Roundhouse

You understand that's exactly what the "Roundhouse" brand is right? Old Athearn and MDC tooling.

Truth be told, we all had to

Truth be told, we all had to accept low fidelity knock offs when those kits were tooled.

And yes, Accurail crushes Blue Box for what is the same money. (adjusting for inflation)

And maybe Bowser?

Don't Bowser make pretty good cars too? I too, love Accurail. But I also like Bowser. What used to be around $15 is now about $20 or so. But much better than what the old stuff was like. As for buying up the old stuff. Check your LHS. They usually have a bunch of that stuff still around. Selling is not as easy as it sounds. The market is going to be flooded more than it is now.

You understand that's exactly

That's right, so that should be a major clue as to what the buyer would be getting.   

"You got a good point there,

"You got a good point there, Judge/" It was. like a second marriage. the triumph of hope over experience.

athearn blue box. is like

athearn blue box. is like eating at dennys, the food not so great, ambiance is low. but at least you know what you are buying, at any shop.

i have hundreds of the old blue box rolling stock, and ? locos. they all work great out of the box. but the looks are not the best, but back when, it was only about  $2. - $8.usd a car. six axle sd40's locos were about $20.usd each.

and here it is 50 years latter and everything still works great. including the Kadee couplers. (but dropping big bucks converting all wheels to metal,  maybe even go as far as to dcc the locos?)

--need at least a grand - or two,  just to buy the decoders here--.

@ ircman2003 Why disappointed?

Athearn Genesis is $$$

Athearn Ready To Run is $$

Athearn Roundhouse is $

You have purchased products of the $ area and you get $ value, exactly what you have paid for. You also get the grade of detailing you have paid for.

If you expect more details and more correct details go to the Genesis $$$ range, your exspectations will be fullfilled satisfying.

Lutz

Some of Athearn's RTR line

Some of Athearn's RTR line have been surprisingly detailed.  The SD45's and SD40T-2's and switchers, for example.  The GATC covered hoppers were also quite nice although recently they were upgraded to Genesis by adding a few additional details.

Athearn / Roundhouse

I bought one of the new Athearn / Roundhouse GP38-2 engines with the NCE decoder. While the detail is okay for me, the biggest improvement that I liked was the coupler box access is on the bottom, so you turn it over and take the coupler cover off. The previous versions you had to remove the shell, which in itself was like performing surgery. The best part was Athearn adding the NCE decoder. Not having to remove the shell was a major plus. Their last release of engines I bought in the Roundhouse brand, the bodies were 'taped' to part of the engine and we had to take thin blade knives to pry the body out! 

For the money (I bought it on sale from an online dealer), I really have no complaints on their latest runs of engines.

Neal