I am looking for HO 2-8-0 and 2-8-2 that I can purchase as DC and later, if I live long enough and have the money, convert to DCC. I was just looking at IHC engines that are on sale from IHC for between $50 & $75 that are not DCC ready. Can anyone tell me the quality of IHC engines and can they be converted to DCC? Help with these issues would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Larry Smith
Any engine can be converted to DCC. Whether it is just a plug-in operation, or requires re-wiring and soldering, and perhaps isolating the motor comes under degree of difficulty. On the IHCs I have seen there is no plug, but the motor is isolated.
My experience with IHC is they have generic steam engines that have pretty doggoned decent mechanisms, but they sorely lack detail, except for the new 2-10-2, but it is still generic so some of the detail is bogus. Some, repeat some, of their newer steamers have RP25 flanges, but they all used to be big ones, so know what you are getting before you plop your money down.
The Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 is very highly regarded from everything I have seen, and is DCC plug ready, as is their Spectrum 2-8-2 but, the 2-8-2 is not based on a steam era prototypical US Mike design. (Chinese prototype import in the 1990s if I remember right, to run tourist lines, now lettered Susquehanna. Tender looks like nothing else ever seen in the US anywhere by me, anyway.) I don’t know what pricing runs on a BLI non-sound, non-DCC equipped, but DCC ready, Mikado, but they are very nice locos in my opinion.
I have several of the IHC steam engines that I have converted to DCC. They all run smoothly because they have can motors. IHC engines, except their newer 2-10-2, have minimal detail and are very generic in appearance.
Decoder installation was fairly easy in all of them, with room in the boiler itself for a decoder in most cases. Headlight wiring was the only difficult part because all IHC engines are not constructed the same. Some had the headlight bulb wired to the front set of drivers instead of to the motor terminals, so I left these that way which means that the headlight is always on instead of being controllable from the decoder.
Larry,
Bachmann makes a Spectrum 2-8-0 that already comes with DCC installed. I bought one a little over a year ago. I know most of them have been given good reviews but I had to send mine back because it was making squealing sounds and would slow down when it made these sounds.
The second one they sent me aslo made some squealing sounds but doesn’t seem to be as bad as the first. I kept that one and time will tell how it will perform. It will run on DC or DCC so there is no need to purchase a decoder and install it.
Bill