graz posted:I wasn't really in the hobby when MTH was establishing themselves, but I always assumed that Lionel, under Richard K, was primarily producing reissues for the collector market and charging a premium. MTH was pushing technology and detail that Lionel was slower to adopt in their products.
Not true, keep in mind it was Lionel that introduced command control to the O gauge 3 rail market, MTH came up with DCS after. Plus Lionel under Kuhn did start producing a lot more scale items as well, so Lionel wasn't in effect what Williams did ie producing new versions of old post war trains. No knock on MTH, not meant as that, just correcting a misperception.
Any time you introduce competition to a market, as long as it is not predatory competition, it is a good thing. Having more people enter a market means more interest in it as the choice grows, and I think MTH did that. Kughn IMO gets credit for kickstarting a revival in three rail O and I think MTH helped make it gather steam. Others of course produced some neat products, the WIlliams repros and their brass offerings, Weaver, K Line, all helped as did Atlas entering the market later. I suspect if the 3 rail market had been Lionel only we just wouldn't have seen the breadth of the current market we do today.
