Is anyone experianced with International Hobby Corp. train sets. What are the quality of their engines and passenger cars?
They locomotive is a EMD SD-24 Allwheel drive.
Thanks,
David
David,
IHC’s products are just about the finest out-house wall-paper three dollars could buy. Thats how good their products are, as for the SD-24…spend a couple more bucks and buy an Atlas.
Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}
This might be interesting reading
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=65222
Alexander
IT depends on what you want the train set for - if you were going to give ti to a child, yeah, then it would be a good starting place, but for the serious modeller, I along with many other people would advise you to look elsewhere!
I had a rake of their smoothsided steamlined passenger cars in SP Daylight livery. The bogies were appalling as was the coupling system - no kadee’s and not very close coupled. You can purchase better bogies, kadee conversions and a lighting unit, but by the time you have paid the extra you could ahve got yourself a passenger car that is is superior and requires no alterations. My advice, leave IHC for the kids.
Regards,
Stephen.
I own the following IHC products and rate them as follows;
Premier GG-1 Looks good and runs good. Premier 4-8-2 and 2-8-0 Steam engines, Look good and run good. Several sets of IHC Passenger cars. Look good but require work to get up to a reliable standard. Bought them on sale for about sixty dollars per 8 car set. paint jobs look good but cars come unweighted and with hideous couplers and wheels. Added appropriate weights, metal wheels McHenry Couplers designed for easy snap in replacement and drilled out truck and bolster to bolt trucks to body. This allows for adjustment. The cars took some time but they are very reliable now. So for about a twelve dollar investment including the car itself, it is not too bad of a deal.
Premier C-628 ?, Save your money. runs too fast and body tooling is about thirty years old .
Good Luck, John
The best thing about IHC is their structures. Many of them are old Tyco or other manufactures and usually can be picked up at a really cheap. They are good for kitbashing and are reasonably detailed. They put them on sale a lot of times during the year. I have a few of the passenger cars and they look fairly good. Just don’t have a fan blowing across your layout. Under weight is the word but for $7 a car what do you want. Forget running them in their stock condition.
RMax1
IHC steam units, Ok. Freight cars, so-so. Passenger units, worth buying them from somewhere else. Diesel units, avoid at all costs.
Anyone have/used their Mother Hubbard engines? I saw one on eBay and was thinking about getting it.
Kevin
The SD-24 is the old Tyco shell. Not too bad for its day but its day has passed. The drive is fair. The old Atlas / Roco SD-24 was / is much better and with the new Atlas SD-24 available that would be the way to go.
Jim
I have the 2-6-0 Southern freight set. The 2-6-0 in the train set is very nice quality. The cars look ok, but they’re poor rollers. I tried putting Intermountain metal wheels in one, but the design of the trucks keeps any wheels from rolling freely. Replacing the trucks should fix that.[:D] The track is steel, so it isn’t the best out there, but there’s a bag of little clips that hold the track together nice and tight, so it works fine on carpet.[:D] The power-pack, although I usually avoid saying negative things, is a piece of crud. It constantly puts out 18 volts, and adjusts the engines speed by weakening or strengthening the current it puts out, so low current draw engines can’t run slowly at all. It would be best to replace the power-pack.
The SD24 in the set you want is a decent engine. I’ve got an old AHM diesel with the same drive in it (both were made by Mehano), and it runs very smoothly and quietly.[:D] The can motors in IHC’s engines are all smooth, quiet, powerful, draw low current, and have good low speed control. So the engine should be a very nice runner.[:D] The shell was originally made by Tyco, and, except for the open pilots, is a decent shell.[:D] All of IHC’s diesels run pretty fast, but I found a $2 way to easily slow them down.[:D]
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=57323
The passenger cars may roll better with IHC’s 31" metal wheels, sold seperately.[:D]
Hope this helps![:D][:D][:D]
I purchased some of their diesels. Some has horn/hooks, others had kunckle couplers. They were all listed as Premier. One had a broken step ( a little glue would fix that) several ran poorly. I wrote IHC several letters without a reply. Then I wrote the Boss as listed in their ad in MR. I did get a call saying he was the Boss an would get back to me. Glad I didn’t hold my breath. I have purchased nothing from them in years and don’t plan to again. I get locos from Trainworld. Phil
I purchased several of their steam engines and almost immediately sent them back. this was 2 years ago. I then took a chance and purchased one of their new 2-10-2’s that are DCC ready and LOVE it. I’m not an IHC lover but I’ll give credit where credit is due, they did a nice job with this locomotive.
Ok I am familiar with their structures,
They seem good for a basic kit structure.
What I am thinking is having a carneval scene/diorama with the IHC Straites
Show train and the carnival/Circus around it. It would only run occasionally so performance is not that big a deal (other than I don`t care for junk).
How is their detail? this would be about a 2’x3’ footprint.
OH, and the entire set would be $40.00
Ups to IHC: They are smooth runners. I have a UP 4-6-2 (semi-streamlined) a Rock Island 2-8-0, and an Illinois Central 2-6-0 (premiere series yellow box). In September 2001 I bought the 4-6-2; still runs smooth like it did when I got it home. The only noise the 2-8-0 makes is the clank of the drivers going up and down. The 2-6-0 sounds old, but it runs smooth. Because of these, I’m tempted to buy one of their diesels (which are on their website for about 35 bucks on sale). If you’re lucky, you can pick’em up for 40-50 bucks (trrust me-they’re worth it). The passenger cars are usually $8 each, but they do need some adjustments, such as couplers and wheel width.
Downs: They do not have traction tires. They don’t pull much, but they’re fun to double-head.
Quality? What quality? IHC has NO quality.
However, I can’t speak from experience on their steam locomotives.
Matt
I say stay away from IHC. Terrible throw away crap. Get atlas, Kato, or bachmann spectrum.