Hi tatans:
I love the old Roundhouse 3 in 1 kits. I have built several of them and they can be made into fine models, and many of them are rather unusual too. It's too bad they were discontinued.
I get the impression that some of the respondants to your thread don't actually know what a '3 in 1' kit consisted of. We are not talking about a simple passenger car, freight car or caboose 'shake the box' kit. The 3 in 1 kits supplied you with some very basic components that could be built into three models per kit. However, there was a lot of scratchbuilding and kit bashing required to get the desired end results. For example, one fire fighting tank car came with a 36' freight car body, a 10,000 gal. tank car body and a metal tank car frame. To build the fire fighting car you had to cut the freight car and tank car bodies into several pieces, sandwich various parts together, and then add in your own styrene panels and platforms to complete the model. For the snow removal equipment, the modeller was required to form their own snow blades out of styrene or brass. You could add on as many details as your heart desired, but you had to make most of them yourself.
If you see one at a swap meet I strongly suggest that you grab it. Some of the kits aren't quite as interesting like the logging car kits, but others like the Jordan spreader kit or the snow crab kit are a lot of fun!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
rrebellIn the late 70's they made kits with individual grabs, thr grabs were just staples but with the pre-drilled hole you could use anybodys grabs. Properly done up kits looks pretty close to todays stuff, used A-line stirrups on mine and grant line turnbuckles.
I don't recall ever seeing those cars, but in the '70s, I was buying their modern (at that time) boxcars.I do recall the cast metal cars (one such gondola still in service on my layout) and the plastic 36'-ers with moulded-on grabirons. As I recall, those use 22" grabs, and I simply make my own, as I have few of those cars -wouldn't mind more, but don't see them too often, even at train shows.
Wayne
hardcoalcase I model the year 1910, so I own a lot of the Roundhouse/MDC 36 foot Old-Timers. I've found I can buy as many as I can carry for $5 or less per copy at local train shows. Love those older ones with the metal chassis, they are just right for the NMRA car weight recommendation, and are a great platform for scratchbuilding. I'm not a fan of the newer plastic chassis. I upgrade the kits by using monofilement fishing line for the truss rods (looks like metal and is stronger than the thread), sometimes adding scale turnbuckles (not all truss rod cars had them) and adding Kaydee couplers, metal wheels, sometimes on different truck styles. My pet peeve is the cast-on grab irons, not much you can do about them without re-painting the car. Back in the day, they came with separate grabs, and I have a few of those, but they are a rare find now-a-days. Jim
I model the year 1910, so I own a lot of the Roundhouse/MDC 36 foot Old-Timers. I've found I can buy as many as I can carry for $5 or less per copy at local train shows. Love those older ones with the metal chassis, they are just right for the NMRA car weight recommendation, and are a great platform for scratchbuilding. I'm not a fan of the newer plastic chassis.
I upgrade the kits by using monofilement fishing line for the truss rods (looks like metal and is stronger than the thread), sometimes adding scale turnbuckles (not all truss rod cars had them) and adding Kaydee couplers, metal wheels, sometimes on different truck styles.
My pet peeve is the cast-on grab irons, not much you can do about them without re-painting the car. Back in the day, they came with separate grabs, and I have a few of those, but they are a rare find now-a-days.
Jim
hardcoalcaseso I own a lot of the Roundhouse/MDC 36 foot Old-Timers. I've found I can buy as many as I can carry for $5 or less per copy at local train shows. Love those older ones with the metal chassis,
I love them too. I buy them as I find them even though HO is not my primary scale.
Paul
River City Railroad still sells shake the box kits. Some are unpainted Project Car kits.
I use to buy the old time cars from them some years ago.
Around early 2000's I recall seeing a posting somewhere about them buying up old MDC stock.
It might have been in the Yahoo Groups, Early Rail Group.
I suspect they might have a company in China making the kits today. Thet rarely run out of some stock.
http://stores.ebay.com/RIVER-CITY-RAILROAD-RCR_36FT-OLD-TIME/_i.html?_fsub=174146619&_sid=287414219&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Around here the cars you seem to find the most are the Pullman Pallace passenger car kits.
.
There are no where near as many Roundhouse/MDC cars as Athearn blue box kits at train shows.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
In 2004 Horizon Hobbies bought Athearn and Roundhouse (also called MDC). Shortly thereafter they stopped making kits - I don't recall the year. Accurail and Bowser make similar type kits, but do not replicate the Roundhouse line especially the pre WWI cars. In particular no one (AFAIK) makes similar passenger car or locomotive kits to what Roundhouse made.
Many of the kits can still be found at train shows under either the Roundhouse or Model Die Casting (MDC) name. However, they are getting scarcer - again especially passenger cars and locomotives.
I believe that Athearn (now Horizon) took over the Model DieCasting/Roundhouse line, and still offer many of their cars as r-t-r items. Most, if not all of MDC's line was kits, and especially, of course, the 3-in-1 kits. I doubt that Horizon would have these available in any form, though, as the whole point of the original was to make what you wanted from the parts that were included (along with whatever you had on-hand that would be appropriate, too).I never bought any of the 3-in-1 kits, but a friend gave me left-over parts from several of them, and I used some of them to create the not-yet-weathered foundation on this coal elevator...
...the powerhouse (with the smokestack) of this factory...
...the oilhouse at my locomotive shops...
...and doors for three railroad water towers like this...
The towers are heavy cardboard tubes, originally used for rolled paper, wrapped with .005" sheet styrene, with embossed river detail. They feed either Tichy standpipes, like the one at left, below, or kitbashed ones, at right...
The basic flat car is still being made by Athearn.
Ed
The 3 in 1 kits are an introduction to kitbashing. I made a couple of them. This is a flanger made from an old timer caboose. The kit also included a Jordan spreader and a snow crab
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
While I do not know exactly when Roundhouse kits went out of production, I believe Accurail is about as close to their product line as you will find today.
I certainly enjoy Roundhouse products, even today. My most recent picture on "Show Me Something" is of a Roundhouse Gondola.
Just bought a Roundhouse 3 in 1 craft kit at a train show, paid $8.00, it is a 3/26' old timer "shorty' flat car kit, it's an amazing kit with many differnt options to construct various cars, I'm very pleased as it's my first Roundhouse kit- - - just when did Roundhouse quit making model kits and is there an equivalent company today making similar kits??