IHC Mikado?

R

RobertInOntario

Active Member
Mar 22, 2006
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I have the Presidents Choice (made by IHC) Mikado freight loco. I believe Presidents Choice/Loblaws released this train set for Christmas 1994.

I'm curious to find out how accurate a model this is. I've seen several pics of CN Mikados but, for example, I don't recall that they had so much light grey (near the front and cab). In the colour historical pics, they appeared mostly black, which could be due to smoke and weathering!

Just wondering if anyone can comment on their accuracy -- thanks!

Rob
pctrain_03a.jpg
 
If any of the other IHC/Mehano stuff is anything to go by, I'd say it is not overly accurate, especailly for CNR. I have an IHC/Mehano Pacific lettered CNR #5125, and it is not anything close to what the real 5125 looked like.

There are lots of pictures in Ian Wilson's Steam series of books that set me straight on that one...! ;) :D

What is the number on your Mike?

Andrew
 
MasonJar said:
If any of the other IHC/Mehano stuff is anything to go by, I'd say it is not overly accurate, especailly for CNR. I have an IHC/Mehano Pacific lettered CNR #5125, and it is not anything close to what the real 5125 looked like.
There are lots of pictures in Ian Wilson's Steam series of books that set me straight on that one...! ;) :D
What is the number on your Mike?
Andrew
Click to expand...

Thanks, Andrew. I suspected as much but wanted to check. I believe I have one of those books, which covers Ontario to the East (Quebec, Atlantic provinces and New England). It's a great book and very helpful. I'll have to use it for more comparisons but I have to admit I haven't seen the exact equivalent of my IHC loco in it. I'll have to check my loco's number tonight -- I think it's 3235 or something like that!

Cheers, Rob
 
Here's a photo of sister 3244 at Allandale (now Barrie) in 1961: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cn/cn-s3244.jpg

According to the CN SIG roster, 3235 was class S-1-a, originally built for Canadian Government Railways.

And according to this roster - Canadian National Railways - it was built by Canadian Locomotive Company in 1917, with 63" drivers (your first stat to check...! ;)), and 53,115 pounds of tractive effort.

Andrew
 
MasonJar said:
Here's a photo of sister 3244 at Allandale (now Barrie) in 1961: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cn/cn-s3244.jpg

According to the CN SIG roster, 3235 was class S-1-a, originally built for Canadian Government Railways.

And according to this roster - Canadian National Railways - it was built by Canadian Locomotive Company in 1917, with 63" drivers (your first stat to check...! ;)), and 53,115 pounds of tractive effort.

Andrew
Click to expand...


Thanks, Andrew -- this is helpful & interesting. I appreciate these links!
Rob
 
MasonJar said:
Here's a photo of sister 3244 at Allandale (now Barrie) in 1961: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cn/cn-s3244.jpg
According to the CN SIG roster, 3235 was class S-1-a, originally built for Canadian Government Railways.
And according to this roster - Canadian National Railways - it was built by Canadian Locomotive Company in 1917, with 63" drivers (your first stat to check...! ;)), and 53,115 pounds of tractive effort.
Andrew
Click to expand...

Andrew: My loco's number is 3533 and by CN Ontario/East book is written by Kevin Holland. I think it's at least similar to the one you mention above -- there's a whole series (CP steam, CN steam, and other railroads. Rob
 
The main problem with these (and just about every other mass-produced Mikados) is that there's no all-weather cab. It's true there was the occasional Mike with US style open back cabs, but not very many. The vast majority had the vestibule, ie all-weather cabs and most also seemed to have had feedwater heaters too.
 
These are a fair model of the 1918 USRA Mikados. The USRA designs were the closest you can get to a "standard" steam locomotive design.

Canadian National didn't have any, but its' subsidiary lines in the US, the Grand Trunk (eastern states) and the Grand Trunk Western (West of Ontario) did. Conceivably they could have run through into Ontario from Michgan, or into Quebec from Vermont.

The paint scheme is fanciful - CN (to the best of my knowledge) didn't paint their smokeboxes, although it appears the GTW may have on its' passenger locos.

These are a pretty decent running loco, and were probably the best USRA mike to be on the market until Athearn came out with their Genesis mike (which is the same model).
 
Thanks Val and Squidbait, for posting this additional info. I've been comparing my IHC loco to your pics and I can see that it's a pretty good model. It probably wouldn't be that hard to add a few more details (moving the bell or creating an all-weather cab, etc.) to make it even better. I see that some of the detailing on the sides of my loco is different from the pics, or fudged!

Also interesting that CN didn't have any of these (even though my model has CANADIAN NATIONAL on its tender) but that Grand Trunk, etc., did.

This has been an interesting study. Thanks again.

Rob
 
Rob,

Loblaws has grabbed a decent ICH (Mehano) loco every year for their President's Choice train sets. The "worst" was probably the "Mother Hubbard" 2-6-0 Camelback, and (I think) the only one painted in a Canadian Pacific Scheme.

They have used the USRA 2-8-2 and 0-8-0, a 2-6-0, a 4-6-4 and 2-10-2 that weren't really based on any specific prototype, and an SD35. While all these were painted for CN, none of them were really close to a CN prototype.

Perhaps the closest they came was when they ran a "6060" bullet-nosed 4-8-2 - but even that wasn't really all that close.
 
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