ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.
Didn't IHC have the C415 in many (often incorrect) roads? They would have been a fairly recent item. I also believe ATT (?) did one may years ago in plastic. There was probably at least one run by a brass manufacturer .
HO scale is easy. No one makes one in N scale though. I have 3 in HO scale. This one was an old Life Like model. I believe IHC made them too. I know there was a company that made one in Brass. The only thing, is if it had Hi-ad trucks, your out of luck. I am currently working on custom making a set of Hi-ad trucks for the C-415.
Good news. I just won an auction for 3 C415 in Rock Island colors #418, #415 which will be renumbered to 423 for my project. and an un numbered one that will get the number 417 to match 418.
#418 looks near mint.
#415 will need rail repair.
#417 will need decals and rail repair
I am not sure of the manufacture but Mehanotehnika is listed.
I did some research on #417 and #418. They are in tandom in a few photo's but #417 seems to be the more popular for transfer service.
The RS3 will need rail repair as well. I bought it from consignment and had a look. The trucks and body are in great shape.
When my package arrives I'll post before shots of all.
The mehano motors are generally good if they are the can-type. I can't say the same for the drives though. The Mehano motors don't draw much current (I hooked up a decoder in my IHC-Mehano GG1 and the decoder runs both motors in the model with no problems)
As I don't have a lay out ( Space is very limited) I doubt that I will re-motor them at this time. I will however lay down a short line to test the run.
I haven't ran the RS3 yet, but when I bought it the box said "runs". I suspect that it does run but will be choppy at best.
Day off today so I'll do some loco testing to day.
(crosses fingers that C415 package arrives today)
It sarted out real slow but over time it got faster and stronger.
While running it I noticed that it had a grinding sound like one of the trucks was off the rail.
After checking to make sure it was placed right. I proceeded to pop off (yes pop as I didn't know the body had been glued on) the body and check the electrical.
I found that the contact area was black with grim and dirt.
So I grabbed a que tip, dapped a little rubbing alcohol on and proceeded to scrub.
After getting it "clean" I retested the run.
The grinding noise was gone.
I'm not real sure if the cleaning or the popping off of the body was the culprit for the grinding noise.
So, now with the rail repair I will need to secure the body back to the chassis.
The run down.
1. Maroon #415, Needs rail work and a new motor. Test ran it but it jumped and started to smoke.
2. Red (new number) #417 needs rail work, cleaned and 1 coupler.
3. Red #418 very nice model. I didn't see any defects at all and ran very well. A good cleaning may improve operation. Model had a little jumping while running.
( my track isn't tacked down so that may be the reason for jumping/surge)
I'll have to spend some time at the local store and see if I can find railing to repair what is broken on the 2 C415's and RS-3
GARY
