Help! I’ve acquired some older IHC passenger cars and interiors. First, these cars seem to be pretty light (they need more weight). How do you get inside these cars? Second where would you place the weight? Can you add interiors and weight? The couplers that came with the cars mount to the truck, I have some long shank replacement McHenry couplers, but the really do not look very good, can you use body mounted Kadees, and what number Kadee would you use?
You should be able to add weight to the molded in pockets in the floor of the car, and still use the interiors. Some of the folks here are using lead shot gun shot for weight in the pockets. Pour some in, and add glue to hold it in place.
For the couplers, I’m usiing the McHenry’s, but if you go to the Kadee web site, or your Kadee chart, you’ll see their recommended couplers for the IHC cars are truck mounted. It seems you need the truck mounted couplers for the swing of the couplers, especially on tighter radius turns.
Rotor
First, to open the cars up you must release the tabs that hold the cars together. There are 4 tabs visible from the bottom of the cars, near the trucks. Jamb toothpicks into all 4 tabs to release them simultaneously, and then pull on the tops of the cars to open them up. The window glazing and roofs are one piece.
Before you put the interiors into the cars, fill the cavities on the bottoms that are meant to represent air conditioning units, water tanks, etc., with BBs. The interiors will cover these cavities and keep the BBs from falling out, so they don’t need to be glued down. Glue the interiors into the cars with hot melt glue, clear silicon, or caulking, and replace the roof/window glazing.
Body mounted Kadee couplers can be used in place of those droopy long-shank McHenry couplers, but you’re going to need coupler mounting pads that are made by Jay-Bee. In the Walthers 2006 catalog, these mounting pads are priced at $3.30 per packet of 6. IHC passenger cars are made by Rivarossi, so you will need catalog numbers 369-110 for the baggage car; 369-111 for 1920 cars other than baggage; 369-112 for 1930 cars, or 369-117 for 1940 cars.
Kadee does not make truck-mounted couplers like those sold by McHenry, but they do have Passenger Truck Conversion Bolsters with #5 couplers, Kadee stock number 380-505 for AHM, IHC, Rivarossi, and Con-Cor 6-wheel passenger trucks, or 380-508 for AHM, IHC, Rivarossi, and Con-Cor 4-wheel trucks. I have never tried these, and don’t know how they attach to the existing truck. They are priced at $3.50 per pair (one car).
It doesn’t get any better, excellent explanation Charles.
Worth hitting the print key.
Cacole hit it on the Mark.
Only thing I can add to this is that for weight I use Daisy BB pellets. You can get a small milk carton size of 15,000 pellets at Walmart for about $3.60.
Fill the empty pockets that are in the car’s floor, then apply Elmer’s Glue on top of each pocket. Let dry several hours.
I have sixteen IHC passenger cars.These have been an on going project… in other words,
I work on them every now and then. I have converted all of them with the Kadee close coupling
kits. These kits are still truck mounted, but they get rid of that gap between the cars that you
could drive a truck through. The McHenry do not.
I’ll also be adding weight and interiors eventually. I’ll probably use BB’s. That sounds like most
logical way to get weight into these underweight cars.
I also added metal wheelsets. Someone told me I needed 36" wheels, so I order them. They were
wrong. When I installed the wheelsets, they rubbed on the brake shoes. This also raised the
cars slightly. I am going to reorder 33" wheelsets and use the 36" wheels for other rolling stock.
For the price, these are decent cars. They just need some modifications to make them reliable.
Also, make sure to paint your interiors before you install them. AntonioFP45 touched on this in one
of his topics. You could search for it, or maybe he could point you in the right direction. Good luck, Dave.
I hope you don’t mind but I made a copy of your post cacole. I have just started to work on my IHC passenger cars, interiors are in the post. As I am new to modelling US railroads I have a lot to learn and already I have learnt much since joining this forum, thanks to people like you who share their knowledge with others.
William
According to the Reboxx chart there are exceptions depending upon the truck.
Commonwealth 4 wheel & six wheel HW take the 36" as most passenger cars.
IHC(Rivarossi Streamline w/small wheels) take 33".
I had the older Riv HW & discovered because of the brake shoe required 33".
I have a couple of these cars. CPR Coaches to be exact.
They were cheap enough. Too cheap. But I knew this going in.
I added IHC’s Wheel sets, tacked enough weight on top of the truck mount to bring them up to around 7 ounces I believe. I don’t have the cars near-by to double check.
As for the interiors, I’m not adding any. I’m going to “tint” the windows so I don’t have to worry about the interior colours.
I like the cars. They’re decent rollers now.
Before I could barely get one pulled up the grades I have.
I have one older Rivarossi car left. A CN Sleeper.
Same problem. Really bad wheels.
I replace the origional wheels with Proto 33" & WOW, what a difference.
I placed it on the highest level of my layout, gave it a decent shove & it rolled down a 12 foot 1.3% grade, across a 9 foot flat section, down a 3.5% grade across another 8 foot flat section complete with a half loop curve with an opposite 90 curve after that & half way up another 3.5% grade before rolling back.
Gordon
There was some good information exchanged last time this topic came up.
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=36805
Hope this helps.
Ort007
I’d still suggest using lead shot instead of the BB’s. The lead shot is smaller, less airgap between each one, and the lead is heavier than the BB’s.
Rotor