The transplant was successful

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Um, this really doesn't have anything to do with Bachmann trains, but I'm feeling so proud of myself this morning that I need to share, so please bear with me.

Anybody remember, maybe a dozen years ago, IHC came out with a line of old-time 4-4-0s in 14 different versions? I bought two, direct from IHC, one painted for the B&O "William Mason," and one painted for the Central Pacific "Jupiter" (not the historically correct blue version, the inaccurate red version, just because I like it).

The "Mason" ran well right out of her box and has never given a bit of trouble. The "Jupiter" wouldn't run, so she went back to IHC for an exchange. The second engine was always a marginal runner--and I'm being charitable here. I should have sent it back, too, but I didn't, so it just sat around in its box for the past dozen years.

Meanwhile, I've always suspected, for reasons that will be pretty obvious to anyone who knows these engines, that they had been made for IHC by the same manufacturer who built the Rivarossi Virginia & Truckee engines, although the IHC models never seemed to perform as well as their Rivarossi cousins. 

Nevertheless, on a hunch, I bought a late-model (red box) Rivarossi "Reno" on eBay. I probably paid more for it than I should have; it was the version with the tender lettered "K.C., St. L. & C.," and the engine had other cosmetic problems (missing whistle, missing air pump, no coupler on the rear of the tender, missing a tender step). On the other hand, out of the box it ran like a humdinger.

Well, last evening I tested a theory. I attempted to mount the engine superstructure (boiler and cab) from my non-functioning "Jupiter" onto the running gear of the "Reno." It worked. With a simple swap of tender bodies and installing a coupler on the tender, I now have a "Jupiter" that goes "like buttah," and the old IHC mechanism and the "Reno" superstructure can go in the parts box.

I may make a few more cosmetic adjustments, maybe replace the plastic bell with a real brass one, but I'm feeling well pleased with my effort, probably more than I should be. 

[Yampa Bob]

Jeff
Congratulations, it's ok to toot your own horn. As they say, nothing ventured nothing gained. 

Bob

[TonyD]

This is what is needed here, some stories of intiative! On the other thread Mike used the term 'forumites'. Too much armchair autopsies on other people's failure to ..try... Johnson bar's switch is the 1st 'mechanical'- or 'minimum' job all the new modelers must try. Asking for new lines to be produced even if there are only one or two interested parties on the planet ain't gonna happen. If you need something you can't find RTR, you MAKE it happen, not sit there an moan like a...forumite...,( I like this one, forumite!) I intend to use it often... suits a lot of people on here, too much time at the monitor, not enough at the workbench...btw, I found a Rivarossi Pulman in CPR... didn't know AHM or IHC did this sceme.... but with a jewel's loop, I found that some modeler (bet he wasn't a forumite') airbrushed and decaled and clearcoated this thing to Rivarossi silkscreen standards. I haven't yet heard someone ask how to aply or improve thier painting or decaling skills, but a bunch of 'forumites' demand a production line to suit thier whims...yah, for a price, like, sell the 1st born kid? BTW, forumites need to use search engines more. Someone said there wasn't enough Victorian era models out there, last night on ebay I found everything I bought over the years- Pocher, Rivarossi, AHM, IHC. Mantua, Tyco, Concor, MDC/ Roundhouse. Lifelike and...Bachmann! Those were just the woodburning era RTR's, never mind the craftsman kits. And I don't even have a real computor, this is a msntv affair.  OK folks, log off, get back to the workbench.... come up with some modeling questions........ like the 2-4-4-2 logger mentioned on another thread, like from 2 AHM docksides and a pvc pipe boiler? that was one I did in the 80's, before they even made bra$$ ones... (I like the dollar signs some one typed in a thread too!)

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Jeff
Congratulations, it's ok to toot your own horn. As they say, nothing ventured nothing gained. 

Bob

Thanks, Bob. The next effort by "Dr. Frankenstein" will probably be to try to substitute a black boiler for the original sky-blue    on my Mantua 4-8-0.

Jeff

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

I haven't yet heard someone ask how to aply or improve thier painting or decaling skills.

I shouldn't get myself started on decals. I can't even find decals anymore in any local hobby shop that I can get to. I've seen a huge listing of decals on the web site for Caboose Hobbies, but I hesitate to try to order sight-unseen in case the pack doesn't actually include what I need.

[SteamGene]

Decals are inexpensive.  Champ is still in business and answers e-mails.  (Heck, if you live in Minot, ND, almost anything livens up the party! 
Gene

[Yampa Bob]

Tony, I like the term "Forumite" also.  There seems to be an unwritten law that we must accept the status quo.   It's like "you can't do that" or "you shouldn't do this".
The way I figure, it's my money and no one tells me how to spend it.

I have a brand new 2-8-0 here on the bench, it just may get chopped up to make what I want.  No one else is going to do it for me.  If it gets ruined, so what? I can always get another one.

Keep up the good work Jeff.

Bob

[NickelPlate759]

Hi Jeff. I've always wondered what type of motor Rivarossi put in those red box old-timers? I assume it's a decent can motor from your account. They didn't produce too many of them, so they usually go for a lot when they show up for auction.

IHC used the old Rivarossi tooling with minor changes like different sized screw holes. I have an IHC Reno that runs great.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Hi Jeff. I've always wondered what type of motor Rivarossi put in those red box old-timers? I assume it's a decent can motor from your account. They didn't produce too many of them, so they usually go for a lot when they show up for auction.

Yes, it's a very decent motor. The bidding is high for a couple of these engines on eBay right now.

IHC used the old Rivarossi tooling with minor changes like different sized screw holes. I have an IHC Reno that runs great.

It's a puzzle to me what was manufactured when. After I bought the IHC engines, I bought a "red box" "Genoa" and a set of passenger cars from a mail-order dealer that is no longer in the train selling business. This is actually the fourth "Genoa" I've had. In terms of appearance, the biggest difference from earlier "editions" of the engine include they finally included the control lever from the whistle/top of the steam dome to the cab roof, and the pilot is red. It also runs amazingly--so much so that I'm sort of in the market for another one; I'd like to change the name and number on one and run it as the "Reno" "as-built" in 1872.

But, as I said, I bought this "red box" "Genoa" after I bought the IHC engines, so who knows? 

Keep up the good work Jeff.

Bob

Thanks, Bob! 

[Inder]

Congratulations on the successful operation soldier!!

What the heck is humdinger?

[SteamGene]

A humdinger is something that, in Japan, would be Ichiban.
Gene

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Congratulations on the successful operation soldier!!

What the heck is humdinger?

Thanks!

A humdinger is a smooth, fast-moving creature native to Central Pennsylvania. Sort of in the way the jackalope is native to Wyoming. ...

[Inder]

Well I certainly got two locos that come to mind that run like humdingers.

Both of these are old locomotives that I purchased recently.

The first one is an Atlas RP that I bought for 30 dollars at the LHS and man it's small compared to just about any other diesel but it pulls like a mule and fast as hell.

The second one is an old Kato U-boat N scale that I bought on Ebay.  Loud as heck but man it can pull another loco running on the opposite direction.

Those are my two humdingers.

[cmf1965]

IIRC, IHC was scheduled to release a 2-8-8-2 steam loco. This would have been around 1995/1996 maybe. There was an announcement in MR new product news. It apparently didn't materialize, but I thought it a good idea, as they already had the basic "2-8-2" platform ready. Maybe it got bogged down with the cost of a new boiler, etc.

Now that I think more about it, maybe they were announcing a Challenger-4-6-6-4???!!! Does anyone recall this?

These were announced about the same time that Model Expo in Pocono, PA, took over distributorship of Rivarossi. (Model Expo relocated to Hollywood, FL  around 1996?) That's when Rivarrossi steam loco's came with the new RP25 wheels, & the Japanese five-pole motor in the boiler.

I have experimented myself with a few "Morphodite" creation's...although they are still pending!!! (Y-E-A-H R-I-G-H-T!!!)

CMF1965