I have 6 bran new IHC SD35 shells that I am using to build Athearn powered SD35 locomotives. I have brought 4 Athearn SD9 “BB” power chassis to work and have machined the frames to fit the IHC shells (well I have one prototype finished and the actual 4 to be done will look nicer with revisions to my tooling that holds the frames in place while machining them… all done on break lol!! )
I had an Atlas SD35 back in the 80’s and these IHC Shells look identical to the older Austrian made Atlas SD35 shells. Does anyone know if the IHC shells are cast in the same molds as the older Autrian Atlas SD35’s?
I have a sneaking suspicion that they are , that and the SD24 that IHC somtimes has available.If I remember correctly the old Austrian SD35’s and SD24’s were first sold to Concor that made them for a few years, then IHC picked up the molds. they aren’t too bad a shell the detail is less than the new SD35’s and 24’s theat Atlas has made the last few years, but a good paint job and some finner detail parts in teh form of new handrails and grabs and you should have some nice looking and hopefully running locomotives. If you get a chance fire off some pictures of the project it sounds interesting .
The IHC SD35 shell is from tooling made by Pemco in the 80s. It’s very likely that the Pemco shell is based directly off the Atlas/Roco shell, since they copied other manufacturers products instead of doing actual prototype research for their own. Some other copies by Pemco were the 0-4-0 Dockside and GG-1 (based off Rivarossi), F40PH (Life-Like), and C-430 (Tyco).
The IHC SD24 uses the shell made by Tyco in the late 70s or early 80s.
I will take some photos. I made a jig to hold the frames while I mill them and it is working very well. So far I have 3 of the frames machined. I have 3 to go. The IHC shells fit the Athern SD9 frames very nicely. I am very happy with the results so far.
I can’t wait to get the trucks on them to see how they look. They won’t be perfect exsamples of SD35’s because they will still have the SD9 fuel tanks (thinking about buying Atlas fuel tanks for 4 bucks each and installing them over the SD9 tanks). But hey… they will be painted in EJ&E colors and the J never had SD35’s. Sometimes it just takes a lot of immagination.
I can’t post any pics today because I left all of the stuff at work, and I am on turd shift this week. It is 8:52am and I am going to bed.
Here they are. As for the handrails I bought 6 sets of Altas handrails for the older Austrian shells. They haven’t arived yet but they look as if they will work. I am thinking of splitting the frame right after the forward truck and shortening it a bit in order to take up some of the space where the air tanks were and to get the trucks out from under the front and rear platforms.
Here is a pic of the older Atlas/Roco EMD SD-35 for referance. This was a green PRR unit that is in the shops of the TCRR for repainting and detailing. I think the Austrian drives are smoother than the athearn myself. I dont work mine hard enough to do any major wear in the trucks. Now getting a Kaydee coupler in them is a PITA! Cheers Mike
I do agree that the Atlas drives probably run smoother, but I like the Athearn drives because I can re-gear them with Earnst reductions and they will all still run the same for multi unit setups.
I also have 6 Bachmann/Lionel GP30 shells that I am mounting on Athearn GP35 chassis. I have one done and the GP30 shell sits on the Athearn Chassis very well.
