I was down at the LHS the other day and he had some of the new IHC 2-8-2s in stock. The ones with the RP25 wheels.
He test ran one for me and I must admit, I was impressed with the running. Nice slow starting speed, and detail looked acceptable. And the price was right. Half the price of what Athearn were asking, five or more years, ago for their problem prone 2-8-2.
Anyone else have anything to say about them, positive and negative?
I have four Athearn 2-8-2s and one 4-6-2, zero IHC 2-8-2s, and no regrets.
But, I think the IHCs are okay. I got a couple of their 0-8-0s and upgraded them a little. They still lack a little detail too, but they have a good mechanism, and if you can get them for a decent price I wouldn’t hesitate. I got 3 of the Athearns for a ‘song’ after the gear scare. I bought one gear from NWSL, and got 2 replacement wheelsets from Atheran/Horizon, and am quite satisfied.
Here is my one word review of this loco…
Meh.
David B
Perhaps you could elaborate…
Imagine curled upper lip, disdainful tone, and the word coming from the mouth. I think that is what is implied…mm…nahhh!
I enjoyed my older IHC Mike, but I dropped it from spline roadbed I was testing…it was a risk…and it never performed terribly well after that. It’s response with a Tsunami was very good. I think they should be a good start for some kit bashing in several instances.
The last review of an IHC steam engine I saw was the Model Railroader review
http://www.trains.com/mrr/default.aspx?c=a&id=1004
The review indicated that IHC had produced a quite acceptable generic 2-10-2. Most of the readers know that the IHC line are indeed extremely generic in nature.
I would like to know if the re-released 2-8-2’s have also been updated. Given the price of these engines say in relation to the Heritage steamers made by Walthers some of us may consider the IHC engines.
There have been a number of modelers who have kitbashed IHC engines and I am sure they would be interested as to the quality of these as well.
I don’t have one of the new ones, but I do have one of the fairly recent Premier models. I did a review of it here: http://cs.trains.com/forums/795011/ShowPost.aspx
I’d expect the new ones would have nothing but improvements over mine.[:D]
I believe the updates only consisted of the RP-25 blackened wheels and side rods and the DCC plug. Other than that, I think they are the same loco.
The 2-10-2 seems to be a whole different class of model.
If that’s the case then IMHO I’d wait for an Athearn, BLI or Trix Mikado to go on sale and pick one of those up instead. Far and above I believe the best 2-8-2 on the market these days is the Trix/Marklin model. Sound, DCC, excellent running and a good amount of weight for pulling, just look around long enough for a deal and one should pop up, that’s how I got mine.
Cheers!
~METRO
I guess then the 2-8-2’s have not been updated to the same standard as the 2-10-2.
If the updates are only the blackened wheels and side rods and the DCC plug then loathar is correct and the 2-10-2 is a whole different class.
Yes I would assume the Trix is a nice engine and would not be surprised if it was judged to be the best 2-8-2 in production. However, I have limited funds and the Trix is out of scope.
What would 1 Trix = 3 IHC 2-8-2’s in price?
Don, Tony’s Train Exchange had dozens of the Trix Mikes on sale for a mere $225 at one point. I purchased one in Sep 2006 from them. I think they have run through them by now. I didn’t like the early Loksound decoder 3.0v, so I placed a Tsunami in it. Wow!
I’d say it is a bit light on its feet. My IHC Mike can outperform it in terms of pulling power.
-Crandell
BLIs Blueline Mikados are soon to be released. In my opinion they look to be of a lot better value then the IHC engines. Not very expensive either.
I kind of like IHC’s 2-10-2 but the 2-8-2 looks like a toy in the few pictures that I’ve seen. Since I haven’t looked at in person It’s hardly a statement that I can be a 100% sure on.
Magnus