Originally Posted by: kweekalot 
Hi all,
On a lazy day 5 weeks ago I took a glance in a 1964 Faller AMS catalog.
I realized immediately that my dream to become a rich man is definitively over, because I will spoil all my money on Faller AMS.
In 1970 I saw for the first time Faller AMS, but the last 40 years I had a bit forgotten how beautiful it is.
But now I have decided to start collecting AMS and use it on our layout.
Today the postman was my best friend and brought me starters kit 4000 (version 2) that was in the Faller program from 1964 to 1967.
As you know the postman always rings twice so he also brought me set 4001 (version 1.2) that was in the Faller program only in 1964/65.
Both sets are in very good condition, not mint, but almost mint.
I'm already in love with the lovely dashboard speed controllers.
You must have seen the faces of my two boys when they arrived from school and saw the AMS boxes.
Now I have to nag great webmaster Juhan for a AMS corner on our beloved forum.
Hi Marco, your enthusiasm is putting me to shame. Some years ago I started an English AMS site, I have been collecting since I acquired my first set (4004) from my Dad back around 1980 - he got it in the 60's and it was part of our Tri-ang train set when I was a child.
Finding AMS information in English was initially very difficult, so I made it my mission to obtain as much as I could. Over the next 25 years I built up an extensive library of catalogues, leaflets, instruction sheets etc, and of course all the lovely items shown in the catalogues whenever the opportunity presented. I've already said in another thread that it is all currently packed away

(shame I know).
But over the years I acquired a lot of items and a lot of publications, many people kindly loaned me catalogues to scan for my archives, especially those in languages other than German or English. They were published in Dutch, French, Swedish, Danish and also some variations for certain markets. For example the 64/65 catalogue features an introduction written by Stirling Moss, but this is not included in the USA version, only the GB edition. So although both catalogues are in English I guess they figured most Americans would not know who Stirling Moss was, or perhaps there was some copyright or licensing issue preventing his name being used in the USA version?.
I have cover scans of catalogues for Austria, but the language is (as expected) German, so there must be some difference within to warrant the different printing code. I can't confirm because I don't have those full catalogues, only the front cover scan so I know they exist, with actual full scans yet to be obtained.
I have just uploaded my catalogue chart to the AMS section of my personal page.....
https://www.marklin-users.net/cookee_nz/ams/... but many of the links are 'dead' because I lost the site when Yahoo closed all their Geocities accounts. I still have all the files, but not yet the time to migrate them here, but from the
catalogue chart you can see confirmation of some of items have been published over the years and in which languages (but not the items themselves, they are not there yet)
And, many years ago I also started a
Yahoo Group for AMS, it's been quiet for a while, but there are members there who have only AMS, not Marklin and would not belong to this group. Feel free to generate some discussion there also.
There was once a most excellent AMS site (faller-ams.com - now defunct) run by a nice Dutch gent called Willem Wittenberg, then one day out of the blue he simply closed it, and deleted all his files, despite many protests and requests/offers to host it elsewhere. That one remains a mystery.
Other sites worth a look are;
Casy Place (Dutch also)
faller-ams.eu A French siteYou will not be among AMS for long before coming across Mark Moerman in Gouda,
this is his Ebay store, I have known Mark for many years and actually met him when I visited Europe in 2007, very helpful indeed.
Motordrom produce the Bauer range of vehicles for AMS tracks and have some lovely models.
Be careful Marco and Ian, AMS is surprisingly addictive, I can feel the tingle coming on again and realise I should have made stronger effort to ressurect my AMS pages much sooner.
Edited by user 10 October 2012 10:16:22(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified