Is there room for the old MDC/Roundhouse business model anymore?

urodoji Feb 4, 2018

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  1. urodoji

    urodoji TrainBoard Member

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    Remember when you could go pick up a 6 dollar kit, throw some MTL trucks and couplers, and with a few minutes of work, have a car with decent printing and decent detail for 10 to 12 bucks? Is there still room in the marketplace for a shake the box kit?

    It was a great way to build up a large roster, and honestly, I’d rather have a 12 dollar model with good enough detail than a 25 dollar model with separately applied brake detail that can’t be seen unless it derails.
     
  2. Scott_ATL

    Scott_ATL New Member

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    Personally, I love the old school "build your own" kits and would purchase them if they were more readily available near me.
     
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  3. EMD F7A

    EMD F7A TrainBoard Member

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    I think the true generation of modelers came well before mine (34 now), my generation is used to having every little thing available to buy, ready to go. The kits don't sell much now, people "want it now". A look around the LHS now shows that I'm part of a shrinking demographic, and you may be too. I'd put a lot of money into kits like that, but I like to build.

    Saw a $63 hopper on eBay. GOOD LORD NO. This hobby will always be expensive but 1.5oz of plastic and paint for a tank and a half of gas? I gotta pass..... I'd rather spend my $63 on a GP7 or a built up Woodland Scenics building (or at ~$40 each, nearly TWO!)

    SO, yeah there's certainly a market but would it justify a new production like that? Likely not for a manufacturer, no...
     
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  4. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    With the price of the hobby slowly excluding some people from even getting in the hobby it could do some good. Nothing like setting in your workshop on a cold wet rainy day and putting together a small train. Builds your skills, and is great fodder for kit bashing. I remember taking a boxcar shell cutting it in half, and then gluing the left over end to the new short body, and putting a wood deck on the old underframe. Presto, I had a M of W car that I mounted a dozer on the flat portion. Still have that car.

    Tichy Trains, formerly Dimi Trains still makes kits, and I have assembled dozens of their gondola kits and put MT trucks and couplers under them. They still seem to sell well.
     
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  5. bill pearce

    bill pearce TrainBoard Member

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    Is there still room in the marketplace for a shake the box kit?

    There should be, but, well, that train has left the station. We are at least 2 generations short of folks that enjoy the art of using their hands to build something. Maybe we have spent too much time teaching kids to have self esteem rather than showing them how to build it. And maybe we've just plain got lazy.

    The woodworking folks have got it with great success. The manufacturers have devoted some real money to supporting magazines for their hobby, and supporting television shows on both public and cable television. I'm only aware of one model railroading show on TV and it's just an overview of things with no how-to aspects. Many manufacturers have failed to support the print media to the degree that power and hand tool makers have suppoerted print. It seems unbelievable that the woodworking folks can support things like Fine Homebuilding and Fine Woodworking and we can have only one really successful magazine. And what about local stores? We as model railroaders are noted for our cheapness, but we were the enablers, we enabled the store owners to commit suicide but rushing to the internet. That helped kill people like MDC/Roundhouse.

    We may prove to be the makers of our own doom.
     
  6. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    I forgot about those kits and the joy of building them, often in hotel rooms on business trips after a visit to a local hobby shop. They were a cinch to put together, yet yielded a smile and satisfaction. In the early days of N, Atlas offered kits and later, even Kadee offered them.
     
  7. JMaurer1

    JMaurer1 TrainBoard Member

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    There was a time for shake the box kits but the market seems to have said it wants pre-built...engines, rolling stock, buildings, etc. I too spent many a delightful evening building kits when I was traveling. I LOVED putting together the IM kits (not shake the box)...but then it's been awhile since I did one and I seem to remember a time or two when it didn't seem to be much fun (tanker handrails ALWAYS broke). I would also bring undec cars (pre-painted BCR) to decal while traveling. With paint mfrs and decal mfrs going out of business...it says that the 'new gen' modelers don't want to model, just buy and use. I think that they are missing out of a HUGE part of the hobby, but it isn't up to me. Same thing has happened in my other hobby, radio controlled cars and planes. Kits are going by the wayside and RTRs dominate the market (but how do you fix it when you break it...and you WILL break it). Immediate gratification...god. I'm sounding old.
     
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  8. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    I too like to build IM cars when staying in a hotel while working away from home.
    Years ago I used to stay in a truck camper for a couple months a year. For several years while staying in my camper I built cast metal N scale log buggies. I believe they were made by Quality Craft and came in a bag of 3 cars. I built a fleet of around 40 cars.
    Most of the log buggy kits were found in the $1.00 junk bin, often an old glass candy jar. Most local hobby shops had some sort of clearance box or bin filled with odd detail parts or small lamps with soldered on leads or telephone poles or talgo couplers. Every time I stopped in a hobby shop I would check the junk box for these kits
    I learned a lot building these kits, drilling and tapping "square" ie; perpendicular 00/90 holes, getting the bolster holes drilled on centerline, filling away parting lines and painting with an airbrush.
    I also learned to make nice log loads and patience untangling that darned 40 lpi chain.
    For a few years after a divorce in 1991 I squirreled away a bunch of craftsman kits and scratch building supplis. Many of the manufacturers are long gone. I built a few kits but most still remain untouched.
    I've a few more years until retirement. Now I'm glad I bought those kits back then

    .
     
  9. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

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    I think that there are still a few of us that wouldn't mind a shake the box kit, there are some of us that want N Scale laser cut car kits....
     
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  10. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I enjoyed building the IM cars. Bought dozens of kits. Enjoyed building many other items, including laser kits.

    I still do try now and then, but what takes the rest of you a short time, can be days of frustration for me! Life catches up with some of us, so those who would look down, pass judgements you should never make. We don't all simply want RTR, etc. That is a very errant blanket thrown over the whole. An assumption I see every time this conversation arises.

    And then there is the time factor. Many do have legitimate reason, and RTR solves their minimal time availability issue. At least they are still active in our hobby, which benefits us all.

    See the entire picture, not just the narrow view desired.
     
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  11. BNSF FAN

    BNSF FAN TrainBoard Supporter

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    I would like to see something like those old MDC/Roundhouse kits on the market. I still occasionally pick those up at shows. I have whole fleets of box cars, tank cars, and hopper cars from them. They were great easy to assemble kits that with M/T trucks and couplers added run great and look good. One didn't need much skill or a ton of money to put together a decent sized trail of these cars. Athearn has offered several of the old MDC/Roundhouse cars as pre assembled models but somehow they just aren't the same.
     
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  12. urodoji

    urodoji TrainBoard Member

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    I have no nostalgic feelings about IM kits. Those things are are kryptonite to me.
     
  13. nd-rails

    nd-rails TrainBoard Member

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    Agreed on the 'kits' (barely as such). Perfectly acceptable in many ways once the wheels/ trucks were sorted/ changed. And in my own case, starting about 2003, the only range of mainly transition era cars available for the Grande.
    regards dave
     
  14. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Besides the Dimi Trains, now Tichy Trains, kits I forgot to mention the laser kits which are all wood for various roads cabooses. A bit of a challenge for the novice builder but filled a gap where there are no plastic ready to run. I've got at least four of them. Then there is the pickle car, just supply the 42 foot flat, another challenging but rewarding kit. And another wood kit.
     
  15. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    Talk about shake the box:
    A late friend was a Precision Scale dealer, so I purchased and put away a few On3 Shay kits. They are a shoe box full of brass castings and a motor.
    I break out in a cold sweat every time I walk by one. Not touching them until retirement.
     
  16. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I have quite a few of the old MDC cars in my fleet. Like many here, I don't have loads of time to model like I used to. School, work, family activities (soccer, karate, church , etc, etc) and sleep leaves very little time for me to play trains any more.

    The bug has bitten again, though, and I'm looking into doing a shapeways model of an obscure coal gon--FMC 4200 cu ft high side steel rotary gon, used in CCTX (Coleto Creek power) trains on D&RGW). The more I read and search for it, the more photos I see of it, the more I want to build a trainset of them. No model exists in ANY scale, so it's scratchbuild, kitbash, or custom paint a totally wrong car for a foobie. I like RTR, but I want to build still. The ranks of modeling manufacturers (paint, decals, details, raw materials) has thinned over the last 20 years, but no time or otherwise, I still enjoy building stuff.
     
  17. ArtinCA

    ArtinCA TrainBoard Member

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    You mean the guys with the 4000 sqft shop with every power tool under the sun that makes little boxes and has problems setting up his equipment? Yeah, the manufactures are doing well.

    Kit building is a lost art because no one has "time". It's hard to work on anything when you have a million other things going on. Back in the day, you had time when you got off work to come home and piddle around with your hobby before dinner and bed. Now, there's so much else that needs to be done, who has time? Or like me, you're gone for 10+ hours a day.

    Should someone do it? Oh heck yeah! Why? Because people that are working with a limited budget need a way to get into the hobby. HO has Accurail. Tichy is there, but N would do good with an Accurail. And maybe someone crazy enough to make a cheap loco or two, like F's, GP and such. In both HO and N.
     
  18. tehachapifan

    tehachapifan TrainBoard Member

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    Always loved those MDC kits! Have quite a few running on the layout and they fit right in with everything else I have.
     
  19. prbharris

    prbharris TrainBoard Supporter

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    We still sell a lot of the metal kits from www.nscalekits.com though this is mainly for low centre of gravity cars like double stacks, intermodal, flat and logging cars.

    We have access to a good laser cutter now - for our wood cut decks. So let me know what laser cut car kits would work and we will see what we can do!

    Peter

    Peter Harris
    N Scale Kits
    www.nscalekits.com
     
  20. Maletrain

    Maletrain TrainBoard Member

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    How about some B&O I-5 cabooses? They are somewhat distinctive, with their centered cupolas and peaked roofs. And, there are plenty of variations, including sliding windows on the cupola sides for the more modern ones, and the variety of configurations of missing windows from the standard 4-per-side arrangement. If you do these, remember that B&O put their ladders on the left side as you look at the end of the car.

    The only problem with doing them as laser cut wood is that the ends were steel, not wood. Maybe use castings, which would help as weight, too?
     
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