I Would Like to Take a Second and Thank MTH

I agree with your MTH comments. What track are you using on your layout? I only have a 8x10 area & going with scaletrax main street set-up

Very nice Don.

Funny how things went, in some ways. It's great to see the view of people who were there and saw the whole picture.

 Also, meeting the guy spoke volumes to me about what a true train guy he is.

Well said Don!!   Thank you Mike Wolfe

Clem k

Yep, ya gotta love a guy who has the brass to market a burning lR$ office building. 

I know how you feel Don. If it wasn't for MTH, I would have a grand total of three engines in my fleet, and one of them was commissioned by a local train club. For whatever reason, Lionel just doesn't make many Long Island engines. MTH makes them all the time. I know some Lionel purists don't like MTH, but from my perspective, they saved the day. I have a healthy roster of Long Island motive power thanks to them. By the way, I have contacted Lionel and asked them to make more Long Island engines.

Andy

I use and have used Gargraves for four layouts. I do use Ross switches though. Don

Hello Scale rail

I like your closing comment........

"That was a great thing for all of us. I buy from all the train companies now because they make wonderful thing but I know I wouldn't be in this hobby if MTH was not around. Thank you Mike Wolfe"

I agree with you 100% on this issue. MTH RailKing, makes some very cool stuff for the hobby........

Engines, Rolling Stock, Structures, Accessories, & the best thing is the TIU and the DCS Remote Control. Only had to use their service department one time, the engine was 3 months out of warranty and they still repaired it for free. 

I certainly agree with most of your comments, but, did not Williams, who also was very guilty of reproducing old Lionel, blow the first fresh breeze through the hobby

with their brass USRA locos?  Did or did not that come before MTH became active?

The situation now?  I think it has fallen back into the pre-Williams stage, just with

more players making a larger selection of same old things.  Maybe this is because of

economic reasons...not recovered from Recession, crazy supplier situation, rising costs

in once cheaper manufacturing areas, market still stagnet so take no risks,  and not for lack of imagination?  Even Third Rail, which came in like a lion, is reproducing

previous issue of RDC-1's and 2's, as though afraid to step outside the box.

I agree, Thankyou Mike Wolf. By the way, that is one beautiful picture. Is that your layout?

Well put.  I remember those days of the same old stuff.

I remember the first time I ever heard of MTH, I was at the Dover (N.J.) train show and I heard an engine "talk" for the first time! I knew from that moment I had to have one! After that................,Well you know how it goes! 

Eddie, that's my old layout. Bigger and better coming. 

colorado hirailer, Williams did make some nice brass engines and cars. I bought four or five of them. Only problem, one never ran, ever and some others fell apart. I bought the cabforward for over $1200, a beautiful and good running engine but a few weeks later Williams was selling them for around $600. I don't think they changed much in the way of revitalizing the three rail market. A little but not much. Don

MTH certainly forced Lionel to up their game in a big way. They started offering their diesels in 6 and 7 different road names whereas Lionel usually brought out but one or two different schemes per year. Do you remember when Mike presented us with a whole bunch of colorful scale F3s in one catalog?

I well remember our first Rail King Challenger that was built like a postwar GG1 with twin motors powering the two drive engines. It could handle the tight curves and almost overpowered us with the most smoke I'd ever seen!

Yes, they 'talked' but if memory servers me correctly, we had a Williams diesel that had the first 'crew talk' that was unannounced by the company. It surprised all of us in the room when suddenly a strange voice blurted something out! This was probably a QSI sound system which Mike used soon after when he started producing his own items under the MTH name.

As most probably know Mike worked with Williams as a young teenager and then did contract work for Lionel before starting up his own company. He will be remembered for truly rejuvenating the 3 rail O gauge train hobby in the 1990s. Prewar tinplate in both O and Standard gauge, Large Scale, HO, European and other international prototypes, and now S - Who knows what MTH will eventually accomplish in the overall model RR industry?

What did it for me was watching that video he put out in 1995. The Railking Mohawk embarrassed the Pere Marquette Berk with those passenger cars!

Lionel would likely not be putting out the type of product they are now without the stiff competition MTH gave them back then.

 I remember being in awe of the Premier Line Santa Fe Northern. I had never seen such a massive engine in O before.

Sam, I still have that catalog with the F-3's. Did you know they were HO models made by Stewart. What guts Mike had, you got to love it. He didn't even have a prototype yet and he puts out a catalog. Don

I'd like to add to the Thank You to Mike Wolfe as well. Re-entered the hobby a few years ago with a MTH starter set and DCS system. Was away for 30+ years prior and could not believe the selection and advancements in O gauge trains. It was like starting over. That selection and command control and the electronics is what got me back in. Probably would have been back sooner if I had known about all the changes. I am still amazed at the selection and quality of products available from not just MTH, but all the manufacturers. I only remember Lionel from my earlier days in trains.

MTH also seems to have my number, most of my trains are MTH, probably 90%. They have made so much in my chosen road name my budget is usually gone before I get through the each catalog. I can't keep up, and I only have modern diesels, steamers are out of the budget range. Although a couple of the Railking steamers have been tempting. I think all the manufacturers have much more detailed products than in my earlier days also.

Mike Wolfe also shows a genuine enthusiasm when talking about MTH products. I know he owns the company, but he really seems excited about the trains. I am probably not describing my thoughts correctly, but he just seems to have something that's missing from the rest.  My thoughts anyway, after watching some of the product presentations at York one year on youtube. And then seeing some more of Mikes presentations at Trainworld on youtube. He must have good train genes.

I want to make it clear this is in not a disparaging remark about other O gauge companies. 

Living out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean I will not likely ever get to meet Mike. He had the courage to take that giant step in a field that was slowly dying. In my opinion there wouldn't be this forum or the magazine or many of us in this wonderful hobby if it worn't for him. Again, thank you Mike. 

Don

Don,  you should invite him out to see your layout - he just might show up!

I don't want to sound like I'm bashing other manufacturers either. Maybe we should also thank all the other O gauge manufacturers for accepting the competitive challenges presented and improving on their quality and selections. It has all been a great benefit to all of us. Not just MTH's products, but all of the products now available because of them. Personally, I think it's a great time to be in O gauge.

MTH made me switch from HO to O 3r.  When a co-worker brought in his new MTH Rail King N&W J 611 loco.....I had to have one after he told me it was $299!!!

I do hope the market grows to the point  MTH can offer conventional locos again. That $100 difference, back in the day, was a big difference.

At the beginning MTH was putting out 3 catalogs per year. Not sure what year they cut it back to 2 but those were some heady days. 

MTH definitely got me back into the hobby!  I was in a hobby shop in Memphis and saw the BNSF Husky Stack starter set with an SD70Ace.  I heard about the remote and the control you had over everything.  Then I heard about cruise control that maintained speed around curves and over hills.  The sounds and smoke from a fan driven smoke unit.  And the modern looking cars with an beacon on the last car!  I HAD TO HAVE IT!    

Yo, Don...

You're kidding,....right?  A personal invitation from you to Mike Wolf to stop off at MAUI!! (!) on his way to or from a visit to the Orient to check up on the progress on their latest goodies!....You don't think he'd at least CONSIDER it???? 

C'mon, man!!  This is the guy with enough cojones to take on the legal licensing department of the Union Pacific Railroad in order to keep the hobby going....for ALL of its manufacturers!!

And this is the 'BIG guy' who never has hesitated to talk to us 'little guys' at a meet like York.....who answers your questions, welcomes your opinions, encourages your requests!!....who enjoys visiting home layouts!!

And you don't think he's SMART and SAVVY enough to consider a visit to 'the other famous Don' (with all due respects to the late Donald Tai Loy...a.k.a.,Don Ho!) of the Hawaiian Islands???  You don't think a mid-trip offer of a Mai Tai...or two...and a luau would trump the airline food offered on a l---o---n---g intercontinental trip??

I do!

While Mike has had a more lasting effect on the 3-rail community, don't forget K-Line.  They brought us some very competitively priced great looking models.  They just couldn't figure out how to make money doing it.

scale rail,

Don, Your posting,"short stories" like this, brings back those,"Do you remember when feelings?". Then reality puts me in place, reminding me that I am that old.

I never got caught up in the postwar movement, it's been Std Gauge.

Then this company I had never heard of before came along. They brought back electro couplers, they added real sound after a couple years. 

Also brought back the die cast Steam engines, Articulated engines, and diesel smoke where everyone else said at that time it could  NOT be done!

NOt to metion the standard guage tinplate trains too!

Nice thoughts, Don . . . couldn't agree more.

MTH got me going, too.  I think it was 1999, when I was on a business trip to Kansas City and wandered into a train shop.  He had a brand-new KCS E8 diesel and matching passenger cars on display, and I gave him an order right on the spot for a Santa Fe E8 and 7 passenger cars, plus track and a Z4000 transformer.  For a while I had nothing but MTH trains,but, like you, now buy from all of the hi-rail manufacturers.

Oh, for sure Mike Wolf is the single best thing that ever happened to our end of things.

Of course, one has to PAY for the pleasure...but at least there is something - too much - to buy, from everybody.

Coming in "second" (I hate to rate) would be Richard Kughn. And some others, like Weaver - and, though gone, Right-of-Way was offering big brass 3-rail articulateds way

back in the day - including their funky but endearing PRR T-1 4-4-4-4 "articulated".

Funny thing, because of command operating system preferences (I prefer Lionel's

system(s), regardless of loco brand), I tend to buy mostly non-MTH locos, or older PS1 units with an eye to TMCC upgrades. 

Rolling stock, however, is different - I'll grab the purple (or even yellow) boxes first,

when I like the prototype.

One more thing you can't forget--subway trains...those were one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) "can't be done"-s ever. And they became the company's best-selling sets for almost a decade straight.

(Trivia: K-Line was all set to jump into that market too. They were having trouble getting the MTA's attention to procure a license, so Maury K. figured he'd "go over the fence" by cataloging a set of scale R-62 cars, and getting on the agency's radar that way. Kind of like MTH, although in their case it wasn't intentional.)

---PCJ

I agree 100%

It was the relative low cost of MTH Rail King versus Lionel TMCC and Legacy, while providing the same, if not more features, that got me back into the hobby.

Thank you Mike for reintroducing competition, it was a good thing that you did! May you continue to reinvigorate and restore greatness to the toy train market!

Thank you as well for coming to an amicable solution with Lionel in your lawsuit.

You have made a mark in my life, I reentered the toy train hobby in 2005, after a 40 year absence to a different world as a result of inroads you made. As a result, 70% of my stock is MTH and 30% is Lionel! Whereas, if I had been immersed since I was 10, and I had maintained an interest in the hobby all along, most probably, the majority of my trains would be Lionel.

Your innovation and attention to detail on the trains that you manufacture is second to none in addition adding sounds is fantastic. It takes running trains to the next level and makes it a realistic adventure!

Thank you MTH! Thank you again Mike!

Mike Maurice

I too wish a large thank you to Mth and Mike Wolf.  This is not a Bash of LIonel but they turned me off from their products in the late 80's and early 90's because of their inability to offer any type of larger locomotive to the low budget comsumers there were plenty of 2-4-2 and smaller engines but Northerns/ Berkshires/ and the others were over priced for me to reach so this turned me off to Lionel.  Even with this said i did purchase Lionel G-Scale which was given to me as a gift for one christmas from my INlaws. but even with the G-Scale I did not purchase a great deal.  

My Introduction to MTH came with the gift of a Caterpillar 75th Anniversary starter set which i had problems with out of the box. My local shop where my wife bought it also had a loco sound Cat engine which i purchased so that i would have the set under the Tree. That engine ate up 2 proto sound 2 5volt boards and finally got it to work about 6 months after christmas.  This was a turning point for me as i now purchased several Railking steam engines and still have them to this day and except for minor issues and an occassional board issue they still run to this day and i set them up every year at christmas for the neighborhood to see and the kids to watch as well as making a display for the Adult Basic Education Christmas party every year

So Thank you Mike Wolf and MTH for making my christmases happy and rewarding with your affordable Trains

John...

Nothing personal was meant by my response.

I was referring to the fact that money...sustaining/growth income...robust sales/market...customer commitments that support minimum production volumes per run....etc., etc., etc...the things that support expenditures on new tooling, be it for major dies or minor pad printing tooling...perhaps is more lucrative in other markets....Europe...HO?....S?.....    I just look at Mike's several catalogs and the items shown, the items carried over from prior catalogs, new items, etc..  Then I look at what distributors and manufacturers...like Mike...are burdened with and resorting to deep, deep discounts (read: NO ROI portion of the product's sales) in order to move it out.

Then, I find it fairly easy to see where the boardroom discussions re investments in new products have led.

So, pretend the image is not Jerry Maguire.  Rather....in answer to a sales/marketing/customer request...it might be a CEO....like Mike.  Or, his CFO.

You know the cliché...."It's all about the money!"

After all, in comparison to other BIG guys in the hobby Mike is spread pretty 'thin' in a ????economy seeking discretionary monies.  O3R, O2R, HO, S, G, Tinplate O & Standard. 

Rather than respond to your personal investment, suffice it to say that in our family there are TWO of us spending into the hobby....me and my sweet wife.   And, since she is our family CFO and makes all the York reservation/travel arrangements twice a year, she ensures that we do our part to support the hobby!

Okey-dokey?

KD

OK, I got it.

John

Heres my 2 cents mth got me hooked.It was the railking erie berkshire that made me.Switch  from ho to o gauge.I was just not happy with ho trains any more.I could never run a long train.And it was hard to handle as far as puting them on the track.Then with my tax refund I brought a lionel 736 and freight cars.Then I saw a ad for a erie berkshire from a company called mth.Long story short I am happy with mth trains.You can add me to the thank you mike wolf.

Nice sentiment, Don.  I do agree that Mike did "shake up" the toy train/3 rail "0" market.  Because of MTH's innovations, virtually all the other companies had to improve their own products.

I own quite a few MTH Premier engines, mostly Milwaukee Road but also some C&NW.  I love them all and run most of them quite consistently.  The C&NW engines, don't get as much of a work out and sometimes sit on their under layout storage tracks for more than a year, but  when I haul them out, charge up the batteries, away they go and I have a whole new scene to watch.

Oh, I do have a lot of the other manufacturer's products, including Lionel, 3rd Rail, Atlas and Weaver and they get a lot of attention, too.  I actually have six different controllers hanging on the side of the layout, 2 MTH DCS,  2 Lionel TMCC and now, one Legacy regualr controller and most recently a Legacy Cab-1L.  We simply grab the right controller for whatever make of engine we want to run and away we go.

So, Mike has offered so many rare and unusual engine types that virtually all of us have been able to select our favorite engines from our favorite railroads.  And for me, much of that has centered around the Milwaukee Road.  I second your vote:  Thanx Mike!

Paul Fischer

I agree with Don.  I wouldn't have reentered this hobby if it weren't for MTH.

.....

Dennis