Who currently produces HO scale models of pre-1900 North American trains?
Only MDC/Roundhouse for your basic shake-the-box kits. There’s a couple sources for locomotives.
For anything else, you’re looking at Resin kits & scratchbuilding.
Rivarossi used to make a model of a 4-4-0 locomotive, which was sold in the US by IHC. The ones I have never did run very well because they still used oversized wheel flanges that cause the locomotives to stall on Atlas turnouts. Because of the small size of their boilers, the motors are in the tender. As mentioned by mykroft, MDC is the only other manufacturer that makes models of pre-1900 steam engines that I know of, too.
Labelle http://www.labellemodels.com/ makes a line of older freight car and passenger car kits. These are not as simple as MDC being wood with castings for hardware. They will give you a good transition into scratch building with wood.
Enjoy
Paul
doesn’t Bachmann still produce the Jupiter? 4-4-0 that linked east /west in Utah.
Bachmann has a few old timer trains in their standard line. Model Power might have some too if they get the Mantua trains back into production. Rivarossi is gone (at least for now) and IHC does not appear to be making any more old timers. Roundhouse had the widest variety of painted and lettered models. Is anyone else making decorated old time HO scale trains?
What about the craftsman kits? LaBelle’s kits are really nice. Westerfield might have a few kits that would fit a pre-1900 layout. Are there any other sources?
Bachmann makes (non-Spectrum) 4-4-0s, a few freight cars, a bobber caboose, and two passenger car types (coach and combine). In their Spectrum line, their 0-6-0T, 4-6-0 and 2-8-0 are all (just) pre-1900 models, but they represent post-WWI rebuilds, and so will need to be backdated.
Rivarossi made about the same line as the non-Spectrum stuff, but they also made a 2-4-0. Now that they’re bankrupt (again), you’ll have to check swapmeets and hobby shops for their stuff.
Roundhouse makes about the most pre-1900 stuff. All of their engine kits are of pre-1900 prototypes, except their HOn3 engines (ironically enough) and the Pennsy H-8/9 2-8-0. They make several freight cars and passenger cars, and any of their wood cabooses are pre-1900. The only wood sided passenger cars they make that are NOT pre-1900 are the “overland” cars, which are Sierra RR cars built around 1904 (and VERY oddball cars, if you care at all about proto fidelity)
IHC makes a line of old-timer freight cars which are very nice, but generally overlooked by most modelers, because they don’t get too much exposure. They’re nicer than Bachmann/Rivarossi cars, and are of older prototypes than Roundhouse. They also make several engines that are useful for pre-1900 modeling, with a bit of backdating.
Athearn makes NOTHING pre-1900.
Other than the above, there’s LOTS of resin that’s useful for pre-1900 modeling, especially Westerfield and Funaro & Carmelengo (Sunshine makes nothing pre-1900). Many of the models represent post-WWI rebuilds, so you’ll have to be careful about what you buy (Westerfield’s website is probably the single best model RR manufacturer’s website, and will tell you everything you want to know about each kit and it’s appropriate years of service, and several in-process assembly photos). F&C’s car line is more extensive than Westerfield’s, but they don’t have a website and their instructions suck. They build into very nice models, though, and they’re less expensive than