Way back in April, I ordered a RTR set of Roundhouse Overton passenger cars from internet hobbies. When I inquired about the order, they told me to check the Athearn website for the latest release date. I cannot find this set on the Athearn site.
Where can I look next?
The Overton Cars are out of production. I will check the Athearn Site in a moment to see if I can still find them.
N scale page shows them as discontinued:
http://www.athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=Overton
They are identical to the HO scale versions which are also discontinued.
They are selling OverLAND passenger cars with the 50’ lengths.
One side of the coin is welcome to the new age of limited productions in this hobby and the other side is that they have been OOP for 30-40 years that I can tell. LOL.
Yeah, that is what I found out also. I meant to say HO 34’ as well. They were advertised as being available on April 30, 2007
Well, it is my experience not to rely on Advertised dates of delivery. Some of my orders has been late a year or more on Advertised dates. Most were late by a few months or a few weeks. I even had one order for a BLI Light Mike totally get lost and I went ahead and canceled it instead of waiting again with another order. No need to go through all of that waiting.
I suggest visiting the walthers web site, find these items (Probably under out of stock items) and find the dealer listing with email addresses that bought this item. Then contact them one by one until you have a dealer who is willing to sell you a set for a small charge in shipping at a good price.
Or risk ebay.
That is disappointing, Bruce, since I was the one who steered you to that particular provider. I was hoping to see your set in WPF just about any week now. [:(] I don’t suppose you have had any progress with the Mike, either?
I see places talking about shorty passenger cars. Would they fill the bill if they are available, or would that be a step in the wrong direction for you? Perhaps a phone call or an email to Athearn?
Does this help Bruce?
Thanks to all who took the time to reply. I guess that I failed to mention that I had ordered the HO set of four cars. From all the sites given, it appears that they had no intention of manufacturing them. Should I cancel my order with internet hobbies? They have my VISA number for the order.
These cars may indeed be out of production, but it hasn’t been for 30-40 years as mentioned previously. I’ve only been back in the hobby for 25 or so years and they were readily available for quite some time.
Also checking the Walthers website won’t do you any good, as Horizon Hobbies who now own Model Die Casting as well as Athearn do not sell their stuff through Walthers.
This was recently discussed here.
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/1069916/ShowPost.aspx
Roundhouse site.
http://www.roundhousetrains.com/Default.aspx
Suggestion, in the furture try searching Google or Yahoo. Also try searching trains.com.
Searching for Rouhndouse or Model Die Casting also.
Cabbose Hobbies usually has very good prices compared to Horizon Hobbies. Caboose Hobbies has the products under Model Die Casting, not Roundhouse. I just ordered over the phone the new Roundhouse HO undecorated 2-6-0 and mentioned that people in some groups look for Roundhouse and not Model Die Casting. Caboose Hobbies might change their site since they realize people searching for Roundhouse will not find Caboose H.
Athearn buying Roundhouse has confused some people, plus some have no clue that they can search the 'Net and usually find the answer. I searched over a year ago ago for Athearn Roundhouse and found the site.
rich
The ready to run Overton cars Athearn sold using the Roundhouse brand name have been out of production for two years. Overton kits have been out of production since MDC was consumed by Horizon.
Athearn might re-run the Overton cars. Should that happen, the best way to be notified is to subscribe to Athearn’s newsletter.
There may not be much point to keeping an Overton set on order. If Athearn does manufacture more, they probably will not re-use the old item numbers (expect different road names).
Roundhouse brand models are not listed on Athearn’s web site - they are at www.roundhousetrains.com/.
Depending on your roadname, you might be able to pick-up a kit on eBay. Since I model the 1880’s eBay has been my main source for these cars.
At a recent train show I picked up a whole bunch of Roundhouse cars including some Overton ones that were specially decorated for the famous Gorre & Daphetid Railway of John Allen. I will probably offer them in small bunches on eBay eventually.
Within the bunch was an Overton combine decorated for B&O that I didn’t realise. I could be persuaded to part with it if the price is right. It is assembled in the original box, complete with original horn hook couplers, looks like it’s never been on a rail.
EDIT: Just checked eBay, there are quite a few Overton cars there at this time, might be the best place to find what you want. Some are dealers’ “Buy it Now” prices of $20.00 each!
I had a complete Ma and Pa set that was kit built once. If they ever re-release that again as RTR, I will get a set.
Why not get the 50’ Overland cars instead of the 34’ Overton cars.
I think they look much more realistic and are still short enough to run on small radius curves.
The 34’ cars look like toys when you put them beside a 50’ car.
http://www.roundhousetrains.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=50’+Overland&CatID=THRP
I was invited to visit a local layout under construction some time ago and ran my 50’ Overland cars in a 5 car set behind the Roundhouse 4-4-0. The railroad had 18" radius curves if not a little more towards 20" in places.
The performance of those Overlands were good but marginal because the overhang on both ends and inside the curve was just about scraping past the stuff on the railroad along the ROW.
The owner had a set of Overtons on a Proto 0-6-0 and it was a better fit for that particular railroad than my lumbering overlands. The proto and the Overton were actually better performers train vs train to my overlands.
All in all it was a good evening running trains. With that in mind, full lengths and heavyweights were definatly out of the question.
Here is an eBay link to some Overton cars.
If you consider eBay, search in HO Scale for old time and Overton as well as Roundhouse… Sometimes sellers do know the Roundhouse cars are Overton models. I have seen this before.
Good luck.
Rich
Just make sure you get all you want torun from the same production run other wize the colors will not match at all, been trying to find a compleat up set but no luck (have one with mismatched colors though).
Not that my opinion should count for much, but I would like everyone who has taken the time to respond to know that I really appreciate the way this thread is rolling along. To me, this is what this forum is meant to be…focused, civil, and helpful.
I wouldn’t cancel my order; in fact I would immediately go back out to internet hobbies and order half-a-dozen more sets which I would also put on my credit card, Then, every week to ten days, I would inquire about the status of my order and when I might expect these discontinued items to be shipped.
I’m afraid it’s going to take more than one beer to fix my aching funny bone tonight.