Hello all, I know this topic has been revisited many times but I would like to revisit one last time. Sorry. I bought a Roundhouse Products Harriman style RPO in St. Louis-Southwestern colors the other day. I did not see in the instructions or on the box anything to tell me when (year) this model was produced. Is there a way to find out? thank you for your assistance in advance. Sincerely Jaijef
I'm not sure if it is even possible to find out what year it was produced. Round House (MDC) kits were produced during the 1970's - 1990's time period, even up until the company sold off to Athearn a year or two ago. I don't know if it really matters what year it was produced. Products were probably molded in a number of runs over the years and I can't see how it would be possible to find out which run unless MDC kept records of this and can make them public.
As I recall, most hobby manufacturers where not huge multi million dollar corporations. If they had their own injection molding machine, they would put a mold base in to make, say, an F-7 'A' unit shell, then run a batch of several hundred. Then the mold was changed and they might run another nearly 100 'B' unit shells. Then they would run several days making under frames, etc. Assemblies were then made by picking pieces from the various tote boxes as needed, so the actual part could be a year or more old before it ever became a salable engine. Libbert Tool & Die Molding Company in Ft. Worth used to have a small Crown Molding machine running 24/7 making nothing but freight car truck castings that were sold to several companies who made cars for the market. So not all manufacturers make all their own parts.
