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 Posted - May 26 2013 : 01:00:17 AM
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Anybody here a big fan of IHC steamers? I see them alot and wonder if they're worth the money. Not picky as to proto type, just has to run good and pull a decent load.
" Heck with counting 'em rivets, TRAINS ARE FOR FUN! Not called the Mad Scientist for nothing either!"
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Posted - May 26 2013 : 02:04:14 AM
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They're excellent runners, and look decent enough. Very reliable, too.
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Posted - May 26 2013 : 09:01:39 AM
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| I find them to be very reliable and they are quite readily available for very good prices.
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Posted - May 26 2013 : 6:34:54 PM
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No complaints here,,,reliable, easy to DCC and remotor...
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Posted - May 27 2013 : 04:49:04 AM
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IHC engines were made by Mehano in Slovenia, both of which are currently out of business.
Most of them use older tooling - the light Pacific/Mikado dates to the late '60s, for instance - with upgraded drives. Some of them were always Mehano and some started elsewhere; the 2-8-0 was the cheaper of the two Tyco castings most commonly seen as the tender drive Chatanooga 0-8-0.
To get more variety out of them they mixed things around, resulting in a few cheesy and odd-looking engines, but the basic locomotives aren't bad. That 4-4-0 above started out as a Pemco tender-drive SP prototype 2-6-0. They did the 4-4-0 chassis for it, then did a camelback boiler casting that fit the same drives.
The Hudson uses in that case the tender from what was once a Pemco C&O 4-8-2, but I'd have to examine one to figure out what they did for the boiler. The drive was new to it.
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Posted - May 27 2013 : 06:37:10 AM
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Even the Pemco Mountain got a pancake tender drive, which is why the bottom of the coal bunker on the Vandy tender is horizontal instead of angling up in the back.
The Mehano Light Pacific first appeared in AHM's line in 1977; I remember all the press when they came out. The Mikado first appeared with a smoke unit in 1981 according to Tony Cook's site, which sounds right. Unfortunately his picture of the GN Mike is a Rivarossi.
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Posted - May 27 2013 : 11:47:32 PM
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| Yes, but the light Pacific was in Life-Like's line before that.
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Posted - May 28 2013 : 10:44:25 AM
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quote:IHC engines were made by Mehano in Slovenia, both of which are currently out of business.
Originally posted by lvrr325Â -Â May 27 2013Â :Â 04:49:04 AM
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um Mehano is still in buisness & IHC is a different company in Texas
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Posted - May 28 2013 : 11:24:41 AM
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Mehano,
Was originally a Yugoslavian company. Full name was MEHANOTEHNIKA. Their early engines were labeled Made in Yugoslavia . Same communist country as the Yugo car was built in. When the county broke up it ended up in Slovenia. AHM, Life Like, Model Power, Tyco, Lionel, IHC, and Mehano all sold models from this company. They were good runners, for the most part. You can still buy a few new units from Train World.
http://www.trainworldonline.com/catalog/mehano/
Regards,
John
*******************************************************************************
It was not terrorist, It was well armed movie critics <> Susan Rice
Edited by - JRG1951 on May 28 2013 11:25:24 AM
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Posted - May 28 2013 : 8:07:45 PM
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Owner of IHC died and while I see some references to an IHC in Texas it does not appear to be directly related. The big clue was when leftover stock appeared in Ollie's Outlet stores about three years ago at blowout prices - they were selling retail for about what dealer cost would have been just a few years prior.
Mehano went bankrupt while in the process of moving from Slovenia to China and I've never heard any update of what became of them or of the tooling. None of these engines have been marketed in at least five years.
Bottom line, none of these engines can be bought new now except from dealers who ordered in large quantity and still have old stock left. It's few and far between at big shows, where it used to be all over the place.
Edited by - lvrr325 on May 28 2013 8:09:17 PM
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Posted - May 29 2013 : 2:42:55 PM
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IHC steamers to me, were GREAT! They're a GREAT base model to make something other then what they were listed as, with a good price, to not worry about a big cost, a GREAT detailing base, good running, not bad pulling power for metal to metal wheels (NO traction bands) Easy to DCC and remotor......
I've got MANY of them.......
THEN to add to it, you have IHC's models from Slovania, by MeHano, HOWEVER, you could have gotten the same 4-6-2 at the time BEFORE IHC from Life-Like, AND Model Power! I've got models of all 3! Altho, the Model Power version, has a slightly different motor in it from Model Power factory, then I have seen otherwise.
Bernie Paul had passed away headed to a Bank for the day, and sadly that's when IHC was over with, (I WISH that some other company would have taken them over, or a sibling or family member would have jumped in where Bernie left off.......As they were GREAT models for the type work and things I do at a decent rate in cost!
Mike, is right, I bought ALL my IHC passenger cars for $4.00 EACH at Ollie's in LaVale, Maryland on a vacation I took some months after Bernie Paul died...NICE cars for an even nicer price, (Yeah, I'll take 50 cares) and I did just that when I seen them, Now, I got 4 cars left for my own collection I sold the rest, for $8.00 each!  BUT......Still, I can't complain, and the people those got sold to still got a deal even tho, I doubled the price! I figured it this way, $8.00 was the most I'd take, for each car, you can always lower the price if they don't sell, but you CAN NOT raise the cost.......I thought, if they don't sell at $8, then I'll lower them to $6....But not less then $4......I didn't have to lower the price, the lot was gone in 48 hours from my hands to local guys! I now wished I would have been ale to buy more at what I paid as I took the whole shelf that they had!
~John
Many have tried to, and failed, ya just can't repair stupid...
Do NOT try to Idiot-Proof anything!!!! God, will simply create a better......IDIOT!
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 Posted - October 27 2021 : 5:02:39 PM
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No complaints here, reliable, easy to DCC and remotor...
Originally posted by shaygetz on May 26 2013.
Gorgeous engine.
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