Quick question.
Where is the physical tooling (molds) for the entire Athearn and MDC Roundhouse blue box kit lines located at?
I believe from everything I’ve read, the answer is China, in the factory Athearn was/is using to produce it’s Genesis line.
Much of the tooling used in the past to produce the Athearn blue box and MDC kits was upgraded and sent to China so Athearn could offer those items in their RTR line - I have a number of examples of those in my fleet, such as the Athearn/MDC RTR Thrall coal gons, Athearn/MDC RTR 5-bay Ornter rapid discharge coal hoppers, Athearn RTR CF4740 covered hoppers, Athearn RTR 50’ plug door box car and a few others. I don’t know if Athearn has upgraded all of the former blue box and MDC kit tooling, but much of it has been.
As I recall, Athearn used to produce the RTR line in a different factory, which closed a few years back. At that point the RTR line based on the old blue box and MDC tooling/molds ceased being produced until Athearn was able to start slotting those products into the plant which the Genesis line was/is being produced. For about the last year, that line has been ramping back up and shipping.
Looking at Athearns RTR line it seems they’re using the upgraded Roundhouse cars and their old 5344 kits.
On another note…It took me years to realize Roundhouse made the better 50’ modern boxcar.
It does look like that. I am just not sure if all the old Athearn blue box and MDC molds have been used or if some were just stored. For example, I don’t recall seeing the old MDC 50’ hi-cube smooth side and rib side box cars re-issued in RTR form since Athearn acquired the MDC tooling, although I might have missed those.
I’ve always liked Roundhouse’s 50’ modern box cars - I have a number of the MDC kit versions built up including the double door BN geen box car, single plug door blue Grand Trunk, combo door brown MoPac, combo door yellow Railbox and a few others. They are still very good looking box cars. I also still have some MDC kit’s on the to-do list to build including some 3-bay ballast hoppers and hi-side coal gondola’s offered near the end of MDC’s kit production years.
My favorite “re-treads” are the MDC Thrall hi side coal gon, which were very common in the Rockies in the 70’s and 80’s. Very needful for Rio Grande modelers as well as BN and possibly ATSF on the Joint Line. Athearn also did a very good job on the Ortner 5-bay rapid discharge hoppers, adding addition tooling part on the bottom.
With what little effort it takes to build and tune a MDC box car kit, it’s very economical to get those vs. the RTR versions.
If I’m not mistaken, at least one model of one of the 50’ modern boxcars was a scale foot too wide, either originally an Athearn BB or MDC kit. And I think this width has carried over to the RTR line.
Was it the 5344 or some other boxcar?
They aren’t making the old timer tank cars or many of the engines either.
Paul
All the MDC cars and the Athearn 5344 were all and are still 1 scale foot too wide, and it is noticable when placed next to a correct IMRC or Exactrail car, since we mostly look at cars from above versus from the side.
And Larry is correct the standard 50’ Box of the 50’s and 60’s that MDC made is much better than the kludge Athearn car which does have good sides but the ends are from a 1930’s design. (Irv just took the ends off the 40’ Box and stuck them on the 50’ Box).
Rick J
I can’t see the difference since I view the cars from the side(never liked the Birdseye view) but,know they’re a foot to wide.
Wonder if Bachmann copied that mistake with their BB clones?
Don’t know if it would appeal to anyone here but River City Railroad still sells Roundhouse shake the box kits. I have bought some in the past.
Many different types including project cars which are undecorated.
I wonder if they are getting this stuff from China. Some years ago when they started up they advertised old stock bought up but still selling a lot of rolling stock.
Rich
Thanks Rick. Yes, many people may not think 1 scale foot is a big deal, but it is very noticeable when its sitting next to a proper-width car.
I had forgotten which boxcars were wide. Years ago, I set all of my Athearn BB, RTR, and MDC boxcars on their sides next to an Atlas boxcar and only about 3 of those were of the proper width. I sold off the other 2 dozen.
Are you saying that ALL MDC boxcars of any type are too wide? I didn’t notice the hi-cubes being wide, for example.
I can’t be sure on the Hi-Cubes, but I know all the FMC and PS cars are for sure, and the Hi-Cubes and Waffle side cars do not match any prototype as per a number of postings on the MFCL Yahoo Group. I think I might have one Hi-Cube at home that I would have to measure. MDC based their width of the entire car on the area of the door then added the door onto the car width which accounts for the error.
Rick J
I have bought from RCR several times and have two of their 5 car project car deals one of the Roundhouse 50’ FMC single door and one FMC 50’ double door boxcars.
Re: the one scale foot too wide thing … now I know whats been keeping me from sleeping at night! J/K.
Honestly I never laid all my models on their sides and compared them, not that I’m not picky. I have tried to eliminate most of the fantasy models from my fleet but have a few stand-ins. About the only “too wide” issue that really bothered me alot were the Athearn hood diesels, like the old bb SD45, the nose looked fat - so the wide issue was very noticable, even when I was a teenager I could see that.
I would imagine any MDC kits are probably old stock someone acquired. Since Athearn took over the MDC assets, molds and tooling, it is my understanding they have never produced any MDC kits since - just RTR versions. I recall during the last year or two of MDC as an independant company, they were selling kits online - some for sale prices or close out prices. I picked up some of the kit HO Thrall hi side condolas from their set of painted for D&RGW in 3 types (coal liner, blue end and all black). I think MDC took a shot near the end at some RTR versions too under their own name before selling the tooling to Athearn.
Yeah…for me it was like the genie out of the bottle, once I noticed the width, it bothered me. I originally noticed them on the layout when running the trains, that’s when it bothered me. I laid them on their side when sorting them out, knowing I was going to discard the inaccurate cars.
I’m not picky either, but dimensional accuracy is something I care about. Interestingly, fantasy paint scheme don’t bother me.
Bachmann copied the most glaring mistake on Athearn’s ACF “Railbox” car, the X-panel roof instead of the correct diagonal panel roof. I don’t recall the Athearn model being too wide (unlike the later PS 5344), but the roof really stood out.
Jim,I suspect those cars are from Athearns “Yard Sale” or one of their “moving sales” they had a few years ago.
There’s nothing wrong with the cars except there isn’t any plastic wheel or X2F couplers…No big deal since those gets toss anyway.There isn’t any metal weight but,some stick on weight will take care of that.
BTW…After using the stick on weights I think those weights may be better then the metal weight that came with the cars years ago…I buy my weights from a e-Bay seller.