At one time, Rivarossi products were sold under the IHC label. IHC suceeded AHM in this regard. I have a number of Rivarossi steamers and passenger cars from various roads, some which were bought under AHM and IHC labels while others were directly from Rivarossi. Much of what I see currently being advertised under the IHC brand looks like my old Rivarossi equipment. Is IHC still selling products that had been manufactured by the old Rivarossi plant, have they purchased the molds from Rivarossi, or are they manufacturing their own line now. I am curious to know whether these are the same products that had been produced by Rivarossi.
As far as I know IHC loco’s are made by Mehano somewhere in eastern europe. I’ve never seen a IHC/Rivarossi loco but I’ve never had much interest along those lines.
IHC locomotives are marked as made by Mehano in Slovenia, and have been for a few years now, but their older locomotives were Rivarossi products and their rolling stock, especially the passenger car sets, are mostly from Rivarossi.
I haven’t purchased any IHC products since Rivarossi declared bankruptcy and was subsequently purchased by Hornby of England, but the passenger car set that they shipped with the 2-10-2 does appear to be from Rivarossi – possibly some of the older products that IHC has had in stock for some time.
Re:passenger cars. Rivarossi stopped selling casr to IHC because IHC coninually chopped the price when their inventory backed up, ruining the market for RR at the normal price. IHC then had Mehano copy the RR cars exactly. RR then went to court and won the suit so Mehano had to destroy the milds. Mehano then made the current cars, which are not prototypes of anything. Several of the heavyweight cars don’t look like anything in the US have a very European look.There are also glaring errors - one has a very high letterboard and short sidewalls. The fluted cars are not really fluted - just a bunch of ribs. Hornby has the molds for the real RR, but they are evidently in poor shape so may be some time before (if ever) they are rereleased.
I have both Rivarossi and IHC cars, the Rivarossi ones are maybe from the 90’s and the IHC are the last few years. Whatever the IHC ones are now, they aren’t the same as the Rivarossi ones. They’re not bad but they’re not the same design, and I think the old Rivarossi ones were / are better in look and run better (IHC ones tend to wobble). I’ve heard people talk about Rivarossi and IHC as being related or connected once in a while in a forum but usually someone else disputes it. I’ve never seen anything firm stating they were connected.
There is no doubt they had a working relationship at one time. When I first got into this hobby in the late 1970s, Rivarossi products were sold through AHM (American Hobby Manufacturers, I think). Many of my early purchases of rolling stock and steam power were made at the now defunct Woolco discount stores which carried a large selection. Sometime in the early 1980s, Rivarossi products began being sold domestically under the IHC brand. At the time, I didn’t know if this was just a corporate name change or Rivarossi had found a new distributor. Later in the decade I saw the same products being advertised in the magazines under the Rivarossi brand and bought a number of passenger cars and steamers from mail order houses (pre-Internet days). These came to me shipped in red boxes with the Rivarossi label on them. I don’t know when IHC and Rivarossi got divorced but as a previous poster has mentioned, apparently it was due to pricing practices by IHC. I began this topic originally because I was curious as to whether any of the current IHC offerings are leftover Rivarossi products. I always thought that Rivarossi offered good value for the money. Without interiors, their passenger cars were terribly underweighted and the oversized flanges on the 1980s and earlier equipment made converting to code 83 problematic. I still have most of my old Rivarossi fleet all but two still run well even though some are over 25 years old.
Rivarossi was sold in the US by AHM up through the 1980’s. AHM went out of business at some point during the 80’s, and IHC emerged from their ashes. From what I’ve heard, Rivarossi was in bad shape at that time and had to be bailed out by the Italian government, perhaps due to AHM buying from them at very reduced prices and then marking them up stateside.
Rivarossi continued on its own, retooling most of their red box locos, but lost the tooling for 3 locomotives to IHC: their GG1, the Dockside, and the E8. The GG1 was retooled by IHC/Mehano and given a can motor, and eventually a dual motored version was released. As tends to be the case with IHC locos, the performance was vastly improved, but the appearance (IMHO) suffered. The same is true for the Dockside. The E8 looked the same, and maybe they were manufactured jointly, but the unpowered IHC version I have is marked Slovenia, not Italy.
I don’t have any IHC passenger cars, but since IHC is marketing them, I would assume that Rivarossi lost that tooling in the deal as well, and the fit & finish suffered. I don’t own any IHC steamers because I think they look cheap, even if they run well. I’d rather get a BLI on special, or even a later generation Rivarossi if the price is right. Rivarossi is now owned by Hornby, and the future of their line is unknow
Actually, Rivarossi didn’t lose those engines to IHC. I’m pretty sure the IHC GG-1 and Dockside use the tooling from Pemco, who copied a few manufacturer’s engines. IHC also got the 4-8-2, 2-6-0 and SD35 from Pemco.
Rivarossi continued making the E8s until they went bankrupt, and did some improvements on the drive, like fine flanges, an improved motor, and I think more weight. They did make some for IHC in the early 90s, but IHC never got the tooling.
The passenger cars may be the old Rivarossis. Rivarossi did stop making the old ones and start making new, higher quality ones, and most likely didn’t need the old ones anymore.
“Looks like”, but not the same.
IHC lost the US disribution of the Rivarossi Line and marketed cheaper, lighter, versions of the Rivarossi passenger cars. These ‘Copies’ sell for $4.98 - $7.98 ,come with both NMRA and NEM axles, and had trouble staying on the track, even with 22" radius. Guess who buys them?
Rivarossi’s best products were produced for the American market under exclusive contract to Walthers. These are excellent cars, and a far cry from those from AHM & IHC.
Hornby purchased what was left of Rivarossi, but may just use the old molds, rather tha re-tool, to get their money back. Stay tuned,
Darth,
It’s obvious that Rivarossi’s molds for the GG1’s and Docksides weren’t used by IHC, but did they lose the ‘right’ to manufacture those 2 models through some agreement or settlement with IHC and the remaining AHM interests? Unless those particular molds simply wore out, and Rivarossi didn’t intend to invest in new ones, maybe IHC picked up the slack? It’s hard to know what the politics of the situation were, but the Dockside & GG1 had always been popular items in the Rivarossi line, and it doesn’t seem logical that they would simply abandon them.
Don,
I asked the Big Boy seller if he had any closeup shots of the new tooling, and this was his answer:
The exterior shell appears to be the same tooling as previous releases. The upgrades are all inside the loco.
Thanks,
Jeff North
Owner-North Hobby Depot
Looks like you’re right!
The story of RR must be thick enough to fill a book! Along with IHC, RR product has been imported by Atlas, ConCor, Walthers, Model Expo, etc. We’ll see if the purchase by Hornby means they may be imported by Bachmann in the US or what.
The RR cars have always been top notch. Diesels from Atlas/Kato have passed them by. There still is a market for quality steamers.