seems to be a lot of interest in AMT and Kusan these days.

Bill

I've got a couple options for this project:  one is to convert this to a dummy and pair it up with my KMT version; the problem is the sideframes and chassis I currently have are either unpainted, or poorly repainted.  Another possibility is to put a chassis from another NYC F unit I have under the nice original AMT shell (the shell on the possible donor isn't a factory painted NYC shell, and it would be the easiest way to make another powered unit up - it was also dual motored by me to pull strings of those heavy AMT aluminum passenger cars).  I'm inclined to leave the rusty original chassis intact as it's the only AMT chassis I have with all the original wiring intact.

I would be inclined to buy a gallon of Evapo-rust and soak the chassis in it to see how it cleans up. Obviously you've got paint chipping and pitting, but once the corrosion is removed, it might be a salvagable part. Just a thought...

I'll most likely neutralize the corrosion on the frame - some paste made from baking soda might be the ticket here.

After some dedicated digging I finally located the first NYC F I'd picked up - it had a cab that looks like it was decorated by Williams, but the internals were from a KMT NYC F unit (the gray trucks tipped that off - the AMT version I just got has black sideframes).  I dual motored this one sometime back - it easily pulls a looooong string of AMT aluminum passenger cars (those ride on fast angle wheels swiped from MPC and other donor trucks - the wheels are removed from their axles, then swapped in place of the AMT wheels which are very poor rolling).