We were in a discussion on this in another forum. Quite a few years back when Horizon acquired Athearn and Roundhouse they had a considerable amount of steam locos. Most of these were never released as ready to run models. The shay and the old timer series 2-6-0 and 2-8-0 seem to have been the only ones that were released. That left the Santa Fe, SP and PRR 4-4-2. There was the 0-6-0 and the saddle tanker 0-6-0. There was also the 2-8-0 and the 4-6-0 which were offered in several configurations including Harriman and PRR. The 2-6-2 prairie was offered in Santa Fe, Harriman and PRR. There was also the Climax and the boxcab. In HOn3 there were the outside and inside 2-8-0's. I have heard various rumors as to what happened to all of the tooling. It was rumored that the only thing usable in the tooling was the Old Timers and the shay. However that is a whole lot of tooling- some of which was newer that the Old Timers to sound right. I have heard from some that the frame tooling was bad on the HOn3 locos. There were also some rumors that the UP suits going on caused the destruction of some of the tooling but that does not explain the Santa Fe and PRR locos being gone. With the many times that Harriman locos have been requested you wonder if they might do well if these were reissued as RTR. So has anyone heard any insight?
Given the age of that tooling, and the trends in higher detail and split frame electrical pickup, it is unlikely that those models would return to the market.
It would likely be just as expensive to upgrade the existing tooling as it would to just start from scratch.
Athearn has always been "conservative " regarding steam locomotives, so it seems unlikely that we will see these models return.
The UP thing is settled and gone, but would not apply here from what I understand. While they may have at one time been able to, or desired to, control what roadname would be printed on the side of the loco, it is otherwise just a model of a steam locomotive, generic enough to not be subject to any trademark owned by UP.
By my understanding, UP would have no legal power to have the tooling destroyed.
Sheldon
The UP thing is a total myth with regards to Athearn/MDC steam tooling. UP never claimed a right on models, just the logos applied to them.
To review, UP started a licensing program covering the use of their logos (and all UP predecessor logos) about 2004, IIRC. UP required a 5% fee on the sale of any UP logo'd item. Most every company knuckled under except for MTH. About 5 years in, UP sued MTH and MTH countersued. During the discovery phase of the lawsuit, MTH won a motion that granted them access to all UP internal communications about the licensing program. Apparently, complying with this order was going to cost UP more money than 5 years of licensing had brought in. After a change of CEO's, UP tried appeasing MTH by donating the licensing money to the steam program, but MTH said no. UP then reduced the licensing fee to a single, annual payment of minimal amount and all lawsuits were dropped.
The point is that if Horizon/Athearn/MDC wanted to use UP steam engine tooling, they currently have no restrictions on doing so.
As for why not use the old tooling now? Probably because it's damaged or the fact that most MDC steam engine kits didn't run very well. I'm not saying they couldn't be made to, but you had to be pretty highly skilled for them to run well. And the boxcab had a piece of junk for a drive. Certainly the one I had was bad.
Besides, why go to all the trouble to revive ancient tooling when you can just start from scratch? Maybe have all-wheel pick up, can motors, and customized details instead.
Just before Athearn stopped selling the 4-4-0, 2-6-0 and 2-8-0, I bought all three models, DCC ready and installed the Tsunami Micro. They have the small open frame with skewed armature motor, flywheel and typical gear box with intermediate drive. Very good runners.
You can see the photos at HO Seeker.
At the time I ordered parts for my older 2-6-0 and 2-8-0 locos that had the older style tender including DCC pickups for the loco and windows.
Strange they all have the same size frame and boiler. Typical for MDC Roundhouse.
I do not think they were good sellers.
Some years ago I spoke to Athearn reps at a show and they said no chance the locos would be reproduced.
They really look bare compared to my Bachmann 4-4-0 and 4-6-0.
The NWSL MDC replace placement gears made nice gear boxes. I made 45 to 1 and 72 to 1 gear boxes. 72 to 1 are great for a switcher.
They had Sagami motors at the time. Great gear planing info.
Yes, got off topic. Typical at my age.
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.
To be honest this discussion arose on a couple of HOn3 forums in regard to a chassis for use in kitbashing. Then it turned into what happened to the Roundhouse kits and why only certain ones were released. There have been so many explanations floated we wondered which ones were right.
MDC steam locomotives were among the first loco kits I built. I had the Ten Wheeler...
...and the Consolidation...
...and also ordered the Santa Fe or Espee Atlantic, but the one that was sent was the Pennsy version. At that time, not being a fan of Belpaire fireboxes, I used a mill file to alter the casting. While the locomotive turned out well-enough, the wheel arrangement still looked a bit awkward to me, and I easily sold it for considerably more than it cost.
All three of them were good runners and decent pullers, too, although a bit on the noisy side.
I'm currently working on building a Bowser A-5 for a friend, and it's pretty-much eating drill bits. It's a nice smooth (and quiet) runner, though, and it'll be my first DCC conversion.
Wayne
Gary
Hi there. I built most of the MDC models, all run VERY well except for one Shay, which I suspect would run better if I gave it a chance to break in a bit. I added details to most of them and had a blast doing that... but is there still a market for these kits? You can still find some on Ebay and steam is, well, not as popular as it was. But there is good news: 3D printing has made giant steps these last few years and allows the kit-builders among us to do some pretty cool - and unique - things. Below is an MDC kit I did a few years ago, followed by a porter done with 3D parts in HOn30.
Simon
20190127_171339 by on Flickr" alt="" />
20190501_214822b by on Flickr" alt="" />
Maybe twelve to fourteen years ago I bashed an old time MDC 2-8-0 into a 1855 0-8-0 Winans Camel from a magazine article. RMC or MR. You can look it up in the magazine index. I scanned the magazine.
Cab is styrene. Yes drivers too large but captured the flavor of the prototype. I was able to reproduce the huge steam dome.
It is the short firebox version.
I also have the old MDC Climax re geared with can motor and a Tsunami Micro with small speaker in the roof firing down. Mechanism all fine tuned. Runs very nice. I bought that one online. The fellow has passed away some years ago. He also sent me the book with all parts mentioned that he used. I did the sound. I set it up for ten mph max. Sounds weird running. My only logging loco.
Photos gone because of photo bucket. Once bit, twice shy,
You can still see these occasionally at train shows. I picked up a pair of 4-4-2 kits a few years back for around $75 the pair.
Paul