I would like to purchase an IHC 2-10-2 steam engine and plan to change 2 things with it: installing a Seuthe Smoke Unit and moving the headlight from the middle of the smokeboxdoor to the top of it (like PRR/B&O style). I know that the smoke stack is closed, but drilling a hole into it to make a Seuthe smoke unit fit shouldn´t be a problem. But I don´t know how this model looks below the smoke stack inside the boiler. I heard there is a metal boiler weight installed but in the are below the smoke stack there should be some space left. So is that space enough for a Seuthe smoke unit (5 mm wide & 24 mm long) and is there also enough space left throughout the boiler to put the 2 cables from the smoke unit through? And what about the headlight: is it located inside the boiler behind the smokeboxdoor front inside the boiler, or is it located inside the headlight casing? In case it´s located behind the smokeboxdoor front inside the boiler: do you think it would be possible to move it up to the top of the boilder front and put it inside the headlight casing and connect it with additional wires that will be layed through 2 small holes at the top of the boilder front? If anyone of you out there have a IHC 2-10-2, I would be very thankful if you could open the boilder and upload a photo of it here so that I can see how much space there is for a smoke unit and how the situation with the headlight is. I already tried to find photos of an opened up IHC 2-10-2 on the internet but couldn´t find anything.
There’s a cavity in the diecast weight behind the smoke box front, about 10 mm wide, around 22 MM tall, and 12 MM deep. the front of the cavity is open. There is room to drill a hole further down into the diecast weight, but that might get risky.
I BATTLED with Photobucket to try to get pics on but it’s an impasse. I have had problems for a while with them now, but this time it’s a brick wall. I need a new photo hosting site.
This is a nice running locomotive, by the way,smooth and quiet. It can’t handle my #4 hand laid turnouts, but does fine with 5’s and 6’s
The head lamp itself is behind the cover, not in the loco’s headlight. It does look like you have room in the boiler to run fine wires. This is a delicate locomotive, all plastic boiler with nice details. It’s going to be a fragile operation at best.
The headlamp bulb is actually bigger than the head light casting. If you’re good at electronics and such you may be able to get an LED into a head light. Out of my area of expertise. I can’t see putting the lamp behind the light casting in a top mounted situation, as the bulb would have to be against the top of the inside of the smokebox. An LED in that position could concievably work.
I’d be very skeptical about putting a smoke generator into one of these locomotives. You’re dealing with a heating element that is likely to melt the plastic shell if not properly and very carefully installed, and replacements are not available because IHC is no longer in business.
Model smoke is not even remotely close to being realistic, and some people are alergic to it.
Thanks for the info. Sounds good. There should be enough space for that Seuthe smoke unit then because if it´s 22 mm deep inside the boiler it will definetly fit since the smoke unit is 24 mm in length BUT you must add the length of the smoke stack as well. That should be some another 5 mm so no problem. I NEVER use photobucket because I always think that this website is totally screwed up. Better use this one here because it´s very simple and easy: http://www.uppic.com/
Yes, I heard many good things about that IHC 2-10-2 and that is a very good runner and also built to last because in contrary to older IHC models it has die cast metal frame. Of course I´m not a fan of plastic boilers but at least the weight inside it will give the engine enough weight I guess. Drilling a hole for the smoke unit to fit through is not a problem. The hole will be drilled wide enough, because I plan to put the smoke unit into a brass tube that I have, which will protect the plastic boiler from the heat of the smoke unit. I also have a Seuthe smoke unit installed in an IHC 4-4-0 (the smoke unit actually replaced the original smoke stack entirely!) and it looks and works very well without anything melting down. So what works with a 4-4-0 should work with a 2-10-2 too! Actually that 2-10-2 that I wanna buy has a custom installed light bulb which is inside the headlight casing! I just found that out a few minutes ago. That´s perfect for my project. But even if it wouldn´t be like that, then I would go for a LED which shouldn´t be a problem. I recently installed 2 super small red LEDs (I think they are 0,7 mm in length!) into the brass casing of a Tomar Industries rear light casing, so I guess installing a LED into the headlight casing shouldn´t be too hard as well. Especially since it would be a bigger LED anyway. Actually my biggest concern is how to connect the 2 wires from the smoke unit with the decoder who is in the tender. That connection plug is alre
Just a caveat…My estinate of 22 MM is just that, could be less. It sounds like you have your share of experience though. I couldn’t find the papers that came with my loco, with the exploded view of the model. That would have been of help.
Haha, you see? Of course it´s better than photobucket! Thank you very much for these photos! From what I see I can clearly say that a Seuthe smoke unit with 5 mm diameter and 24 mm length will definetly fit. Laying the cables through the boiler to the back of the engine might be a little messy but shouldn´t be too hard. Yes, there is a way to post photos in the post. Above the message field where you write your message you can see many small symbols. One of the symbols is a small rectangle showing 2 very simplyfied mountains and a sun in the upper right corner. This is the symbol to click when you want to insert photos in your post. All you have to do is click on it and copypaste the link of the photo into the free bar and the photo will immediately appear in the message field. I hope I could help you a little bit and I hope you could follow me.
By the way: do you think a IHC 2-10-2 is strong enough to pull 20 freight cars with 10 of them being loaded with different goods? I´m asking myself this because I know it has no traction tires, so I worry a bit about it´s pulling power.
