MDC/Roundhouse loco availability

Sir:

You may be best off to find a dealer who still has it in stock, or search Ebay or shows. I was curious about the kits' availability, too, so I wrote to Horizon:

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Comments: Dear folks:

When are you going to bring back the steam loco kits? They were great!

Cordially yours: Gerard P.

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Seems clear enough to me...here was their reply:

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Gerard,

Thank-you for your inquiry. Please note that none of the former MDC steam kits are scheduled for production at his time. Please subscribe to our on-line newsletter, "The Athearn News," to get the latest information about what we are and will be producing as well as the latest release dates on new products. To sign up just go to the Home Page of our web site

Sincerely,

Athearn Trains

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Nice answer, wrong question. Does ANYBODY know what their plans are? It would be nice to see how the MDC kits would do if they were actually decently stocked and decently available.

Cordially yours, Gerard P.

I thought their answer was to the point.

"Please note that none of the former MDC steam kits are scheduled for production at this time."

How much clearer do you want it?

Sad but hard fact when businessmen take over from someone that really loved what he was doing. Kiss anything MDC goodbye.

As MDC was the maker of most of my rolling stock, guess I'd better learn to scratch build faster now, horizon will never have any answers, or anything I'm going to send them money for.

Then there's still Bowser, very good stuff even if more expensive, with a good supply of service parts, and excellent service. I just bought a Pacific from them, much higher quality that I ever saw from Mantua/Tyco, certainly a great improvement on LL or most others. The Bowser "Casey Jones" might be just what the OP was looking for, although more expensive and worth every penny of it. No plastic shell, no plastic details. Diecast chassis and shell, cast brass detail parts of excellent quality. I paid for quality, and I got quality.

Rich.

Many of the MDC car kits are being reissued as RTR, with metal wheels and knuckle couplers.

And prices that have increased dramatically. I've replaced the trucks and couplers on all of my MDC with Kaydee, so their insignifficant change really means only that I have to disassemble the cars to have them as I want. There were reasons I bought kits.

Sure, I can buy a RTR, then spend hours stripping the paint off, repainting, then try to get the details off without destroying the car, and paying three times as much as for the kit, but no logic can be construed to say it's an improvement over the undecorated kit.

Production is in China now, I assume?

Rich

I believe so.

I appreciate your p.o.v, since I like undec or painted-only kits too, but the kit buyer is rapidly becoming a minority. RTR and Built-up are outselling kits, and the margin is increasing. For that matter, the undecorated-kit buyer was always a minority.

BTW, I have a few undec Athearn, Accurail, and MDC kits, plus some painted w/ no data, and some data-only. If you're interested, mail me off-group and I'll send you a list. Drop the 'e' in the replyto address.

HTH

Folks:

Here are some random thoughts after reading for a while.

"Not scheduled for production" doesn't mean "discontinued". That's the trouble. Most MRR manufacturers produce their stuff in batches. For example, Alpine Division, producer of the old Suydam/Ayres line, currently catalogs the "Hobby Shop" kit. However, they don't constantly make them; every now and then they'll run off 30 or so. Horizon told me exactly nothing, as I would also probably do, were I in their shoes...but I wish I knew what they were up to...

I don't see kits as doomed. Mantua did some boneheaded stuff, and tried to sell kits not engineered for efficient mass production as RTR collectibles, then was bought by Model Power whose strategy at distributing their rather extensive line I never could figure out. MDC wasn't pushing their kits like they used to. Bowser has always kept a fairly low profile.

If Horizon would promote their kits like Botchmann promotes their stuff, they'd see some progress.

I don't know where the kits are manufactured. I believe the MDC RTR stuff was assembled overseas; once again, they weren't designed to be efficiently assembled, like Athearn's old diesels were.

Cordially yours: Gerard P.

Horizon and Athearn have said that MDC products will be rtrfrom now on. They also said some MDC items will be sold as Athearn kits.

I doubt you'll see the steam kits any time soon. However, there is RTR to think about...

Paul A. Cutler III

Not true. Ex-MDC RS-3's, 35' flat, 60' bulkhead flats, 40' boxcars, old-time passenger cars, etc., have already been announced or produced by Horizon/Athearn. RTR, this is true. But they are ex-MDC, and they are being produced.

Paul A. Cutler III

Hello All

I found one for $87.50 plus shipping from

Richard