I need some advice, please…just bought some IHC Passenger Cars, Pennsylvania line…they wobble something terrible and come unhooked after having made several circuits without a problem…do they need to be weighted, would the inserts make a difference(the seats, etc)…what is the thought out there…thanks!
Shawn,
I did the same thing you did. The very first passenger cars that I purchased were from IHC for the Boston & Maine RR. I was lured in by the very reasonable (cheap) price. Once I received them I was blown away with the quality, or lack of it. I was able to send them back for a full refund.
2 things you can do…Return them and maybe look at Walthers, Branchline or Bethlehem Car Works passenger cars. They will be more expensive but much better in quality and detail.
Or keep them and replace the plastic trucks (mine were warped in the box), Replace the plastic wheels and axles (again, mine were warped in the box) replace the coupler. If I remember, they were hook horn couplers and won’t be compatable with most of the better quality locomotives that come with Kadee or Kadee clone couplers, and add some weight to the cars because they are too light to begin with.
By the time that you make all of these modifications to the IHC passenger cars, you’ll most likely have spent close to what it would cost for a better quality car from one of the companies listed above.
The problem with the IHC cars is that they have 3 main types, Heavyweight cars, Smoothline cars and Corrugated passenger cars. In some cases, they have released passenger cars for railroads that never existed in real life. In my example, I purchased the passenger car set they produce for the Boston & Maine RR. IHC makes them in their Corrugated line. The problem is that after doing some research I found that the B&M never owned Corrugated Passenger cars to begin with.
It’s really up to you. Good luck…
Adding weight would make a big difference. McHenry makes a drop in knuckle coupler replacement for these cars and they work quite well. Much of what Meyblc says above is correct regarding the quality of these is true and certainly they make one generic car type fit many roads with no real attention to prototype. First off though, I would add weight and see if that helps.
Some nice metal trucks would help quite a bit too, and add some weight at the same time. As said before matching up the couplers with McHenry’s would help the uncoupling issue.
Several years ago I bought a set for my son, so I can relate. We are having the same problems. But I don’t think we ever even got them to make a single circuit.
Yes, but I don’t know how much it will really help without some other work as well. As I recall we tried simply adding weight but to no avail. I think they really need to have the bolsters and trucks worked on. That is one of the projects on my “to do” list, to see if they can be salvaged.
No, I don’t think so. In fact they might make the wobble worse as it would raise the center of gravity. The weight needs to be added as low as possible, preferably in the hollows created by molded on utility boxes (under the floor).
I have a couple of the corrugated cars.
These things wouldn’t roll at all.
I ended up getting IHC’s metal axle sets, not the trucks & putting additional weight inside the car evenly distributed right over the 2 trucks. I believe that the cars weighed in about 7 - 7 1/2 ounces when I was done.
They track a lot better now.
Gordon
Add weight. 5 or 6oz.(the interiors won’t add much weight. Buy some good 36" metal wheels for them. (metal trucks are too expensive for what these cars are.)
Not bad quality for $9 each. I just got a set and I’m pretty happy with the quality.
Other cars mentioned would cost $30-$40 each. You can upgrade yours for about $7 each.
(I used 1 oz flat, square drapery weights from Wal-mart.) or pour 6oz of lead shot into the bottom of the interior kit your going to buy and glue in with Elmers. Make sure you spred the weight out evenly.
On some early IHC and Con-Cor passenger cars the trucks were molded in soft plastic. The wheel sets wore a slot instead of a hole in the side frame. The side frame will wear to the point it makes contact with the railhead. Replacing with metal wheelsets speeds up this action. Replacement with better trucks is the answer.
As stated above, get rid of them if you can. Don’ t be drawn in by the cheap price tag, because with passenger cars, it seems you truly do get what you pay for. There are much better quality cars available for not much more money.
I’ve been pretty satisfied with the ones I got. Painted, decalled, and added the interiors - and boy did those need painting - those colors - Yuck!, went to metal wheels - trucks were okay, changed couplers, and they run like champs. Have not needed more weight than the interiors and wheels. And I still have less money invested than another brand, and I would have had to paint any of them to suit (VGN). For some reason I care about prototypical fidelity a LOT more with an engine than I do with a car. As long as a car looks period and type correct, with the right paint, I am happy I guess.
At one time, IHC was the distributor for Rivarossi products, succeeding AHM in that role. Are the IHC cars currently being sold the same ones that sold under the Rivarossi brand name?
The only difference between IHC and Rivarossi cars are the name.
I’ve had good luck in replacing the wheelsets with metal ones, and adding flat (not offset) Athearn passenger car weights. Throw on the Kadee conversion kit, and the car is ready to roll. BTW, these particular cars are a pain to kitbash–it’s difficult to splice in or move windows around. The only way to do it is to remove the entire car side from the floor first.
I’m assuming this is for HO scale. Loathar has been right on target.
The IHC’s don’t look bad, though the Walthers Budds are much more accurate. If you’re keeping the IHCs, add BB pellet weight in the bins and drench them with Elmer’s Glue. A small milk carton of BB guns pellets sell for about $3.50 at Walt-Mart. They’re great filler weights for Covered Hopper and Centerflow Hopper cars as well.
Then, add flat weights. Ideally you want your cars to weigh between 8 and 10 ounces.
Adding IHC interiors (paint them first) will make them look more attractive.
Trucks and wheels.
You can replace the wheels themselves or the entire truck assemblies. If you want to try replacing the wheels only, be aware that some “early run” IHC cars have NEM trucks, which are a Europeon standard. In other words, dropping P2K or Walthers axles in the trucks might not work due to the needle point configuration.
So buy one pack of wheels first and try them. If the fit is good and they track well, then replace the rest of them.
One more thing:
If the trucks on your cars are the type that have the outside brake shoes, then 36" wheels won’t fit unless you bend them upward or remove them. I’m not too picky and removed the brake shoes off of my Rivorossi streamlined cars. 36" wheels now fit perfectly. If you wi***o keep the brake shoes, then you would need to buy 33" wheels instead. Not prototypical but, IMHO, the difference is barely noticeable.
Hope this helps.
Ummmm… No.
The current line of passenger cars that IHC is selling has very little in common with the Rivarossi cars that IHC used to sell. IHC’s current crop of streamlined and heavyweight passenger cars is from new tooling that doesn’t match Rivarossi’s cars in the quality of the tooling, or in all but a couple of cases out of all of their cars, the prototype they are intended to represent.
In any comparison between Rivarossi and recent IHC cars, the Rivarossi cars win hands-down: their proportions are better and the details are much crisper. The details on the nearly 40 year-old 12-1 heavyweight Pullman and the heavyweight observation car are much crisper than the considerably more recent IHC cars.
-Fritz Milhaupt
http://www.wyomingyard.com
Actually, the B&M did have a few corrugated-side passenger cars - these were Pullman-Standard cars they purchased in conjunction with the Maine Central in 1947. They were a pair of baggage-coach combines, eight coaches and two restaurant-lounge cars.
It was the kickback that Patrick McGinness received from a middleman as part of the sale of these cars to the Wabash in 1957 which resulted in McGinness being convicted as a criminal.
Kevin Holland covers these cars in his Passenger Trains of Northern New England In the Streamline Era published in 2004.
If I’m not mistaken, the B&M owned the corrugated Pullman Standard “Turlte Roof” cars (same type used by the New Haven). Some survived and were used by MBTA.
Are the roofs removable on the IHC cars? I’m working on bashing a MU out of an old Athearn RDC need a roof without the exhaust unit. Was thinking that if I could get my hands on some old (ebay) corregated cars, i could use the roofs from them.
Dave,
The old Con-Cor HO passenger cars haveremovable roofs but not IHCs. Plenty of them show up on Ebay.
It’s funny that you mentioned it. Well known modeler, Dean Freytag, turned an Athearn RDC into an electric MU car. Did a nice job. painted it White and Blue for his railroad’s commuter service. His layout has appeared over the years in different issues of MRR.
Consider sendiing an e-mail to editor@trains.com and see if Bergie or one of the crew can direct you to Freytag’s work, especially since his layout was popular. There should be some photos of the “RDC turned MU” car.
Antonio,
Thanks for the info! Gonna go ebaying right now for a couple of those old Con-Cor cars. Dean Freytag copied my idea? lol. Well, hopefully my project will turn out about a quarter of the quality of his - that would be a major accomplishment as he is quite the modeler.
I’ll do a search on the magazine index. Got all the issues back to 63 or so, so it shouldn’t be that difficult (excpet for finding the exact issue - now which box was 87 in?).
As an aside, I found a bunch of Athearn RDC’s on ebay about a year ago and bought like 12 of them for something like $3.00 a piece. I tried splicing roof sections, but because of the corregations, I could never get it to look “right” to me. Would love to take an entire roof section and plop it in the RDC between the two noncorrogated cabs. I also need to splice in a section to cover that hole where the frame locks in. I also found a bunch of the IHC pantographs (from their GG1) on ebay that I’m planning to use. Will try the Ernst gearing first and see how it turns out. If not, perhaps figure a way to put a diesel turck on the thing, with perhaps the F&C sideframes from their MP54. I’m afraid the flea and PDT are a little out of my price range for this project. Hopefully it will turn out. In any event it has and will continue to be a fun project.
I know many people will suggest that I start with the Proto RDC, but I’m afraid if I do so it will look too much like an RDC that has been bashed. Besides, I already got the stuff, so why not?
Now, let’s go look at ebay . . . . . . . . … .
IHC PASSENGER CARS are extruded hunks of plastic painted in colors the railroads didn’t actually have, wiith horrible trucks and wheels, penny-ante couplers, and flimsy bodies that won’t stay on the track: so WHY do you continue to buy them?
Their CHEAP.
WANT to fix them up to run? WHERE do you want to start?
- If you have a 4x8 they’re too long - sell them & buy Athearn or Concor 72’ ‘shorties’.
- EASIEST FIX IS IHC’s metal trucks @ $15 and McHenry Couplers @ $2. Don’t want to do that?, go back to # 1.
Metal trucks will give you unsprung weight where you most need it.
MORE WORK:
3. Bring car weight up to 6.75 oz. by adding more inside vestibules A-line).
4. body mount KD#36 with JB #111 coupler mounting pads.
NOW you have invested $22 per car (instead of $7) that can work with other NMRA quality cars.