IHC Passenger cars

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I recently aquired a set of International Hobby Corp. passenger cars, specifically set number 50017, an 8 car PRR Congressional/ Senator CS/PS set. My question has 3 parts…1) Is IHC still in business, 2) What is a good price for this set, and finally, 3) What type of Kadee couplers work best with these cars?

2

  1. NO, IHC went out of business 10 years ago when the owner retired and was moved into a nursing home. He has since passed away. Someone in Texas apparently purchased the leftover stock and is selling it under the name of IHC-Texas.

  2. IHC passenger car sets required lots of work. I added weight and replaced the trucks on all of mine so they would stay on the track. When new they sold for around $10 per car, depending on the road name and source. The stock wheels are too small.

  3. You will need Jay-Bee coupler mounting pads glued to the bottoms of the cars in order to convert them to Kadee body-mounted couplers. Kadee does not make a direct replacement for those very long shank snap-in stock couplers. McHenry used to make a direct replacement, but I don’t think they’re still made since Athearn (Horizon Hobby) purchased the McHenry company.

3

The Athearn site listed the long shank Mc Henrys for the IHC/Rivarossi cars as in stock when I ordered some for a customer 2 weeks ago.

Agree with Cacole about all the changes needed but I do like the diaphragms. If I find the cars cheap enough, I keep the diaphragms and toss the rest of the car.

4

I believe IHC-Texas was started by the former owner’s son. I have been watching the site for a couple of years, and it looks like they are bringing some of the former IHC product line back into production
http://www.ihc-hobby.com/

Kadee makes conversion bolsters for changing the truck mounted couplers of IHC, Con-Cor, Rivirossi and other coaches to Kadee. Use kit #505 for 6 wheel trucks and #508 for 4 wheel trucks. The kits include a Kedee #5 coupler. They take a bit of fileing on the truck to install them. Read the instructions carefully, there is a differnce depending if you are using 33" or 36" wheel sets - 36" is the correct size for passenger cars. IN some cases, the coupler may sit a bit too high; this can be corrected by replacing the #5 coupler with a Medium (9/32") Overset Shank #42 coupler.

BTW - Is this the set you purchased?
http://www.ihc-hobby.com/product/47PRR-cs

5

I don’t know what’s going on with Jay-Bee Bennett Enterprises. Walthers still lists the conpany but has not had any of their product in stock, including the coupler pads, for over a year.

Rich

6

If you have no intention of switching cars in and out of passenger trains I would and do use drawbars. I use fairly thick styrene painted black… No sense wasting money for couplers. Drill a clearance hole for a 2-56 screw in each end of the drawbar and drill and tap the ccar for the screw. Tighten it enough so the drawbar doesn’t sag. Make.a pin on the other end by cutting off the head after installng the screw. In over 30 years no one has ever noticed the drawbars. They never uncouple and can be made any length to accomodate any radius.

7

Hey, thank you for the reply. The set was IHC no. 50017, which consisted of 8 PRR Congressional/Senator cars, of which the no. that you list is one of. Looks like I got my work cut out for me to get these cars up and running. I might just hold the set and keep it unopened if it looks like I got a rare find. The set only cost me $70, so it’s not like I have a major investment in it.

8

That note has been around for a while. Much of the former line was made by Mehano in Europe. They went bankrupt, were picked up by Hornby(IIRC) and the only production is European type models. Rivarossi also went under and was picked up by Hornby, some of their American type models are now back in production under the Hornby/Rivarossi label. I heard that IHC of Texas did buy up some loose Mehano inventory from Hornby, but none of the production injection molding dies were purchased.

The steam engines were a good value if bought at a discount. A little light, and sparse on detail - but usually a good running value for the money.

Jim

9

I like the draw bar idea. Can you tell me what is the minimum radius curves that the cars operate on? I have been fighting with a couple of sets of IHC passenger cars for awhile. Thanks

10

Glad to hear I’m not the only person who does that. Actually I also hang on to the little bag of grabirons etc. that comes with the cars. Ya they’re a bit (or a lot) oversized, but I’ve been able to use them on some projects. With a little work, the car interiors could probably be reworked to fit other cars.

11

I don’t know the minimum radius. It may be as low as 18". I run on 48" mostly. Make one draw bar with several spaceed holes. Once you know which one to use just copy it

12

Thank you for the reply. I haven’t decided on what I will do with the cars yet… run an excursion with a steam engine, or get a passenger diesel. Ran the idea up a flagpole, might try rigging up some catenary and run the IHC GG-1 I bought years ago. The set was no. 50017, the PRR Congressional/Senator CS/PS 8 car set. It comprised of several styles of cars, including the one you listed, no. 47PRR-CS. No one has been able to come up with an answer to my question, what should a set of these cars cost these days. $10 each back in the day sounds right, and I see on IHC-Texas site that they list these cars individually for $18.98 a piece. I know they aren’t the cream of the passenger car crop, but I am not a detail nut, so it comes down to saving them in their boxes for collector status, or modifying them to run with my Kadee equipped engines.