First off all, my disclaimer. I don’t work for, nor have any vested interest in MDC/Roundhouse. I wanted to point out what I feel are some great deals running through MDC/Roundhouse direct. They are selling off their N-scale (discontinued) kits. Most are selling for under $4 each and you get free shipping for any order total $30 and over. http://www.mdcroundhouse.com/ I already have several from previous buys, and think the detail is pretty good. The trucks may be junk (Accumates or MT’s will be needed), but they are certainly much better than Bachmann or Lifelike, and on par with Atlas. Hey, for $3.75 for most of the cars, how can you go wrong? I just picked up a bunch of N&W gondolas for a price that I thought I’d never see. So before you are tempted to bid on these on ebay (they are popping up for more $$), check the direct prices at Roundhouse. They are likely selling them for much less than those vultures on ebay.
Hey Bruce, I just looked at the MDC site and did not see the bargains you mention. Their closeouts still seem to be at about $7-$10 for each car. Where on their site did you find these prices?
If you click on the "Buy Direct" link, then "N-Scale Discontinued Kits" link (NOT the first "HO & N Scale Discontinued Bargains" link - this is probably what you went into), you should get there. I just checked, and they are still there. There are dozens of different cars available! It will take you a while to scroll through them all…. [ 09. January 2004, 20:58: Message edited by: Bruce-in-MA ]
Right you are, sir. I followed your link and found the cars. Will be ordering a bunch of them, it looks like.
They also have 12 packs from $45-$60, so still $3.75-$5 a piece. (HO & N discontinued bargain items - N scale bargains) Makes it easy to hit the free shipping mark. Either way you can't loose!
I got an NP Old Timer Consolidation, a 4 car set of NP truss rod old timer cars, and 2 sets of commonwealth trucks from them for $118 total including shipping, a couple weeks ago, when all I was looking for were the trucks for a caboose project. It was one of those online only deals I stumbled on, and could not miss. My shipment arrived one day later too! All the way from Nevada!
Oh boy,..sorry I didn't mean to get anyone into trouble. My N&W gondolas showed up yesterday. They are nice, especially for $3.75 ea. As expected, the modern roller bearing trucks that came with them are junk. I spent some time putting them together because they looked a little nicer than what I've seen come in their other kits. But the wheels on most of them won't roll freely. I even tried a dab of grease with no sucess. Oh well, at least they will make good loads for the gondolas...
I ordered my stuff late on Friday night. Hopefully if it ships on Monday I can have it by the end of the week! I ended up with five gondolas (EJ&E, Milwaukee, N&W, Rio Grande, and MoPac) and seven boxcars (Milwaukee (2), South Branch Valley, Ann Arbor, B&O, Green Bay Western, and Lake Erie Franklin & Clarion). I'm a sucker for shortlines!
Geez Bruce, too bad you're not making commission on these sales.. They just got me for 100 clams.. You could use your commission to buy more cars.. 2lim
Argh! You're right! I should have demanded a comission. What was I thinking? Oh well, as someone with a very tight (and sometimes non-existant) MRR budget, I know first hand how frustrating it can be to be in a hobby that is tough to afford. Deals like this keep us poor folks running trains!
My package from MDC arrived yesterday. Looks like they were out of the MoPac gondola, but other than that it's all there. Really great looking cars. With a little weathering and some M-T trucks they'll be able to serve the Ironton Northern for years to come!
Mine just came to-day. I took the B&O deal (a nineteenth century 2-8-0, three freight cars and a caboose for $118). I added one of each type of thirty four foot Overton passenger cars (there were four different ones for the B&O listed there). Since I am in Washington, mine took a bit longer to arrive than for you gentlemen out West. I took out the locomotive, swapped out the Rapidos for the MDC knuckles (not that those are any good, mind you, it is just that I do not plan to run the 2-8-0 with anything other than MDC nineteenth century cars). I then put it onto the track for break in. It ran beautifully right out-of-the-box, but I continued to do my usual break-in routine with it. As it was breaking in, I changed out the Rpidos on the freight cars. That went well, only one spring launched and I actually found it fairly quickly. Every once-in-a-while, I would look up to change the speed or direction and watch my new little blue puffer-belly chug around the track. I finished the freight cars, put them onto the track on a siding and let my locomotive continue to break in. Next, I tackled the shake-of-the-box passenger car kits, still taking occasional peaks at my little engine with which I was becoming more-and-more fascinated. The assembly of those went well. I did succeed in launching one of the truss rods, but actually found it fairly quickly, as well. I put the passenger cars onto another siding. I stoppped the engine to see what it might look like with a train behind it. I did discover that the spring in the tender's coupler box was a bit too short to allow the tender coupler work properly, so there was a visit to the parts box to secure a proper spring. Next, I hooked up the freight train and off it went. It ran very nicely at 20 SMPH with minimum break in. I alternated passenger and freight trains and became more and more fascinated with this little blue puffer-belly and its little trains. I began to think about the Bachmann Babes and the fact that they have the eight-wheeler in B&O for fifteen dollars with no box, but they are new. To be sure, the B-personn is junk, but some of those eight-wheelers are not that bad--the GF has an excellent example. Add to the above the fact that I recently purchased the new MDC nineteenth century mogul and was quite pleased with it. At some point, I was certain that the MDC would offer it in B&O. I also do know that the MDC does have the fifty foot wood passenger cars in B&O. Now, I did buy the mogul with the intent of bashing it to resemble a 'rebuild'/'update'. The question here, though, is : "Could this be a one-hundred-whatever-dollar purchase that wound up costing thousands?". Please add input here:________________.
Here are some photos of what I picked up with this sale. There are others that I did not show as well as some that are shown that I purchased a few months ago. As you can see I'm a sucker for shortlines.
