To date, I have never
encountered an AHM HO-scale Century 420. The three roadnames and the stock numbers presented here are from a mid-'70s
AHM price listing and no pictures were provided with it.
My guess is that this would have possibly been the Lima-Italy Century
420 imported by AHM. The Lima-made Century 420 did find itself available in the 1970s in the U.S., but it was sold by
Model Power/PMI and not AHM. For a time in the '70s Model Power had a secondary line under the PMI, Precision
Models Inc., name and this line included what I believe is the first American release of the Century 420. The February
1976 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman includes a product review of this Italian-made loco. The PMI roster included
the trio of roadnames promised from AHM (ATSF, PC, and UP), plus Canadian Pacific.
By the 1977 catalogs and price listings, AHM no longer mentions this model
Century 420.
As a Model Power/PMI release, the Lima-made Century 420 was available decorated
for Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Penn Central, Canadian Pacific, Spirit of '76, and Chessie.
Lima also sold the model under its own name and it was available here in
the U.S. from them. There is an interesting Southern Pacific Daylight experimental scheme found on a Lima boxed Century
420 model.
