Hello Everyone:

there has been a lot of questions over the years about the RSO steam engines made for AHM, originally RSO was to fill the void left by Rivarossi with AHM.

AHM more or less was a company that imported trains from Europe to the U.S. market.

A lot of these companies were RoCo, Rivarossi and Pocher to name a few, but in the last years of production, they introduced a new company near Yugoslavia called RSO.

RSO at first used a lot of the Rivarossi molds on their items, the main differences was cutting corners on some of the details such as the grab irons and such, but they did introduce a better drive-train using a more modern can motor.

RSO also used Pemco molds, now Mehano uses the Pemco molds and they have been retooled a little, the 2-6-0 Mogul and Camelback, and the 4-8-2 mountain, the pemco version of the 4-8-2 had the motor inside the tender, Mehano put the motor inside the boiler of the locomotive, the Mehano version is better than the Pemco version.

RSO also made locomotives for Model Power and Life Like, Life Like Steam engines are more commonly found in the Scene Master Boxes.

all of the RSO steam locomotives such as 2-8-2's, and 4-6-2's had a smoke unit in them.

RSO changed it's name a few times, but it is now more or less Mehano.

Mehano distributes ho scale items under their own name, but they do make a lot of products for IHC and a few other places.

IHC is more or less a modern version of AHM except they only deal with Mehano and Pola for the majority of their items.

now a lot of peopele have been wandering on how to identify Premier versions of the IHC and Mehano Steam Locomotives.

this is very simple, all of the newer IHC and Mehano steam locomotives have a can motor and flywheel, the easiest way to tell if it is a premier is if the locomotive has grab irons, lift bars and stancions that are made of metal on it.

see the earlier RSO and Mehano locomotives did not have any flywheels or seperately applied grab irons, stancions or lift bars.

this is a usual tell tale sign it is not a premier, but there is an exception to this comment, some of the later versions that did not have the seperately applied details did have a flywheel.

here is the locations on known premier versions.

2-8-0 has the flywheel inside the cab, it is visable.

2-8-2 has had it in the cab, but it is more common inside the boiler, it can be seen by looking through the drive wheels at the underside of the boiler.

4-6-2 it is the same as the 2-8-2 on the locations.

0-8-0 same location as the 2-8-0.

the 4-6-4 , 4-8-2 and 2-10-2 are newer models and they are premier versions.

Mehano uses a lot of the older Pemco tooling on it's electrics and diesels.

The newest Mehano steam locomotives are very nice, the metal on them have a more prototypical look to them now that it is blackend rather than a shiny silver.

IHC and Golf Manor Hobbies carry the parts for Mehano, RSO and IHC steam locomotives just in case you ever need any.

Now there has been some sellers stating Mehano and IHC are no longer making or selling locomotives, BULL, Mehano is retooling their locomotives with metal chassis, better paint jobs, and blackend metal parts, so far the 2-8-2, 4-6-4 and 4-6-2 have been retooled, there is a few others getting retooled as I am writing this guide.

I wrote this little guide to aid others who want to purchase an IHC, RSO or Mehano locomotive.

Good luck and happy railroading