IHC O scale engine house mfr?

[OT Dean]

I bought the IHC “Big 2-Stall Engine House (1:48)” kit on sale back in the ‘90s.  It has since had its box graphics changed and sold by Atlas O and Mike’s Train House.  This is a well designed kit, a mold-engravers’ triumph, which looks like it was designed to be reconfigured.  The brick window panels, eight in the kit, have brick cornices and footers (sorry, I don’t know the architectural nomenclature) with round-top window openings, all joinable with 3’ wide brick pilasters.  The two ends are one-piece, with two arched doorways each.  The sides and ends are joined by special brick pilasters, mitered at 45º where they meet the special mitered pilasters on the wall end pilasters, making a lo-ong engine house, a whopping 11-1/2x27-1/2”!   For O-scalers, that’s 45’x110’!

 

Sure, the parts were molded this way to avoid warping those big O scale pieces, but it sure seems made to be reconfigured (read “kitbashed”).  I plan to shorten the house by one window panel and will join these panels to the sides of the ends, cutting a lower pitch to them to make a shop area.  It will be a shorter, wider structure, 18x20-3/4”, or 72x83 O scale feet.  I still marvel at the adaptability of this kit and I’m curious about who actually manufactured it.  International Hobby Corporation marketed it here first, then Atlas O, then MTH, but who actually designed and manufactured it?  I lost most of my model railroad and historical society magazines in a disastrous move and my memory is spotty, at best (old age!).  I know Heljan and Pola and several other European manufacturers based models on real structures, selling them Over There.

 

Can anyone shed any light on this?  (BYW, anyone modeling O scale steam could consider this versatile kit, if he could find one.  I’ve seen them listed for as much as $94.95 at an online store (out of stock) and have always been happy I paid only 3/4 the retail price of $39.95 when I see them go for a lot more than the original price on eBay.  Thanks for any help you can give me, and remember: Model Railroading is Fun!

 

Deano

[Anonymous]

Deano,

if your engine house looks anywhere like this

it´s been manufactured by the Heljan in Denmark. They still make it!

[DSchmitt]

Read that IHC out of Business years ago  But they appear to be back 

Company Profile  updated 2-5-16 

https://www.thespruce.com/international-hobby-corporation-ihc-profile-2382238

From above Found this website - No O scale - Site appears to be active 

http://www.ihc-hobby.com/

Try contacting them or ATLAS.   MTH enginehouse does not appear to be same kit.

 

 

[OT Dean]

Thanks, Ulrich.  I had a hunch it was Heljan, as I built several structure kits by them during the years I modeled in HO, even had some with extra parts I could use for other structure projects.  I'm having a ball measuring and armchairing how to turn it into the Mineral Point & Northern Janesville, Wisconsin, engine house!

Deano