The 4-6-2 Pacific resulted when railroads needed more steaming than a 4-6-0, more adhesion than a 4-4-2, and more speed than a 2-6-2. Pacific’s were quite fast, with very tall drivers for such a small engine (generally 70-80”) they could go quite fast, easily reaching 80 MPH. They were used primarily for passenger service, but some roads used them in freight service as well.
DETAIL-
The IHC Pacific is a bit weak on detail. It doesn’t look as nice as a Spectrum, but it runs better than my Spec 2-8-0. I’m not saying it looks bad, you could easily add detail to it. The boiler casting is pretty plain, the pilot doesn’t look too bad, and the tender looks good. However, one of the silver pipes on the side of the boiler (right now I can’t think of what they’re called) was missing the little clip that holds it on. This is on the right side (from the engineers view) and at the bottom. It’s been a while since I measured the drivers, but if I remember correctly they were about 65", a bit small for a Pacific.
RUNNING-
I’m not going to take the shell off for a pic (sorry).Out of the box, the engine was a bit unsteady for the first few minutes of running but quickly smoothed out. It has a motor with a flywheel, and is geared to the middle driving axle and the side rods transmit the power to the first and last axles. The valve gear is nice, but at slow speeds it has one spot where it’s just a tad unsteady. After almost a week of running it’s pretty smooth but at really slow speeds it will turn ¾ of a turn, then turn really slow for ¼, ect. I’ve heard of this before on IHC and I believe it is a symptom of the motor cogging. The slowest it runs steady without cogging is about 10-11 Scale MPH. Normally it will run slower when pulling some cars. Its top speed is 148 SMPH. (Anybody know of a different worm gear I could put in to slow it down?[:p]
Unfortunately, the speed in this one is caused by the very small axle gear, so a new worm won’t help.[:(] I’ve completely taken my 2-8-2 apart, which is basically the same engine as the 4-6-2, and the worm has a single spiral for lower speeds. The 2-8-2 does run slower, but that’s because the drivers are smaller.
The headlight is that bright?[:O] The headlight on my 2-8-2 is pretty dim, so maybe Mehano made their bulbs brighter, or put an LED in yours.
The backup light on my 2-8-2 is dim too. You could easily fix it light by switching the original bulb with an LED.[:D]
I actually already did the 2-6-0 last year, but I guess it doesn’t hurt having two people’s opinions.[:D]
I’ve had my Pacific for 5 years now. Bought it in Feb 2001.
I said it then, I’ll say it now, IHC is the Athearn BB of the steam side of HO scale.
With some detail work & a bit of weight, this loco could be a decent looking & strong runner, not that it isn’t straight out of the box. The only thing I’ve added thus far is a KD#5 to the tender.
I bought it for a specific duty & I know it will do the job I bought it for.
When funds are available, I plan on buying a few more IHC steamers.
For the price,it’s a good engine to use as a starting point for many different RRs Pacifics.I model the NYC and with a bit of filing,and adding cal-scale,cary and precision scale detail parts,you get a good running,nice looking ,model.I had a Soundtraxx unit installed and a lenz gold series and I’m very happy with the end result.The only small problem I am having is a little “tinney” sound comming from the pilot trucks that make it sound “cheap” when going through turnouts and over some rail joints
My IHC mike runs quite and looks allright,but I’am not an rivet counter,I allso have an IHC mogual 2-6-0 nice boiler detail,and runs good,just finished installing an soundtraxx sound systeam in the 2-8-2 mike and works great.
JIM
Thanks for the review, dingoix! I’ve been looking for one of those, as I’m attempting to model the GTW 4-6-2 my friends and I will hopefully be restoring soon. As you can see, the IHC Pacific is not too far off from this Pacific…
Where’d you find yours? I haven’t seen any on ebay lately. Any suggestions on where I could find one? Thanks!
If you haven’t checked the Voltage first, this could be expensive. Nothing against LED’S but a BULB @ matching voltage and 30 ma. rating should do it .
Some manufacturers are using 14 - 16 volt bulbs to protect themselves from DCC users. A small multimetercan be had for $12.
