The C-628 is a good running and decent looking engine for it’s price. It uses the shell from the old AHM C-628, but they modified it slightly so you won’t see the parts where the shell snaps on. The two large vents on the back of the engine can be seen through, which is a nice feature. All the grab irons are cast on to the shell, but they look decent enough. The pilots are open for the truck mounted couplers and they have absolutely no detailing on them. They’re just a flat, open upside down U shape. The paint is a little rough, but the colors were seperated fairly well. My C-628 is in the Burlington paint, and the large Burlington on the side looks good, and the Burlington Route printed on the cab looks very good. The handrails are cast on to the plastic frame and are also very thick, so you have to be careful not to touch them too often, or they will bend and break. The light bulb is mounted on the front truck and isn’t very noticable until it gets up to around 8 volts. The way IHC mounted the shell is very interesting. To get it off you have to first unscrew the fuel tank. Then you slide the fuel tank backwards then pull it off. Then you take a screwdriver and unsnap two snaps that hold the shell down.
I got the engine to start moving at around 2.2 volts and could keep it running steady at 1.6 volts. At 12 volts it reached a speed of around 160 scale MPH. It ran quietly at lower speeds and at about 7 volts it started making a little more noise. It made a medium amount of noise at full speed. All the noise comes from the inexpensive motor. The truck’s gears are completely silent. When I hold the coupler it feels like it could pull maybe 35 free rolling cars. It has 12 wheel drive and 8 wheel pickup. The wheels have RP-25 flanges. The detailing on the trucks is all cast on but it looks good.
The C-628 apparently comes in two versions. One has Magic-Mate universal couplers that are mounted too low and directional lighting. The other has
You say it has 12 wheel drive and 8 wheel pick up. Does this mean it has 2 axles with traction tires or are all 12 wheels steel? Thanks for the reveiw. I’ve been eyeing some IHC stuff.
Front/side view
Rear view
The chassis
I put in a sort of tower thing to hold the light bulb close to the headlights in the top of the cab. I also put electrical tape in the top of the cab to keep the light from shining through. I clipped the horns off the horn-hook couplers so that they would couple to knuckle couplers.(Kadees, McHenry/Bachmanns, P2Ks…)
You’d have to put a motor with no flywheels in and take the flywheel and couplings off the IHC motor. The frame is designed so that one end of the motor slips into a loop in the frame. That’s why IHC only has one flywheel. I bet you could fit a Helix Humper or Proto Power West motor in there.[:D]
One thing I believe you did not mention is that the frame is (or at least was originally) plastic which leaves things pretty light and very hard to modify without a lot of work which the loco probably isn’t worth putting that much into. Also the motors are pretty light duty and don’t last too long with a lot of heavy pulling. Pretty much just a hair above train set quality IMHO.
Actually, I did mention that it has a plastic frame.
The motor is actually suprisingly powerful. It could handle as much stress as a Kato motor. It’s also got a very large 12 ounce weight in the fuel tank. Train set quality has actually been getting better. Bachmann’s train set engines now come with 5 pole motors, metal frames and 8 wheel drive. The IHC train sets come with smooth running engines that are good quality too.[:D][:D][:D]
I put DCC in one of those a few years ago and the motor lasted about 1 minute before heating up and burning out.Its an ok loco for someone who does not care about prototype fidelity or detail.For a high quality C628-630 get the Stewart Hobbies unit.Also buy the Stewart if you run DCC.The IHC motor wont last,at least mine didnt.No more IHC for me.Dan
Darth, I think it is a great idea to put up a review of an inexpensive locomotive like this. Sure there are better models out there, like the Stewart model, but it cost $100 more. As has been discussed many times on this forum, there are some modellers that either can not, or don’t want to spend that kind on money on a locomotive.
The motor looks as though it is the same can motor that is in the IHC steamers. I have several of these and have never had a problem with them under DCC control. I don’t really see why a DCC installation in this one would be any different. Anyway, I appreciate the effort you put into this.
