IHC HO scale GG-1 review

This review is on IHC's HO scale GG-1 electric by Mehano.

The 80 foot, 4,620HP GG-1 electric had a 10-year production life from 1934 through 1943, with 139 units built, all of which were for the Pennsylvania Railroad. They became Penn Central units after the merger with the New York Central, and later Conrail after another merger. Many were sold to Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. Although they were rated at 4,620HP, they could have power outputs as high as 9,500HP under the right conditions. All were retired by the early 80s due to expensive maintenance, as well as 50 years of service and millions of miles traveled which caused cracking in the frames. 16 GG-1s are left in existance, with some back in their original PRR paint, and others left to fall apart from lack of upkeep. There has long been talk of restoring one to operating condition, but as far as I know, nothing has been done yet.

This GG-1 is from IHC's more recent Premier series of engines, which include a highly upgraded drive and Magic-Mate universal couplers. The current IHC/Mehano shell is often mistaken as being the old GG-1 by Rivarossi. The shell used by Mehano was actually made by Pemco in the 1980s, who tended to copy everyone else's work rather than do their own. I've heard that Mehano (the manufacturer) is closing, and has already laid off 120 employees, so this model may be gone forever soon.

Anyway, let's get to all the details of this model. The shell and detail overall look very good, with fine molding all around, rather than the usual more bulky looking detail of Mehano's diesels. The shell captures the look of the GG-1 very well, with a full-length body unlike many other previous GG-1s, which were shortened to handle tight curves more easily. Most of the detail of the real GG-1s is all there, which is easy to do since there was never much there in the first place. Except for the horns, pantographs and coupler lift bars, all the detail is cast on. Although most of the detail is not separate, it still looks very decent (near Proto 1000 quality). The finely molded cool-air instakes represent the earlier GG-1s. Later GG-1s had their cool-air intakes moved upwards due to electrical-shorting problems from melting ice in Winter. The front and rear windows are mounted flush with the shell, but the side windows only make it to the inside wall. The operational formed wire and stamped metal pantographs look excellent, and are spring-loaded to make good contact with overhead wires. Small locks hold them down when not in use. The pilots used are the flat style, which I'm guessing were used more in freight service than passenger, although I could be wrong. The cast-on detail is some of the very best around, but the separate coupler lift bars could have been better. The trucks have the same high level of excellent cast-on detail as the pilots, and are molded in black. The drive wheels also have the proper detail for GG-1s. The body's PRR tuscan red paint is very smoothly and evenly applied, and the matte finish apparently hides dust very well (until you take a picture, anyway). The long yellow stripes, lettering, numbering, and PRR shields are all clearly and sharply printed and look excellent, but are a little too shiny as is usual with most manufacturers. The cabs are fully open except for the large number of wires inside, so a crew could be added easily if you ever wished to do so.

The GG-1 is a very smooth runner, with a full 12-wheel-drive mechanism and dual 3-pole skewed armature motors (each of which have a brass flywheel). The Magic-Mate couplers, although unrealistic, can couple to both X2F and knuckle couplers, making them fairly useful at times. I mentioned earlier that the Premier GG-1s have a highly upgraded drive mechanism. The older version had only a single motor and 8-wheel-drive, no flywheels, less weight, X2F couplers, and possibly less electrical pickup, making these newer ones a massive improvement. At 12 volts running free, the speed was 115 scale MPH, which is only 5 MPH faster than the prototypes maximum 110 with passenger gearing. The minimum sustained speed was about 4.75 scale MPH, which is excellent considering the 7:1 gear ratio. Maximum current draw running free at 12 volts was only 0.13 amps, and the maximum stall current was near 1.2A. Operation was smooth, quiet, and steady at all speeds. Electrical pickup is with 12 wheels (8 on each drive truck, and 2 on each lead/trailing truck), and works reliably across my poor switches. The wheel flanges are over-sized, but still small enough to run on Code 83 track (as claimed by IHC). A small switch on the bottom of the frame allows overhead wires to be used in addition to one rail. Even with the 80 scale foot length, the GG-1 had no problems with 18" radius curves, and the truck-mounted couplers allow it to pull cars easily on those tight curves (this is one engine where they can get away with that). The frame and trucks are made from plastic, but the design makes it very sturdy. The weight comes from the massive block of solid lead in the middle of the frame. The traction should be plenty for a realistic load of freight or passenger cars, but I don't have the track to test it. All electrical parts are hard-wired, with a crude (but perfectly functional) directional lighting system. The lights are very dim up to about 9 or 10 volts, which is really only a problem with DC layouts. All areas are electrically isolated, so DCC installation is fairly easy. The open cabs can be used to house a large speaker or two if you decide to install sound.

Although not the best around, IHC's GG-1s are excellent models of their prototypes, with good detail and excellent running characteristics. They beat all other "affordable" GG-1s (especially Tyco's) in all areas, and are even available in a number of fantasy paint schemes, allowing them to be run as a "what if?" engine on many other model railroads.

[NOTE] This isn't in the reader reviews section, since I'm not currently a subscriber. I'm sure it can be copied and pasted by a subscriber here, if anyone wants it posted there. (Just make sure I get credit for writing it.)