Founded in 1948 in Fort Wayne, IN by Jack Ferris. They produced a large line of the most realistic
passenger cars made during the immediate postwar era until being displaced by Lionel's
extruded aluminum cars. AMT also beat Lionel to the boxcar market with a line of highly detailed cars,
only to be displaced again, by Lionel's 6464 line. As American Model Toys, the firm brought out starter
sets in 1953. The firm continued with production of F-3 Diesels and Budd cars, but by that time the
market had shrunk and the company was in financial straits. In 1954 after an unsuccessful reorganization
as Auburn Model Trains, the line was sold to Kusan who continued production.
While almost everyone knows American Flyer and Lionel, and a lot of people have
heard of Marx, there was a fourth maker of toy trains in the late 1940s and early
1950s that was much smaller, although very innovative, and today is nearly forgotten: Auburn,
Indiana-based American Model Toys.
Its legacy, however, ties into virtually every major producer of 'O' gauge trains in business today.
AMT tended to take more risks than Lionel, and its cars were slightly larger, slightly closer
to scale, and well-made. Its beginnings predate World War II, when Jack Ferris, a tool and die maker,
designed trains the way his son liked them. Initially selling its products to other companies,
Ferris founded his company in 1948 after producing a set of aluminum passenger cars that
could negotiate Lionel track. Their realism and style was unmatched by anything Lionel
produced for several years. The AMT passenger cars were available in a variety of body styles,
and company liveries, the initial four, in 1949-50, being Baggage, Combine, Coach and Observation,
each available in New York Central and Santa Fe liveries.
Eventually Lionel caught up, and AMT survived by finding weaknesses in Lionel's product line and
producing models that filled those weaknesses, contenting itself as an aftermarket producer who
would sell its items to Lionel's customers. In 1952, AMT started producing box cars in the latest,
most colorful paint schemes they could find in use by real railroads, and made them to more realistic
proportions than Lionel. The next year, Lionel responded with its famous 6464 boxcars, which were
better than anything it had produced before, but still did not match AMT's realism.
The following year, AMT decided to produce a model of a diesel locomotive, which also permitted
them to sell train sets for the first time.
Demand wasn't as high as expected, and in 1954, AMT reorganized and changed its name to
Auburn Model Trains. Although Auburn's offerings are highly regarded today, they were not very
popular, and by the autumn of 1954, Auburn sold out to Kusan, a plastics and toy company based
in Nashville, Tennessee.
Kusan produced train sets from the AMT tooling, as well new designs of their own, largely with
atomic and military themes. Kusan is also credited with making the first O gauge trains that could
run on both 2-rail and 3-rail track (an idea MTH would rehash some 40 years later). But the market
had peaked in 1954, and Kusan, dissatisfied with its share in a declining market, ceased production in 1960.
Kusan then sold its tooling to a hobbyist named Andy Kriswaulis (or Kriswalus) in Endicott, New York,
who operated as Kris Model Trains, or KMT. Kriswaulis only produced rolling stock, not locomotives.
After Kriswaulis' death on Sept. 6, 1990, KMT dissolved and much of the tooling was sold to Williams
Electric Trains, a small Maryland-based toymaker who had previously created its own tooling and manufactured reproductions of Lionel's prewar
tinplate equipment. Coincidentally, Williams employed Mike Wolf, who would go on to found MTH Electric Trains.
Williams soon decided to change focus, selling the Lionel reproduction tinplate tooling to Wolf, and concentrating its efforts on 1950s-style trains.
Wolf would then work as a subcontractor to Lionel, before a disagreement led him to go off on
his own and found MTH.
After, the AMT/Kusan/KMT tooling was purchased by Jerry Williams he used most of it for a brief period and then sold some of it to K-Line, a North
Carolina-based toymaker who had bought much of Marx's tooling when Marx dissolved in 1978 and was
using it to produce inexpensive trains that competed with Lionel's entry-level offerings. Like Williams,
K-Line used the old AMT/Kusan/KMT tooling to produce rolling stock that directly competed with
Lionel at higher ends of the marketplace.
One relic of the Kusan era that wound up causing some controversy later on, was a small, nonprototypical (but realistic-looking enough to be convincing)
genral purpose (GP) type switcher. Williams manufactured it
briefly, calling their version of the small diesel the 'Mighty-Mite'. K-Line also purchased this original Kusan tooling from Jerry Williams, but K-Line never actually used it. They later had an agreement to mold the body cab for Ready Made Toys (RMT). RMT called this item the "Beep" (for Baby Geep). RMT, a company that subcontracted for Taylor Made
Trucks (TMT), had gained a license to put the Lionel logo on die-cast vehicles. In 2001, RMT used
the Beep tooling to produce a Lionel-logoed mini-locomotive, which TMT placed on a freight truck.
But when collectors realized the body could be removed from the semi-permanently attached chassis
on the truck bed and placed on a Beep chassis, making a powered non-Lionel Lionel locomotive,
Lionel revoked TMT's license. This RMT/TMT Beep remains the only Lionel-logoed locomotive ever
produced by and marketed by someone other than Lionel.
Ready Made Toys released the Beep in a powered version, priced at $49.95 and lettered for numerous
railroads, in late 2003. Released at a time when few brand-new locomotives retail for less than $400
and fewer still for under $200, the Beep is much more popular this time around.
