I was wondering if anyone else has been a little disappointed in the recent MTH Railking offerings? Don’t get me wrong, I love my Railking engines and I like MTH as a company, so I’m not trying to bash them here. I’m just trying to understand why the Railking line in recent years just seems to be an endless stream of rehashes and repaints. There was a time when I first got into the hobby that I eagerly anticipated the next catalog. However for the past few years it’s been a ho hum experience. It seems like those of us with smaller layouts seem to be forgotten about. My maximum size in my current house is a 5’x12’ layout. I can run some of the smaller scale pieces on O-48 curves, but the bigger stuff is obviously a no go. It’s almost like MTH assumes that the people purchasing Railking products aren’t really serious hobbyists. Like the Railking is a stepping stone from the starter sets on the way to the premier line. In a perfect world I would love to build a huge layout with O-72 curves, but it just ain’t in the cards.
I would LOVE to see Railking versions of a Pennsy T1 or J1 2-10-4. A Railking N&W class A would be awesome as well. I’m sorry, but a C&O Allegheny painted in N&W colors just doesn’t do it for me. Lionel started to address some of these wishes with their Lionmaster line, but it’s almost like they just gave up on it. It’s a shame, because that Lionmaster T1 was awesome! I know Mike Wolf is a big Pennsy fan. I can’t believe that he’s not going to round out the Railking Pennsy line with a 4-4-4-4 and a 2-10-4. They did the Pennsy S2 turbine, and that thing wasn’t used by any other railroad, so the potential for repaints was very limited......but they did it anyway.
I cant remember the last time MTH introduced any new tooling in the Railking line. I guess you could count the Imperial locomotives as a step forward, but that was really just adding a few details here and there. Isn’t it about time for the Railking line to get some love? Maybe a couple of new pieces over the next few years? Perhaps they could also give us something like whistle steam or swinging bell on a couple of the larger Railking locomotives such as the big boy or Allegheny.
Maybe they just don’t think it would be profitable, but from where I stand I don’t see how they could lose.
