IHC Passenger Cars

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello my name is Shane McGuire. I am having some problems with my IHC Passenger car trucks. I cannot seem to find any wheel sets other than IHC’s that seem to work properly.

I have purchsed Kadee, Proto 2000 and NWSL wheel-sets. The bearing ends seem to fit too tight and cause the wheels to bind. How can I fix this? Help please.

Thanks,

Shane

2

IHC sells wheel sets as well. Micro mark sells a tool for cleaning out the trucks
http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=82838

As long as you don’t have too much plastic to remove, this truck tuner might work for you?

3

Dear Mr. McGuire
One thing you should know about IHC is that they are not made to the highest standards you may be having trouble with you wheels because they are too big. Technically the only wheels you should use with IHC trucks are the 31" IHC wheels which are very unrealistic. My guess is that you have 36" wheels from Proto 2000, etc. You could try cleaning out the axel journals; they have a special tool called a reamer to do this or you could use a drill tap. What I did was tossed the whole truck and bought Walthers Trucks #933-1068 GSC 41 HR trucks; they were used on Pullman Standard Cars. These retail for 10.98, but a little hunting on the internet and you can find them for around 8.00. Not only do these look a heck of a lot better, but they are incredibly free-rolling and they add much needed weight to your cars. You should note that if you use this conversion your going to have to body mount your couplers; and ,in that case ,use JayBee Mount Pads 369-111 $3.30/ 3 prs. and a Kadee #31 couplers for prototypical close coupling.

Railfan2882

4

Because of the design, the brake shoes drag on the wheels if you use correct size wheels. Choices are cut them off (?) or bend them out of the way (not always successful). Also some have NEM style axles and are harder to find the correct replacements.

5

This is correct. I ordered Intermountain 36" wheelsets for sixteen IHC passenger cars only
to find out that they rubbed on the brake pads. I gently bent the pads out of the way and
they rolled fine. The other issue was that the 36" wheels changed the coupler height slightly.
This was a problem when coupling with the locos(some, not all). BTW, I had also converted
them all with Kadee close coupling conversion kits. Anyway, I would try smaller wheelsets
or replace the trucks with metal trucks that come with metal wheelsets installed. Or, try to
find some better quality cars. Good luck, Dave

6

You could try cleaning out the axel journals; they have a special tool called a reamer to do this or you could use a drill tap

What you are referring to are called truck tuners, not reamers. If you enter truck reamer, or just reamer into the Micromark site, you are gonna get nothing.

7

That’s strange, I put P2K 33" wheel sets on mine and the worked fine. You really can’t tell their smaller than the 36"'s but their bigger than the 31"'s that came on the cars.
The above tips should do the trick for you.

8

I have put 36" InterMountain wheelsets into all of my IHC heavyweight passenger cars and they work just fine – the 31" wheels provided by IHC are too small. I also use Jay-Bee coupler mounting pads and Kadee body-mounted #148 Whisker Couplers. I also add weight by putting lead shot into the cavities in the bottoms of the cars before installing the interiors.

9

I have used the truck turner on mine and have fitted P2K 33" wheels. I had to gently pull back one or two of the brake shoes and they all now run perfectly. The coupler hight is still correct too!

Australia Jim.