Athearn and Roundhouse kits: Worth it?


AstroKnight187

AstroKnight187

Active Member
I have many Athearn BB and Roundhouse kits stored away waiting to be built; do they still hold up to today’s standards? Are they worth building? How much are they worth today (on average)?

I’m talking about rail cars, so locomotives do not count.
 
I have a Athean BB shake the box kit my daughter bought and assembled for me. Today's newer cars have plenty of fine almost scale details that are prone to breakage even in the best handling situations. The BB kit, it has held up these past 40 years stir ups and brake wheel still intact. When she wasn't looking, only added metal wheels and tuned the couplers to run better. Yeah, they're worth it.
 
Based on my experience with ebay, if they are complete kits they are generally worth more unassembled. People like to build them their own way.

I have lots of Roundhouse and Athearn on my layout and I am fine with them. They hold up much better to handling than the ones with every minute detail.



Dave LASM
 
AstroKnight187 said:
I have many Athearn BB and Roundhouse kits stored away waiting to be built; do they still hold up to today’s standards? Are they worth building? How much are they worth today (on average)?

I’m talking about rail cars, so locomotives do not count.
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They are not as detailed as many of today's offerings, but they are also not as fragile. Approximately half of my 800 car fleet is Athearn and Roundhouse. 20% is Accurail and the rest are more recent RTR cars. All were upgraded with metal wheels and Kadee couplers. I have weathered many and one cannot tell the difference between them and the fancy expensive ones from the normal viewing distance of 3', especially when running. My only real issue with them are the huge "claws" on the bottom of boxcar doors, which as time permits I will remove and glue the doors in place.
 
AstroKnight187 said:
I have many Athearn BB and Roundhouse kits stored away waiting to be built; do they still hold up to today’s standards? Are they worth building? How much are they worth today (on average)?
Click to expand...
Do they hold up to today's standards of detail - absolutely not.
They are "shake the box" kits so "building" them isn't really an issue.
Brand new un-built ones on e-bay are going from $6 to $26 depending if they are straight Athearn or if they are like Bev-Bel or other custom paint.

Having said that. If one is going to be doing some serious operating of a layout, especially with other folks running the trains, you want a nice durable cars like the Athearn BB and Roundhouse that can take the punishment. Some of these new highly detailed cars for instance by Scale Trains and Rapido get broken just putting them onto the track, let alone in a wreck.

How much detail do you NEED is the real question. I can pretty much guarantee 95% of the non model railroad folks viewing your layout won't notice the difference.
 
Iron Horseman said:
Do they hold up to today's standards of detail - absolutely not.
They are "shake the box" kits so "building" them isn't really an issue.
Brand new un-built ones on e-bay are going from $6 to $26 depending if they are straight Athearn or if they are like Bev-Bel or other custom paint.

Having said that. If one is going to be doing some serious operating of a layout, especially with other folks running the trains, you want a nice durable cars like the Athearn BB and Roundhouse that can take the punishment. Some of these new highly detailed cars for instance by Scale Trains and Rapido get broken just putting them onto the track, let alone in a wreck.

How much detail do you NEED is the real question. I can pretty much guarantee 95% of the non model railroad folks viewing your layout
AstroKnight187 said:
I have many Athearn BB and Roundhouse kits stored away waiting to be built; do they still hold up to today’s standards? Are they worth building? How much are they worth today (on average)?

I’m talking about rail cars, so locomotives do not count.
Click to expand...
For those who are asking about detail, I don’t really care as long as it looks nice
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