@Rider Sandman posted:Go back and look at the MTH catalogs of the time period. Every edition had countless 18” passenger cars, but nothing larger.
Lionel does make heavyweight 18" cars. I don't think there are any in this catalog but there usually are some. They're nice.
What's weird to me is Atlas bought the 18" MTH tooling and has only done three sets since then. We're in year 3 since they bought the tooling and they haven't even announced more (to be fair, they are doing Amfleet cars though). That's not exactly prolific. And they proved they can get it done. They cranked out those three sets from MTH's factory in the height of pandemic.
It's a weird business decision for Atlas to simply stop. Like you alluded to, MTH did two catalogs a year with anywhere from 8-12 sets of 18" passenger carsper catalog. They were cranking them out and someone (me!) was buying them. MTH did that right up to their last catalog in 2020 so this isn't ancient history. Then they stopped and no one picked up the slack. Neither Atlas nor Lionel has attempted to fill in the gap.
I understand from Lionel's perspective. They're just rolling along doing what they do. But it's a real head-scratcher for Atlas since they actually made the investment in the MTH tooling. Oh well. 
