IHC and Rivarossi GG1s....wheel flanges?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Do these old boys have equivalent of RP-25 wheels or the deep-flanged ones old European models used?..or…can they easily be swapped over for an replacement…if so, what is the replacement model wheel?

Thanks.

2

I don’t own either one, but considering when they were made my guess is that they have the deep European flanges. Replacement wheels would probably be non-existent because they would have drive gears on their axles.

3

AHM definitely over size for use on code 100 only. IHC could be either.

4

Dunno about the GG1’s. But the IHC steamers, although they had flanges deeper than RP-25, would run on hand laid code 83 track down at the club. AHM goes way back, to the 1960’s as I recall. Some time later AHM went away and the same European made product now was imported by IHC. So we are talking about a long period of time here. An AHM model might be as much as 50 years old. Whereas an IHC model might only be 5 years old.

Over that period of time, the wheel flanges got smaller. The Europeans always went in for deeper than RP-25 flanges, but they toned it down over the years and the flanges got shallower. You can’t really make any hard-and-fast rules because I’m pretty sure the “same” engine had deeper flanges when it first went into production than it did at end of production.

I’d expect any HO locomotive sold in the US, to run on code 100 Snap-Track, no matter what age it is. I’d expect anything younger than 30 years or so to run on code 83 hand laid track.

5

I had one of the really old ones about thirty years ago. It was definitely a code-100 only kind of thing, very clearly not RP-25. These were made for a considerable period of time, though, and newer ones might well have been equipped differently.

6

All of the AHM and IHC GG-1’s tha tmy ex father in law had had the deep flanges and definitely bumped over code 83 track. The oldest Rivarossi made ones definitely were too deep. The newer singel and dual motor ones as sold by IHC would run, just noisy, as the flanges did hit the spike detail on the track, but it didn’t lift them enough to cause derailments. All versions would be fine on code 100 track.

–Randy

7

I have two IHC GG1s that I bought new from IHC (Philadelphia) about ten years ago. I am not certain that the wheels are actually RP25 however they ran on my Atlas Code 83 flex track with no problems.

Hope this helps

John R

8

Did you check NWSL for replacement drivers?