IHC SD-24?

Hello, Mike.

Congratulations on your purchases. Yes, production of the IHC SD24 is based upon the Tyco tooling albeit with some modifications. Interestingly, HO SD24s were originally introduced by Atlas in 1975 and Tyco in 1977. Many folks thought the Tyco locomotive was merely a copy of the Atlas unit but many detail differences can be noted when comparing them side by side disproving that theory. I believe your IHC SD24 was built by our good friends at Mehano.

I share your sentiments regarding the accidental deletion of your thread which evolved into what I believe was the most informative and enlightening thread about our hobby's history which has ever graced the pages of this forum....such a loss.

Bob    

When I was little, my family had a hobby shop in Philadelphia, where one of the bigger sellers we had was AHM.  In fact, Bernie Paul and my father knew each other, so we would sometimes be invited to the warehouse in North Philly to pick out some of the seconds and stock that was not going into boxes to be sold.  I can still see barrels full of gorgeous Rivarossi steam locomotives and GG-1s with little paint blemishes not going into boxes, but we would get some to run on the store's layout to demonstrate the AHM stock we had.

I was so incredibly happy when I saw IHC come into being, as Mehano did a great job of picking up where AHM left off.  My HO B&O President Washington and heavyweights are IHC, and it is simply gorgeous!  Not to mention, a very smooth runner that gets better with every run!

In fact, when IHC would have sales, I would pick up a loco or passenger cars.  I think I also did the tuscan GG-1 and Fleet of Modernism cars from IHC as well!  

Running those takes me back to when I was little, watching the AHM trains run in our store.

On another note, I seem to think that a company named Pemco had some of these locomotives, notably the GG-1 and the 4-8-2 that IHC would later put out.

Eddie:

Thanks for sharing your recollections with us. I enjoyed reading them.

In the early 80s, Pemco introduced its model of the GG1. As Pemco turned out to be a short lived endeavor, the tooling for the GG1 passed to IHC. IHC released a few variations of the G over the years. The best version to get is the "Premier" model which features dual can motors. The combination and two motors and substantial weight gives the locomotive impressive pulling power. I have a Premier model decorated for the Conrail/NJDOT 4876. These models were built by Mehano. I'll have to post pictures of my 4876 one of these days.

Bob   

You're very welcome!  Even though I was a kid in the rise of TYCO sets and AHM, through the store and my father's affinity for earlier makers, I grew up with quite an education with things from Scale Craft, John English, Mantua, Penn Line, Hobbyline on up to the 1980's with Pemco, TYCO, AHM, Bachmann.

We even had to weather the period when Rivarossi used some brittle plastic on their drivers.  Imagine seeing a Cab Forward majestically rounding a curve, only to see the drive rods drop and the drivers just fall apart!  I had the Pacific painted for the Daylight, and she just had her drivers disintegrate!

For the GG-1's, I was able to gather a collection of pretty much every GG-1 offered by AHM, which included the ones in the boxes made to resemble wood grain.  They are simply gorgeous!  My favorite has to be the blue American Railroads one for 1969.

IHC did a great job with what they put out, actually.  Mehano produced some very nice trains for them.  Their passenger cars upgraded with lighting and interiors are quite beautiful.

The engine may be sourced by Mehano...but it says made in China...not Slovenia.  The cars do too and may be old Rivarossi tooling.  I await Model Power's new releases utilizing Tyco tooling.  Bringing back fond memories.  I was always envious of my friends who had Tyco (brown box) even though the stuff never worked..I loved the "look."

Notice the vintage AHM switch that came from IHC Texas as well.  Marked made in USA??

As far as we've been able to tell, the tooling for IHC's heavyweights was newly developed and not previously used for another company's product line. A few of the car types will appear similar to Rivarossi's models but, when compared side by side, they are different models. It is, of course, quite possible Rivarossi's models may have provided some "inspiration" when the tooling for the IHC equipment was cut. Given the amount of supplier and tooling crossover between importer product lines which occurred over several decades, tracing the origins of some of these models can be a very challenging task.

I love that carded brass rail switch still mint in the AHM packaging. Keep that just as is for an interesting conversation piece.

Bob     

Mike:

Since you like equipment made with old tooling, have you seen the Model Power F2? It is built using the old Marx tooling.

Bob

I have the Amtrak Model Power F2 from Marx tooling.  I like that BN though...maybe pick one up.

Yeah the carded switch is just that, a timecapsule from the past.

I wish I could figure out what Life Like stuff is Penn Line derived. They seem to have several F Unit tools they use.

Quite a few of Life-Like's models have their origins in other product lines such as American Train & Track, Penn Line and Varney. The F7 is a former Penn Line model and is fairly easy to find. Check out the following link to the Life-Like section on the HO Scale Trains resource. It contains an excellent summary by equipment type including model origins. Just click on the listings in the left hand column for the information pertaining to that particular model.

http://tycotrain.tripod.com/li...sresource/index.html

Bob