I recently saw that IHC has been selling their new 2-10-2 steam locomotive. Has anyone here purchased one yet? If so, could you tell us what you think of it? How does it compare with the likes of BLI, Athearn Genesis, Proto 2000 Herritage or Backmann Spectrum?
I noticed that they want $179.99 for these locomotives. I don’t mind paying that if they are fairly decent in quality. Just seems a little strrange that every other steam engine they sell can be had for under $100.00 and this one is almost twice that.
I don’t have one but I’ve seen some previous discussion about it here. I believe it’s made by a different company than the previous IHC engines. I have two 2-8-2s from about 10 years ago. They run well for me but the detail is nowhere near the newer engines I’ve seen at my club. You could try searching the forum for the past threads.
Yes, I purchased one when they were first announced back in November, and this has been discussed ad nauseam since then.
It runs very smoothly and was easy to install a SoundTraxx Tsunami into. The only drawback to me is the lack of more road names, in particular Illinois Central or Missouri Pacific, who had a lot of these locomotives.
IHC has improved the detail considerably over their previous locomotives, although this one is also made by Mehano in Slovenia. No more bright, shiny hand rails and side rods – everything is blackened and a smaller gauge wire is used for the handrails. It has a cast metal boiler, so is quite heavy compared to previous IHC models with plastic boilers, and it has more pulling power.
Several nit-pickers criticized it as not being a truly prototypical Santa Fe engine, but I don’t think it was intended to be as accurate as a brass engine costing several hundreds of dollars more.
Cacole:
This actually could turn out to be a strong selling point for the loco, since NOT being prototype-specific would allow modelers to do some modifications to it. I understand that a lot of the details (stack, domes, pumps, FW heater, etc.) are separate parts, and presumably removable and/or adjustable. If this is so, then the individual modeler could do some ‘kit-bashing’ to the basic loco to come up with a more specific prototype (for instance, I’d be interested in kit-bashing it into a ‘sort-of’ Rio Grande F-81). It hasn’t hit either of my LHS’s yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing it when it does. I have one IHC, a USRA Mountain, and it’s a very nice little runner. I’m anxious to see what the 2-10-2 will do.
Tom [:p]
twhite,
I don’t think you’re going to see one in any local hobby shop because IHC sells direct instead of through a network of dealerships. That’s how I purchased mine, at any rate, because there’s only one “local” hobby shop within 250 miles of me and they don’t carry anything made by IHC.
Counter Weight,
No, and I don’t think you’re going to find any steam engine model that can.
Well the Heavy Mike from BLI can do it. I own one of those. But if you did stop you wont be able to restart it very well. Also not the entire train is on the grade all at once.
A freind of mine has one, that he brought over and ran on my layout. It seemed like a good running loco and went up my grade, which is 2% with 14 cars lashed to it with no problem. I have yet to buy one, but am looking into it.
Figure on 22" due to its smaller drivers, but if I were going to run that loco, I’d only expose it to 24" or more. BLI’s PRR J1 has larger drivers, and the minimum is 24", so I feel confident in saying that 22" should be okay…just okay.
So they made us think the loco’s price was $180 AND you get a passenger set FREE. But in reality they just tacked the passenger cars onto the REAL price of the loco?
I was of the understanding, the 2-10-2’s price would jump up after this ‘special introductory offer’. Hmmm…
