I have several IHC Smooth Side passenger cars. I bought an 8 pack of interiors to go in them a few years ago. I found them today looking for something else, ( ROFL ) and decided to start assembling them.
I decided I’d start with something simple like the baggage car. I grab the car and interior, and head to the workbench.
The first thing I found is the interior is too long for the baggage car I have. [?] So I check The Kid’s IHC passenger cars, and his baggage car is a good bit longer than mine. The interior will fit his Chessie, but not my GN baggage car!
Second…I have no idea how to get the car apart! [sigh]
How do you get the darn things apart? Looking at it, there are 6 clear plastic tabs on the underframe. They look like they are for the windows. Do they also hold the roof on?
Yes, those clear plastic tabs are the window casting, and the roof is an integral part of the same casting. You have to use toothpicks to hold the tabs open while you work the roof and windows out of the sides.
I added weight to the cars while I had them open by putting lead shot into the cavities on the bottom, and then glued the interior into place.
I also changed the wheelsets to Intermountain 36" wheels. The wheels on the IHC cars are too small, and using 36 inch wheels corrected the coupler height problem.
It looks like 36" wheels will require some mods to the trucks. Not sure 33" will fit without mods. I think the stock wheels are 31" ?
Coupler height has not been a issue as I run the consist with like cars, and the head end car coupler matches the motive power. I have Mchenry’s on these cars, which are one of the few of my rolling stock not equipped with KaDees.
I know they are light. Lead will be added as needed. I have sheet lead from .015-.087 thick. It looks like a sheet can go in the recess under the floor.
I guess The Kid’s baggage car will get the interior, since it fits car. Anyone know what interior will fit the short IHC baggage car?
I changed to body-mounted Kadee couplers, using the Jay-Bee coupler mounting pads. I kept the IHC plastic trucks, but cut off the ends where the couplers were inserted and installed Intermountain metal wheelsets. On cars with an opening in the center beam, I inserted two or three pieces of solid solder and glued it in with a hot melt gun or Goop clear silicon adhesive. While I had the tops off, I filled the cavities in the bottoms of the cars that represent air conditioners, batteries, etc., with lead shot glued in place with Elmer’s white glue. Even with all this added weight, none of them are up to NMRA recommendations but they run well and do not derail.
I am working on some IHC cars now as well. I am assuming you will be adding interiors and lighting kits. You can get the correct weight by filling the under floor compartments with pieces of cut up lead sheet, with a few extra pieces in the bathrooms. Adding the lead sheet in a big piece under the floor may lead to problems with the fit of the interior.
As for the baggage car interior that is too long, get an X-Acto or similar miter box so you will get square cuts that will fit together. I just finished an Athern heavyweight coach, and had to shorten the the interior and cut it narrower. I removed a row of seats from each end to get the length right. Once that was was done it fits fine. In actual fact, I do not see the need for an interior in a baggage car. The windows are so small you will not see what’s inside unless you are going to cut the roof open and use it as a display piece. I just sprayed the inside of the windows of my baggage car with Dulcote; I probably will install lighting.
Yoyu are correct on the wheels. i think I had to use the 33 or the 31. The brake system got in the way of the wheel. Ihc also sells the weight sets for the cars. I have a set of all the cars and got weights ordered from my lhs. They are specific to each car as they fill all the little nooks and crannies with the weight then cover over with a plate weigth. very easy to follow the directions to each car. I switched out the couplers for the mchenerys as well and have not had any coupler issues. Extra weight will help them from uncoupling in turns(that was my biggest problem)
Actually, and I know it’s not NMRA, but my Presidential fleet is all IHC with interiors and people. no change to couplers, I believe I added wheels but don’t recall. No (read:no more than any other average joe) issues with derailing and or uncoupling, or the ever popular cliff diving at the club layout. And the interiors alone will add a fair amount of weight. I was surprised how much. Or maybe I just used too much glue…
Also, check the interiors. IHC sells blue box for the heavyweights and red box for streamlines. I know they aren’t interchangeable. per chance this is the issue?
I can’t comment on the baggage as I didn’t get that kit, as for wheels, I used 36s and gently bent the brake shoes back. I also modified the trucks where they mount to the body by shaving off the rounded pivot where it meets the floor of the carriage and replacing the pin with set screws, nuts and a washer in place of the rounded pivot. Once you adjust the screw I glued the nut in place to prevent it coming loose and now have carriages that don’t wobble there way around the track. Also I replaced the couplers with KD talgo conversion kits at the same time. They run really well now with no unwanted uncoupling.
I’ll chime in here, too, if it’s okay. Last year I bought some IHC streamline cars to go with a BLI A-B-B “City of San Francisco” E-6 set, and I ended up using sheet lead, Intermountain wheels, McHenry couplers and something called a ‘Wheel-router’ which can usually be found at either your LHS or ordered from MicroMark. You can save your IHC trucks by using the router, which will let you install the Intermountain 36" wheels with very little trouble, and give the IHC trucks not only better weight, but they’ll roll incredibly free with those weighted Intermountain wheelsets. The sheet lead weight can be put directly on the floor without raising the interior castings hardly at all. Though I’d probably switch out the McHenry’s to a Walther’s style coupler box in the future, the result has been a remakably smooth running, handsome bunch of passenger cars for my E-6’s–without any accidental uncoupling with the McHenry’s. And since the IHC’s don’t really LOOK like anyone else’s contemporary streamlined cars, it’s enough to give my “City” a rather unique look (the 1940’s “city” didn’t look like any other streamliner, either).
I’ve got no complaints about the IHC cars at all–they just need a little ‘Tweaking.’ And I like to ‘Tweak.’ Right now, they stand up to my Walther’s and BLI streamliners just fine. Maybe not all the detail, but they sure run SMOOTH!
About half of our IHC passenger cars already have McHenrys. I’ve had no issues with the couplers. The rest have McHenry on one end of the head end car, and stock couplers on the rest of the consist.
The sheet lead is a given. The cars are way light. All the cars will get lead as I do the interiors. Eventually metal wheels and lights too. I am leaning towards something like the “Easy-Peasy” light kits, but in the interest of cost effectiveness, I’d like to make my own kits. I just can’t justify buying a $15 light kit for a $9 car!
Thanks for the info guys. I’ll try to post some pics as they progress.