Atlas and MTH Electric Trains....GOOD NEWS!

I started up with DCS, moved up to Legacy and have never looked back. I dumped the last of my DCS engines in favor of Legacy. MTH has some great looking engines and cars that I really like and own. Just never was happy with DCS operations once I bought my first Legacy engine.

I do hope that Atlas will offer the MTH engines with TMCC/Legacy control.

It's not how many whistles and bells one manufacturer has over the other, rather it's the quality of the product first, and then the features that best meet the need of the user without over whelming the operator with a lot of nonsense features.

RAY

@pdxtrains posted:

I hear you. I think I may have one last MTH RailKing I'll buy while I can, and a set of passenger cars. But then it's LC+. I'm also a toy train guy and not a modeler, so there are certain LC Starter Sets that knock me out and I buy, particularly passenger sets. That Blue Comet Lionchief set from a bit back was a real winner, as was the Santa Fe set.

Yep, there's a lot to be said for the LC and LC+ (1 and 2) offerings. I really like my LC+ Mikado....it does 95% of what I use TMCC for.....remote, coupler, crew talk, bell.  Same for the LC Thomas set we bought years ago. Winners!

I was all Lionel until a couple years ago when I saw my brother-in-laws Premier and got hooked on MTH, especially for the speed control and 4 chuffs.  When I saw I could get that in Rail King for my smaller layout, I jumped into DCS even though I had no permanent layout (in progress).  They've only seen carpet central around the Christmas tree, but I love them.  If MTH was staying around, I might've started replacing my old TMCC with PS3 RKs, but not now, at least not unless someone picks up the RK line.

Could be a lot worse. These are "first world problems" and I'm grateful for what I have.

This is a great 1st step!  So I am now looking forward to the next announcement!  What I hope to see is more on steamers and early generation diesels (F, FA, PA, etc) as well as buildings, track products and other accessories.  Further, it would be nice to see DCS advance to still another level, whatever that may be.  No offense intended here, but I am also hoping that some party other than Lionel gets many of the remaining pieces.  The hobby has benefited from competition both in innovation and pricing and fostering that would be in all of our best interests!

@ncdave posted:

I’m hoping Atlas will be able to produce a PS3 and a TMCC/Legacy edition of the same engine. This would appeal to both sides of the O Gauge market. IMO it would be a big mistake for Atlas to drop the TMCC/Legacy license.

Yup. Hoping MTH engines will be available with TMCC/Legacy. I have no real interest in adding DCS and running two different control systems. It'll be interesting to see how Lionel decides to work in the mix. Complicated - are they better off continuing to work with Atlas O on offering the RailSounds/ERR stuff, or letting Atlas O go, and move a different direction and switch over to DCS. How does Atlas O see the market?

As others have noted, one has to wonder what Atlas O - with its apparent issues with getting product to market in a timely fashion - is going to do to ramp up in order to be able to handle the additonal load of marketing MTH product.

It seems reasonable that Atlas got a pretty good deal on the MTH items. After all, how many companies were in a position to buy these MTH product lines? MW couldn't sell it after working a year to find a buyer (reportedly). Could have been Atlas O's offer or nothing. MW had a choice to take this offer at the zero hour, or else sit on it and end up getting nothing. We won't know, but it seems logical that Atlas O had a lot of leverage.

@Ray of sunshine posted:

I started up with DCS, moved up to Legacy and have never looked back. I dumped the last of my DCS engines in favor of Legacy. MTH has some great looking engines and cars that I really like and own. Just never was happy with DCS operations once I bought my first Legacy engine.

I do hope that Atlas will offer the MTH engines with TMCC/Legacy control.

It's not how many whistles and bells one manufacturer has over the other, rather it's the quality of the product first, and then the features that best meet the need of the user without over whelming the operator with a lot of nonsense features.

RAY

This is why I upgraded from TMCC to DCS and sold my Legacy system due to it's lackluster and somewhat overcompensating nonsense features.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Sadly, I don't see any steam in the announcement.

Yes, that is going to be too bad that we don't see steam, apparently Atlas isn't interested in the steam program, and perhaps it's complexities.

Just read this from a Mr Muffin’s Trains email:

MTH plans to continue production and distribution of the remaining products under the MTH brand. We have been discussing with MTH on the production plan for the balance of 2021.

Possibly this is big news???

@David Ogletree posted:

Just read this from a Mr Muffin’s Trains email:

MTH plans to continue production and distribution of the remaining products under the MTH brand. We have been discussing with MTH on the production plan for the balance of 2021.

Possibly this is big news???

Is this really true?

Here is the entirety of the announcement in an email sent this evening for those who don’t receive them:

MTH and Atlas announced today the purchase by Atlas of O Gauge Premier Tooling from MTH and Atlas moving their O Gauge product production to MTH's facility in Asia. The purchase included basically 20 different diesel models; 18 different freight cars; and all of the 18" passenger cars.

MTH plans to continue production and distribution of the remaining products under the MTH brand. We have been discussing with MTH on the production plan for the balance of 2021.

From Atlas' press release:

"Rolling stock molds acquired  include the  4-Bay Hopper, Coalporter Hopper, PS2CD High Side Hopper, 40' PS1 Box Car, 55' All Door Box Car, 2-Bay Centerflow Hopper, 3-Bay Centerflow Hopper , Steel Caboose , 50' High Cube Box Car , PS2 2-Bay Hopper, 20,000 Gallon Tank Car, 50' Airslide Hopper, Russell Plow, 8000 Gallon Tank Car, Funnel Flow Tank Car, Modern Tank Car, Crane, Crane Tender, 100 Ton Hot Metal Car, Rapid Discharge Hopper, 75' Depressed Flat Car, Scale Test Car, 2-Bay Offset Hopper, Operating Coal and Log Dump Car, Premiere 70' Heavyweight Passenger Cars, Premiere 70' Streamline Passenger Cars and Amfleet Cars."

"Locomotive molds include the E6A/B and E8A/B, 44 Tonner, Amtrak P42 Genesis, Dash 9, SD45, F40, U30C, SD70M-2 with SD70Ace, GP38-2, SD70ACe, SD70MAC, GP40, S2, SD40-2, GP30, ES44AC&DC with ES44DC and GEVO ES-44."

"In addition, Atlas has also acquired the following accessories from MTH’s Railking Line: Water Column, 22 figure sets, Operating Traffic Light, Motorcycle Pack, Pedestrian Crosswalk, Floodlight Tower, Sanding Tower, Road signs, Telephone Poles and the Operating Modern Crossing Signal."



Atlas is planning their first product announcements for the end of next week - they are  ready to start making trains using MTH's tooling.

Atlas also announced they have licensed MTH's DCS technology and will be using it in their future products.

hope they continue the dcs side of things in thier products. good news for now.

From Mr Muffins email ...

"MTH and Atlas announced today the purchase by Atlas of O Gauge Premier Tooling from MTH and Atlas moving their O Gauge product production to MTH's facility in Asia."

So ... Atlas will be producing their own engines in the MTH facility?! If I'm reading that correctly, and that's what Steve meant .... GREAT News

“MTH plans to continue production and distribution of the remaining products under the MTH brand. We have been discussing with MTH on the production plan for the balance of 2021.“

Just trying to understand. So is this saying that MTH will continue making the last products they planned to make for 2021 OR MTH will continue as a company and make products from the tooling they have left that they didn’t sell to Atlas?

Yes, at Mr. Muffin's zoom meeting tonight, it was discussed.  Atlas will be a major player in O Gauge using MTH/DCS in a big way.   MTH's people will continue to make limited runs with the remaining products and we will likely see even more short line stuff moving forward.  We will likely also continue to see MTH steam engines and subways.  They may still sell more parts off to other manufacturers.  But it's a very exciting time again for MTH fans AND Atlas O fans!

There's some ambiguity in the announcements.  Mr. Muffin says Atlas will be producing locos with DCS yet the Atlas annoucement/MTH announcement says they have the option of producing DCS.  Sounds like there are some details that haven't been fully decided, but perhaps it's just a disparity in the wording that means nothing.   

From the Atlas website:

"Atlas has also acquired a license for the MTH Proto-Sound 3 Sound & Control Electronics Boards, which adds realistic sounds to locomotives and also allows control via DCS (Digital Command System). Part of the license will give Atlas the option to sell DCS components as well."

If they do, I wonder if DCS will remain a closed system with lawyers waiting to go after anyone who tries to operate DCS with anything other than MTH equipment?  That won't maximally promote the use of PS3 locos I'd guess.  Will there be a new sheriff in town who won't be giving out parking tickets?

Will be interesting to see what Atlas does and doesn't do, and what the putative MTH DCS company does and doesn't do about these issues.  As one of our forum members has shown, you can use other devices (Lionel universal LionChief remote) to control DCS and Legacy locos.  There is no technical barrier, only legal barriers.  It's not clear Lionel would continue to license the most widely used system in 3 rail, TMCC, to Atlas, if they don't open their locos to control by Lionel products.

Personally, I won't be buying much Atlas product if it only has PS3 and is not operable by at least some of TMCC/Legacy/LionChief controllers. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that, so there's a lot of unanswered questions at this point, which is not surprising given it's early in process.

Finally, one of the attractions MTH fans have touted is pricing a bit lower than Lionel's. Atlas is not known as a low end producer in terms of product pricing.  Will the pricing of these new products be more like Atlas's previous products, or MTH's?  Time will tell.

I’m so happy for Atlas.  They’ve been in the model train business for a LONG time...a good, solid company.  Unfortunately, they ran into a series of well-documented overseas manufacturing problems after getting involved in the “O” gauge/scale business that at times has brought production—especially locomotives—to a halt.  IMO, they’ve built great products (strong, reliable performance) when they’ve actually been able to get them to market.

Being able to have the newly-acquired MTH tooling produced at MTH’s well-established production facility is a HUGE win for Atlas.  They are almost instantly “back in the “O” game”...and have already indicated so by saying they’ll be announcing their first product next week.  Think about it.  These will be the same products that have been produced at the same facilities for many years, except now they will have an Atlas box instead of MTH.  That’s pretty turn key if you ask me!

And I’m so happy for all of us with an interest in “O” because competition should now remain, and I view that as a very good thing.  Having Lionel, AtlasO, Sunset/3rd Rail...and possibly some newly-formed or reconfigured company producing/selling the MTH RailKing and other remaining products...that sounds great to me.  

Congratulations and best of luck to Atlas!

I wonder if Atlas will release more of the MTH line-up in 2 rail?

Like some of the models that never got the 3/2 trucks. Their modern switchers for example.

Will the one gauge line-up continue under the MTH label?

Good news for sure. I read that they will keep the DCS. Looking forward to getting Atlas engines, hopefully steam, with DCS.

Tom

Just thinking a bit further.  If Atlas is trying to do this with minimal capital outlay, which is the low risk way,  redesigning these locos to incorporate TMCC is a non-starter.  The least expensive way for them to do this is continue using the tooling that incorporates PS3.  So that's almost certainly what it's going to be is my guess.  That's what the factory or factories are currently doing, so the least expensive way to proceed is PS3 only.  Say goodbye to TMCC in Atlas locos would be a good guess too.

Absolutely terrific news and a great offset to the last year's gloom of MTH closing.  I look to the new offerings as well as the custom runs.  Hopefully my wallet is as enthusiastic

Sadly , as. Fairbanks Morse Guy ...

I'm not seeing the H10-44 Switcher or the C-Liners or the Premier Train Master ...