Check out the latest product announcements on the Model Railroader page and you will see a bunch of new “Athearn” releases, and the last three are listed as "Roundhouse kits. Athearn, Inc.
Looks as if the Roundhouse semaphore(flag) has fallen.
YES. ‘Roundhouse’ , formerly MDC, (formerly Model Die Casting) was sold - this time to Distributor ‘Horizon’ - who also owns Athearn, who bought Railpower products.
Roundhouse will probably emerge as the ‘Kit’ line, as Railpower has emerged into the RTR line, with Horizon being Sole Disributor .
YES. ‘Roundhouse’ , formerly MDC, (formerly Model Die Casting) was sold - this time to Distributor ‘Horizon’ - who also owns Athearn, who bought Railpower products.
Roundhouse will probably emerge as the ‘Kit’ line, as Railpower has emerged into the RTR line, with Horizon being Sole Disributor .
I know all about the sale and all that. What I’m saying is, now we’re starting to see how it’s all going down.
Its all Ready-to-Roll or Genesis! They need to come out with more kits.
I will not cry before I´m sure but I doesn´t find the BB kits at Athearn´s new website
When you will search for the keyword “KIT” the machine find 10 items (includes lightning kits).
[}:)]
Of course the Blue Boxes will be around.
I’ve found that in the past 2 to 3 years I’ve preferred the Roundhouse/MDC cars over Athearn due to a nagging problem. I have a batch of Athearn BB freight cars with “undersized ears”. These ears are what hold the metal coupler cover in place. When the cars roll over rail joints on my test shelf or my friend’s railroad, the coupler covers fall off. Pretty annoying.
The bandaid solution has been to put a drop of glue or CA on the ears when the cover is on but I prefer not to do that.
I very carefully bend the “flaps” of the coupler box covers in. Be cafeful as bending to much will break them. I might help to hold the cover by a pair of pliers to make sure the part that covers the bottom of the coupler box does not bend.
Another possibility is to cut a piece of polystyrene to the proper size and drill a hole in it. Then drill a hole through the cylinder that holds the coupler in place and tap it. Then screw the new coupler box covers on.
If your couplers are falling off it is because you are not installing them properly. First, you may run into some defective covers. Buy some spares and throw away the ones that don’t fit. They must be securely snapped in place and sometimes it takes a lot of pressure. Be sure the coupler is properly seated in the box. Often the box is not folded squarely and you may have to crimp the sides into place on the box. Easily done with a pair of needle nose pliers. Sometimes the cover will have burrs on the inside keeping the coupler from swinging. A small flat file will fix this. After you do a few you will get the hang of it.
Thanks for your help guys regarding couplers.[:)][:D][8D][8)]
I actually do install Kadees correctly. The problem actually was that the ears were physically undersized. I compared the batch of these cars to the other Athearns I purchased in the past. A friend who is familiar with Athearn indicated that manufacturers that produce plastic products will have production line glitches from time to time [:0] and by the time it’s caught and corrected, a batch of products will already be out on the market.
I like the advice on tapping out the stud. Will go for it. [:D][swg][tup]
Thanks again, fellas!
I should point out that although I have tapped the cylinder that the coupler goes around, I cannot remember doing this to an Athearn car. If you try it, let us know how it worked out.
Names don’t mean anything to me as long as I can spend $10, open the box, and assemble a kit! I sure hope the kits come back in one form or another. . .
I am on Athearn’s e-mail product announcement list and, on their last announcement, they said “yes we still make them,” referring to the BB kits.
Guys,Take some time and look over Horizons web page and you can learn fact from Internet spun fiction and incorrect information.Use 60 items per page for best results and less pages.One does not need to look through all 63 pages in order to get the general idea that the BB kits is readily available.
Guess you missed this thread, eh? . . . these are all recently announced BB KITS!!! (so kwityur***in):
Item # Description NEW RETAIL Prod Month
1174 37’ BW Caboose, MILW $9.25 Nov-05
1180 37’ BW Caboose, UP $9.25 Nov-05
1182 37’ BW Caboose, NS $9.25 Nov-05
1200 40’ AAR Box, Undec $7.75 Nov-05
1202 40’ AAR Box, EJ&E/Green $7.75 Nov-05
1207 40’ AAR Box, IC $7.75 Nov-05
1212 40’ AAR Box, AC&Y $7.75 Nov-05
1213 40’ AAR Box, ON $7.75 Nov-05
1293 37’ BW Caboose, SP $9.25 Nov-05
1326 50’ Plug Box, RI $8.00 Nov-05
1346 50’ OB Plug Box, KCS $8.00 Nov-05
1349 40’ Flat, Undec $7.25 Nov-05
1602 40’ Reefer, Carnation $7.75 Nov-05
1603 40’ Reefer, Blatz $7.75 Nov-05
1751 40’ Quad Hopper, EJ&E $7.25 Nov-05
1766 40’ Stock Car, PRR $7.75 Nov-05
1911 55’ ACF CF Hop, SP $9.00 Nov-05
2098 40’ Grain Box, UP/Slvr $7.75 Nov-05
5007 40’ AAR Box, GN $7.75 Nov-05
5020 40’ Reefer, SF/Grand $7.75 Nov-05
5022 40’ Reefer, SF/Chief $7.75 Nov-05
5023 40’ Reefer, SF/Super $7.75 Nov-05
5060 50’ Box, SOU $8.00 Nov-05
5209 40’ Wood Reefer, Oscar Mayer $7.75 Nov-05
5211 40’ Wood Reefer, Schlit $7.75 Nov-05
5225 40’ Wood Reefer, URTX/M $7.75 Nov-05
5226 40’ Wood Reefer, R $7.75 Nov-05
5401 34’ 2Bay Offset Hop, SF $7.25 Nov-05
5402 34’ 2Bay Off Hop, CPR $7.25 Nov-05
5403 34’ 2Bay Off Hop, Erie $7.25 Nov-05
5405 34’ 2Bay Offset Hop, GN $7.25 Nov-05
5521 50’ ACF OB Railbox, Rai $9.25 Nov-05
5522 50’ ACF OB Railbox, Rai $9.25 Nov-05
5525 50’ ACF OB Railbox, CN $9.25 Nov-05
5528 50’ ACF OB Railbox, CHS $9.25 Nov-05
5529 50’ ACF OB Railbox, CSX $9.25 Nov-05
5539 50’ ACF OB Railbox, NS $9.25 Nov-05
5544 50’ ACF OB Railbox, SOU $9.25 Nov-05
5972 40’ AAR Box, FW&D $
Did you see the date on that post? That is in response to another Athearn announcement. Another thing, there are no new kits in that list. They are all kits Athearn has made before. I recommend paying attention to what is has been before making another post like the one you just made. If you want to make posts like this, then you had better make sure you have your facts straight before you do it.
ericsp,Perhaps you miss something? No where did Athearn say these was new kits…All Athearn said was that was the production run of kits.Don’t look for any new kits until the RTR craze dies or slows.Right now the money is in RTR.
Like I said before, my original post was in response to another announcement. It was in September 2004. It was almost a year ago, long before Athearn sent out the e-mail with that list. If I remember correctly, this even was just before Athearn made their 2004 Blue Box production schedule public (I remember it was toward the end of the year). Therefore at that time, people outside of Athearn did not know how many kits Athearn was going to be making. If you look you my old posts, you will see several where I referenced people to Athearn’s Blue Box schedules once they were made public, so I know that Athearn is still making Blue Box kits. However, it is frustrating that Athearn is not offering any of these new models as kits.
Forget that e-mail Athearn sent out a few days ago if you are going to write about my original post. My post was posted long before that e-mail was sent.
I emailed athearn and got this
Thank-you for your inquiry. Please note that the MDC/Roundhouse product has been divided roughly into two parts. Products whose prototype has a pre-1941 build date will be marketed under the Roundhouse name and can be found at www.horizonhobby.com. Former MDC products whose prototype has a post-1941 build date will be marketed under the Athearn brand name.
Sincerely,
Athearn Trains
So what the heck is last year’s posts doing showing up today?! I’ve got W-A-Y too many threads and posts to read here and on multiple forums, message boards and email lists to start checking all the dates. No matter, I read it today so that’s the remark and the item I respond to TODAy with TODAY’s info.
Personally, I don’t know if there are no new kits on that list or not. I didn’t take the time to check EVERY part number against a catalog or list of existing part numbers to see if they’re new or not. Who would?! So shoot me.
I’m tempted to say if nothing else these kits were run with new road numbers, but you probably have a master list you’ve created to check them against, too.
I’ve got other, more important things to read and do . . .