Modelers, can anybody describe for me the procedure for disasembly of an IHC Passenger car? I see the six slots in the bottom of the car, I’ve tried to depress all six tabs together at the same time with toothpics but I am obviously missing something because I cant get the bottom to move. I don’t want to force it as I am afraid of damaging the car. HELP !!! MDC
Jeeze, Do I feel stupid, I just relized the TOP not the bottom comes off, Never mind. and thanks, Mike.
Hi Mike: Don’t feel bad just join the club. Have a good one.
MDC,
Forgive my curiosity.
What will you be doing to the car? Installing lighting? Installing and/or painting an interior kit?
Don’t feel bad, it took me a while to figure out that it was the top that came off, too.
It took me a little longer to decide that I will not be buying any more of them. By the time you change the couplers, replace the out of guage wheels and add weight, you might as well have just bought a better made car.
I bought them because I could not find the cars I wanted in the road name I wanted anywhere else.
I would buy from the company again, but I wouldn’t buy any of those cars.
If your doing some upgrades to them, I’ll add that the Kadee #505/#508 truck mounted couplers and Intermountain 36" wheels work great on these.
Yep. That’s what I did. I also put tire weights in them and a flat washer between the body and one truck to stop them from waddling like a line of ducklings going down the track…
Let’s see, I added the interior kits from IHC, installed body mount couplers, added lights (the Walthers light kit will fit). and added weight. I replaced the snap in truck attachment pins with 6-32 pan head machine screws to cut down on wobble.
Did those 6-32 screws tap right into the existing hole or did you have to modify them?
Haven’t gotten around to lights or interiors yet on my IHC Quasi-“City of San Francisco” train, but I changed out the wheelsets to Intermountain 36" (had to do a little routing on the inside of the IHC trucks) installed McHenry sprung couplers that fit very well on the IHC trucks, re-weighted them with strategically placed sheet lead and they roll like a dream.
The IHC cars are a bit unusual, because I don’t think that they’re really any specific American prototype–or if they are, none that I’ve ever heard of, LOL! However, they look pretty cool behind my BLI E-6 A-B-B COSF diesels–considering that the only other alternative would be a $4000 set of brass COSF cars from Coach Yard.
Tom [:)]
I got 6 of the IHC cars in C&NW for a 400. I wanted Walthers cars but they were not available. I have several heavy weights from AHM that I painted for Milw Rd. I did install body monted Kadees and will install better wheels. I still have to do the couplers and wheels on the IHC smooth sides. The AHMs seem to run allright weighted as they are but I’ll bring them and the IHCs up to standards.
Lots to do.
I used a regular 6-32 tap to form threads in the hole left over from the snap-in track retainer pin. Was I to do it again, I’d just use the screw itself to form the threads to get a somewhat tighter fit. The tapped threads are not as tight as I like, although it hasn’t given any trouble. When carefully tighted, the screws take a lot of wobble out of the truck.
Probably also need new trucks - which brings the cost up to ? Wouldn’t a Rapido or Walthers car be the same cost - with much better detailing? The “cheapest” is often the “most expensive” in the long run.[banghead]
If you are going to run IHC cars, you almost have to change out the trucks or at the very least get better wheels. Adding weight is another good idea.
I used some Train Station Products trucks I had on hand for my IHC car. I normally would not have gone with an IHC car, but their corrugated combine happens to be the closest ready made plastic car out there to one of the Santa Fe transition dorms (specifically #3482). It surprisingly did not take much to bash one into this:
I didn’t change the trucks, just the wheels and couplers. I did add weight.
It absolutely is better to just buy the well made car to start with, but no one had them in my desired roadname. Lackawanna.
On any of these that have “snaps” on the bottom (AHM, Rivarossi and I think Walthers have them too) I always take a hobby saw and remove the bottom snap section from the tabs. The roof stays on fine with friction, and it makes it much easier to take the roof off and on in the future.
I always hate when people revive old threads, so now I am doing it.
This thread interests me because I have a chance to buy a set of IHC passenger cars, but quality issues scare me.
From what I can gather from this thread, the IHC passenger cars need more weight, different trucks, metal wheels and body mounted couplers. That is a lot of work and a lot of additional expense over and above the cost of purchasing the cars. But, it sure seems to beat buying undecorated cars and painting and decaling them.
PV, you mentioned that you wouldn’t buy those cars if you had it to do all over again. Why? Because of the additional work and expense? Or, because after all of the modifications they still didn’t perform well?
Rich
I have a string of eight IHC smooth-side lightweights that I haven’t any problems with. I did add weight ($0.32 in pennies), body mounted Kadee #36 couplers, and P2K 33" wheelsets. I do think additional weight is necessary for good running. As I recall, my cars had no weights installed at all. The pennies are cheap enough, although they preclude adding an interior. An equivalent weight in the form of a strip of K&S brass would work as well.
I use Kadee #36 couplers and shift the mounting point back enough that the coupler head is where a #5 would be. The #36’s have a longer shank, so subtracting the length of a #5 shank from the #36 shank length is how much further back the #36’s should be mounted. The additional shank length give you that much more coupler swing going into curves. (Disclosure: My minimum curve is 31", so your milage may vary.)
The trucks that come with these cars are desendents of the old Rivarossi passenger car trucks with their oversize flanges and undersized wheels.&nbs
I have replaced the wheelsets on my IHC and Rivarossi cars with 36" wheels. On the IHC, I did have to clip off the brake shoes, otherwise clearance is OK.
I also use the Kadee Passenger Truck Conversion Bolsters, #505 for heavyweight 6-wheel trucks and #508 for lightweight 4-wheel trucks. They are truck mounted couplers but give a greater swing on curves. The only problem with truck mouted is in reversing moves - how often do you do that with passenger cars compaored with freight cars??
The JB coupler mounting pad also works great on these cars part JB #115