MTH Headquarters?

Their headquarters is in Columbia, MD not to far west of Baltimore. And they are in their own building. I have been there a few times, years ago for our fire company's annual Christmas display picking up items and repairs. I'm not sure if their display area is open to the public.

They do indeed have the whole building, much of is is a really large warehouse in the rear.  I was pretty much all over the building when I went to the ASC class.  As noted, they don't have a standard "open to the public" visitors center, but I suspect it's not hard to arrange a visit if you wanted to.

I was at MTH this summer for business...I only live an hour south. The showroom is only open by appointment within a certain time window. Call and follow the prompt for more info/set up an appointment. 

I disagree that you'll see more MTH products at York. See my post HERE 

I took the tour several years ago that was offered by OGR/MTH/Tony Lash.  Wow, the showroom is a lot fuller than when I was there.  The tour of the rest of the place is mostly warehouse, test area, and there is a prototype area that we got to see.  At the time the huge standard gauge engine was being worked on.  We saw the unpainted prototype.  Bear Lead has one of the finished product in his arms in his Avatar.

.....

Dennis

I miss those tours...good times...sigh. 

---Greg

York display layouts of the "big three" suppliers (Lionel, MTH and Atlas-O) have ALL scaled back for several years now.    Not sure what precipitated the change, but it all happened pretty quickly.  MTH's was always a "best of show" in my opinion, followed by Atlas-O, and then Lionel.  The current York layouts PALE in comparison to the former layouts of 8-10 years ago.  What the heck happened???    Besides the economy...

As for the MTH "showroom".  It's world class all the way, as shown in SJC's photos.   Even with limited visiting hours, it's easy to arrange a visit for the asking.  Just pick up the phone... doesn't get any easier than that.

David

I have been there many times to go to school and visit with Mike.  It is a very cool place and like the guys stated if you call ahead someone will show you the layout   If you can get a full tour, you will be very impressed.  If Mike is in, he will usually come out to say hello and take a picture.

Just received a few days ago an email with this link:

http://www.collector-modeltrai...he-mth-headquarters/

Looks like an oval of Atlas track in one of the "inside" look pics, lol.

This is a picture of their test track table, which is "in the back" where you pick up repairs.

MTH headquarters Service Station, Columbia Maryland - July 2014

I don't live far away and I'd love to get a tour sooner or later.   Perhaps one of these days a few of us can schedule one together and grab a bite and beer afterwards.

Best...Rich

IIRC, MTH scaled back their York layout after their show trailer was stolen from a hotel parking area in or around Cleveland, OH a few years back and within a few weeks of a York meet.  Since then they used their much smaller layout at York.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...754#9595974428305754

I was just there on President's Day with my train-loving daughter, Isabella. It wasn't "incredible" but it was enjoyable and they did make us feel welcome. We had made an appointment the week before.

Go by it almost every day!

Choo choo!

I was on the last Tony Lash/MTH Tour and I had a really great time. I miss those tours too. I never got to take the Weaver tour. I enjoyed getting to see MTH's headquarters. It was very interesting. 

If I recall correctly, at some point (maybe 5-6 years ago?) all the companies agreed to scale back for at least one of the 2 meets, but the scaling back  seems to have now taken effect at both meets.

For quite some time, the sentiments expressed in some of the above posts were probably true.  MTH brought a pretty big layout each time, and for a while Lionel didn't set up anything quite as large. 

Lionel went through some trial changes for a few meets (anyone remember the display that closed off the corner and looked like the tinplate Power House? - I think that one was deemed a failure since it shielded the product until you walked inside). 

When they had the larger layout built and the large overhead display (with the full set of 6 "towers" for starter sets supporting the over head), that was definitely a sight to see!  More recently, the overhead component has not been set up and I think they may sometimes bring less than 6 of the towers (may have been 4 a few times if I recall).

Atlas O's display also underwent transformation to get more elaborate in this time frame, I believe.  All of the companies were trying to not fall behind the others.

I think this precipitated the agreement to scale back by all parties and it's been that way since, for the most part.  MTH now uses a lot of their space for the seminars and Lionel (in recent meets) has had a smaller table set up to the side to show some LCS stuff on a small simple loop layout.

The rationale I recall hearing was that each company was spending a lot of money each meet to bring all the big layouts, and they felt it was wiser to put that money towards product development.  I forget which manufacturer was explaining this (might have been Mike at the TCA museum at the time, but it also might have been one of the other players)

-Dave