Found old train car

[john lea]

Talking about finding old stuff.
anderspv , I also found, in HO, some loconia car kits, redball & other stuff. Also found Modelrail road books from the '70's up. Three (3) hard bound Model railroad books. One is Jan to Dec of 1948 the other two are signed by Al Kalmback & are jan to Dec of 1951 & 1953. I also don't have a clue of their value.
Maybe that e-bay thing might be good. Also found
SP bulletins back to 1929 plus other interesting things

[Anonymous]

I'd like to add the link to MDC web site http://www.mdcroundhouse.com/
Click on the tab on the left "MDC History"
I don't know how much it's worth, but if you search eBay for similar cars of the same age, you might get an idea what someone is willing to pay. However keep in mind the economy is sluggish and not many people have money to burn. It's a buyers market at this time.

[dknelson]

Roadhouse Products or Roundhouse Products? I never heard of Roadhouse but Roundhouse was and is a very common manufacturer.
Up until the very early 1960s Roundhouse (or what we now call Model Die Casting/MDC) offered their freight car kits in cast metal, prepainted. They were reasonably easy to build and if the workmanship was careful they build up into a nice looking car. There is just something about metal that looks like metal ..... The only other ore car available back then was the Varney car that was all plastic with no weight at all -- it needed a load to track right. It is rare to see a Varney car that the original builder did not slop up with cement. I have some old metal Roundhouse boxcars and am sorry to report that impurities in the cast zinc metal has caused some of the slides to crumble. They tend to be brittle if dropped, too. I suspect this ore car kit dates from 1950 to 1961 or so. Seems like yesterday for some of us :(

The same Roundhouse/MDC cars are now offered in plastic, and now there are other ore cars available. It might be that MDC has changed the road numbers over the years so even if you have a plastic GN ore car a metal version could be a worthwhile addition to your layout.
I have purchased some of the Roundhouse metal cars built up at swap meets and I have also purchased some of the ore car kits unbuilt at swap meets. I think I paid $3 or $4 for the kits. They were very plentiful and never rare so the collector's value is not great. But if you want to see what model railroading used to be like at the entry level (the old craftsman kits are more like scratchbuilding with an instant parts supply in a box) an old MDC kit could be a fun challenge -- I think you will quickly see that even a beginner was expected to have some mechanical skills and patience 40+ years ago.
Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

Hi all I was cleaning out my fathers attic the other day and came across a train car that looks kind of old I was wondering if anyone ever heard of this train car or if anyone knows how much or where I can find out how much the car is worth.

The Car is from Roadhouse Products. It is a Ho Model Ore Car kit GN H10-1:39. It is a kit and has all the orignal parts including instructions to build and the springs for the wheels. All in the orignal box. Please send me an email if you want to see pictures. [e-mail]