Elephant Ears

[FECfan]

I recently Bought an IHC Hudson at a Train Show (Nickel Plate Road) I wanted to make it more prototypical, and add Elephant Ears, http://www.trainweb.org/chris/sttmu20.JPG , but the question is, do I have to scratch-build them or does someone make them?  If scratch build is the way to go, any suggestions?

[simkon]

They are made, but not by IHC, and no, they will not fit on an IHC Hudson though. But you can make your own:)

[Nigel]

....... If scratch build is the way to go, any suggestions?

Brass, either thin angle section at least 3/4" on one leg, or bend it from thin sheet stock.  I would use .005" stock, and bend it.  Layout the pattern in 2D, cut the brass to shape, scribe and bend along the scribe mark, clean, paint and attach with a coupe of dots of super glue.  This will all removal if you change your mind.

[Jim Banner]

As most modelers are aware, IHC is an importer, not a manufacturer.  Thus we would not expect IHC to manufacture smoke lifters or anything else.  Your Hudson was probably manufactured by Mehano Technica, a well known international manufacturer.  If so, it will most likely say "Mehano" and/or "Slovania" on the bottom cover.

As I understand it, Mehano has an exclusive arrangement with IHC for the import and sale of their locomotives into the USA.  That agreement apparently does not extend to Canada as Super Store has been sporadically selling Mehano train sets at Christmas under their Presidents Choice label.  A few years ago, the PC train set featured a CN Hudson, complete with smoke lifters.  An odd choice perhaps as CN preferred Northerns and only ever had five Hudsons, and those had smoke lifters only for the first part of their service lives.  Like most smoke lifters, they turned out to be something of a pipe dream so CN eventually removed them.  As a result, the first thing many Canadian modellers do to their Hudson models is to chop off the smoke lifters to make them better resemble the originals as they remember them.

I tell you that to tell you this.  Your ideal solution might be to get a complete PC CN Hudson body and repaint it or get just the part that has the smoke lifters attached, and paint that.  A slightly less ideal solution would be to acquire the smoke lifters that a Canadian has cut off his model and attach them onto your model.  Now I do not have any spare bodies to offer you, but I am supposed to trim the smoke lifters off their CN Hudsons for two people this fall.  Assuming that at least one of those comes about, I would be just as happy to throw the lifters into an envelope with your name on it as I would to throw them in the trash.  No, that is not quite right.  I would be much happier to throw them in an envelope instead of wasting them.  If you are interested, drop me an email.

Jim

[FECfan]

I will keep that in mind, I will ponder this for a little bit, but don't back down on the offer to send the cut-off smoke lifters.

Thanks