IHC Hudson?

[JohnT14808]

Tommr....I did buy one of these Hudsons. I purchased the C&NW one and while I have not had the time to put all the detail parts on, that particular engine received many, many good comments during our recent County Fair. It can only pull seven cars up our 2.5% grades, but boy it sure looks nice doing it!! The livery of C&NW on this engine is just one of the cleanest looking locos.....and I like the detail, or lack of it. I'm not a prototypical runner. I just wanted something that looked sharp, and this does that.
DC only, so I am shopping around for a decoder. One project at a time......I did not get the passenger cars, so I can't comment on those.

[tommyr]

Hi There;
Thanx for all the info Guys. I was looking at the Canadian Pacific heavy weights & loco.but based on the above I will definetly pass on these.
Tom

[bogp40]

If it's a Premier w/ RP25 flanges and can motor, they run very good but are lacking in detail. The passenger cars are not worth it. By the time you change out trucks/ wheelsets, screw around w/ the couplers weight and detail, you could buy a Walther's or Branchline.
Bob K.

[Anonymous]

IHC locos are on the lower end of the quality and detail spectrum, but are generally decent runners. If you are into super detail, you'll have to add the details to them yourself, since the details are lacking as it comes out of the box. Also, IHC does not follow a particular prototype, so this is not a model of an actual locomotive. In fact, IHC sells that particular locomotive in many roadnames that never even had Hudsons! If you can overlook these particular things, then you probably won't be disappointed with your purchase. If you are looking for a model of a Santa Fe or NYC Hudson and want to detail it to be fairly accurate, it is not really a very good model to start with, since it does not accurately represent any prototype Hudson.

As for the passenger cars, they are also on the lower end of the quality spectrum. The details are okay, but nowhere near outstanding. As with the IHC locomotives, some of what they offer are models for which there is not an actual prototype. They offer heavyweight, smoothside and corrugated side passenger cars in many different roadnames, even though not all the roads ran these particular cars. They don't have interiors or lights, so if you want either of these, you'll have to add it. They come with plastic wheels and horn-hook couplers, so you'll most likely want to change these things unless you don't mind those things. If you do change the wheels, you need to get IHC specific wheels which are a scale 31" wheel. Most passenger car wheels are 36", so you have to be careful which ones you use. If you are looking for Heavyweight passenger cars, I think the Bachmann Spectrum models offer a lot more for the money, since they come with metal wheels, lights and interiors. They also come with EZ mate couplers, but these aren't much better than the horn hooks on the IHCs, so you'll probably want to change them eventually. The price is a bit higher than the IHCs, but once you outfit the IHCs with interiors, lights, metal wheels and better couplers, they come out nearly even and have better detail.

As with most things, you get what you pay for. I think that IHC products (with exception of their diesel locomotives) represent a decent value as long as you don't set your expectations too high. As was stated above, however, some of the Bachmann Spectrum models can be found within the same price range and offer higher quality and better detail, so with that in mind, I think you could do better with Bachmann Spectrum than with IHC. Just my [2c].

[Anonymous]

Not worth the time of day for that price, you can get a superior HO steamer for about or lower then that price, Bachman 4-8-2's, 2-8-0's and 4-6-0's can be had for that price and they are star preformers that accually HAVE detail unlike IHC.

[tommyr]

Hi There;
IHC is advertising this loco on sale for $99.98 & 8 coaches for $59.98. My question is how good is this loco?
Thanx;Tom