Do the manufacturers come out with similar things at around the same time to block each other, or because they think the complimentary items actually increase their sales, or a little bit of both? MTH/Atlas does a 44 tonner and now Lionel has one. Scott Mann is coming out with Amtrak locomotives and beautiful scale passenger cars from GGD and Lionel goes hard on Amtrak from roughly the same period in this catalog. Lionel and MTH each came out with a Santa Fe “gold bonnet” Alco PA and cars set at around the same time.
Mind you, the choice is great for us…and It often works beautifully…I can’t wait to see my VL Daylight GS3 pull Scott’s Daylight passenger cars. But I don’t get the thinking behind having the exact same thing like the 44 tonner or gold bonnet PA set within months of another manufacturer.
