The catalogue offered more than I expected also. It was great to see the locomotives offered with both scale and high-rails wheels although the rolling stock, including cabooses, does not. One has to choose either scale or high-rail for those. The cabooses are enhanced with LED lighting, including LEDs for the marker lights--a nice touch. The 2-bay, fishbelly hopper is the newly tooled item mentioned by those who had heard about something new. Don Thompsen and Mike Ferraro had planned on introducing this model before the Sanda Kan disaster hit, and MTH is the one to finally bring it to market.
The choices of road names seems well thought out--some for East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast. It's impossible to please everyone, but there seems to be a number of "standard" names plus a few more unusual names to delight those who have been looking for them for many years.
It has been a long wait since 2013, and the choices are nowhere near as wide as O gauge; but it has always been that way. MTH did a nice job with these offerings--SHS quality, a new item, and very reasonable pricing.
