I have been looking all over the net for a catalog from the early days of N Scale when MRC was an importer of European made N Scale rolling stock. So far no luck. If anyone has one they could scan for me I would love to see it. I am happy to pay for the cost of scanning and if by any chance someone has an extra or one they don't need, I would happily buy the catalog. Thanks George
Well, the only way I know to actually make one appear... Is for me to say I don't think they ever did one. I well remember the 1967-70 era with N when MRC turned things on its ear in 1969 with the Berkshire, C420, the passenger cars... yet I don't ever remember them doing a set. Remember they only did three diesels (C420, RSD15, FA2) and two steamers (2-8-4 and 2-8-8-2) and hmmm... according to Spook 'maybe' 17 freight cars and the streamline set. I remember them spending a lot of money on full-page ads in MR. I don't ever remember a catalog. I started working for a hobby shop in 1974 and by that time they were no longer importing Mehano and Rowa stuff via MRC. The catalog wonder of that era was the Arnold Rapido one. I have a 1972 one I saved, it's a work of art, particularly for the European layouts in it. The US stuff was pretty much a footnote.
My 1971/1972 JMC Catalog has a four page color MRC insert. The "cover" is useless, two pages are devoted exclusively to sets and the last page lists individual locomotives and pieces of rolling stock, plus the obligatory MRC throttles. Do you want me to scan and send to you? Hardcoaler (Dan)
I know that I have an old catalog from the '70's (before the Walthers catalog came out), but I think that it's a JMC catalog as well. Has most of what was available at the time...maybe 30 pages.
I would have gone with the ads in Model Railroader also. The "Collector's Guide to N Scale" by the late Barry Wingard should have the overall MRC product line listed with catalog numbers.
Didn't MRC have the "Rail Line" sets and the guy who designed the graphics for them win an award? Doug
That I sent exactly what I am looking for. My oldes JMC is 1973, and it only lists the throttles. A scan would be great.
JMC Catalog scan comin' to ya. I remember that MRC took out full page ads to promote their N Scale in MR back then. One ad I remember was devoted exclusively to their RSD-15 and the Santa Fe, with a narrative something like "a pair of RSD-15s can pull a lot of weight". Neat stuff, even if the ad failed to mention that Mehano's model mostly sputtered and stalled. This is mine: http://www.trovestar.com//generic/zoom.php?id=123232 Several years ago I gave most of my 1970-1985 MRs to a model railroad club, but I saved a few. I might try to locate the issues that I kept to see what ads they may contain.
Here's an Atlas ad I found from the December '73 MR for the new F9s. I used the ad a few minutes ago to fill out some TroveStar listings, as I couldn't find these models listed in any of my catalogs. I was a high school kid in '73 and scraped together $20 to buy one in C&NW to pull my Arnold Rapido C&NW Bi-Levels. I quickly realized that I'd been had. These were of typical Roco build at the time and were just awful. I still have the body shell and truckless chassis, though I'm not sure why.
The MRC phraseology for one ad was something like, "Santa Fe RSD-15s don't just roll freight out of San Francisco, they RUN it." My RSD-15 still runs like a champ. Quiet and strong. So does my C-420. You must have gotten a lemon. Unfortunately, although a Mehano could run excellently, their quality control (if they had any) was awful and bad ones got through regularly. This was the same with the Atlas-released ones. Some were really good and some were bad. There were many full page ads dedicated to the Berkshire too and those were/are wonderful locomotives. Freight cars first came from Sekisui (Kato) and then from Mehano. The Sekisui ones were much better in quality, of course. I have decided, over the years, that the main problem with the Atlas/Roco locomotives was soft brushes which clogged up the commutator slots and caused no end of trouble keeping them running smoothly. I still have mine and, these days, they run very well. I believe, through time, the binder in the brushes has dried out a bit and results in harder brushes which now work fine. Doug
Yep, that was the tagline aright! A pretty cool ad. You must be right about Roco. My C-420's had only one truck powered and they wobbled along. The exception is an Altas GP-9 that I have that runs pretty well.
Those Yugoslavians in those days had a heck of a time drilling a hole right in the middle of a wheel The Austrians were pretty good at it. They just needed to work on their brush formulation. Doug
