Atlas Reveals First MTH Model

Hopefully they will ditch the pin stripes on the Southern Pullman green cars. Sets like those can still be found 2nd hand. The MTH run without the stripes are impossible to find. I never saw a photo of a real Southern car with pin stripes either.

I may be late to the MTH/Atlas deal specifics, but the announcement might infer that MTH is not dissolving but will be doing business in the steam locomotive end of the business. Just a thought.

Edit: Sorry. Just saw another thread on the MTH Pacific steamer being issued. Like I said, I'm late to the party.

That's nice teamwork between the two companies. Personally, I hope the make the Reading and Northern Dome Car again. I missed ordering it the first time and now cannot find one.

@pennsynut posted:

I may be late to the MTH/Atlas deal specifics, but the announcement might infer that MTH is not dissolving but will be doing business in the steam locomotive end of the business. Just a thought.

Edit: Sorry. Just saw another thread on the MTH Pacific steamer being issued. Like I said, I'm late to the party.

Good point.  I don't know what to think about the lack of steam engines in the original announcement and then this announcement.  Maybe there is something there that I skipped over.  I seem to be getting that way more and more.

@pennsynut posted:

I may be late to the MTH/Atlas deal specifics, but the announcement might infer that MTH is not dissolving but will be doing business in the steam locomotive end of the business. Just a thought.

I don't know, but today's MTH e-newsletter says otherwise, as have previous official MTH communications:

"March 24, 2021 - M.T.H. Electric Trains will be releasing a dozen limited-edition releases of the Premier Line 4-6-2 USRA Heavy and PS-4 Pacific steam locomotives later this Summer. These unique releases are part of a series of products representing the last M.T.H. production runs as the company concludes its 41-year history. Each of these offerings is expected to arrive in September 2021."

Again, I have no inside information, but it seems we'll soon hear more from MTH about the disposition of the tooling for the Premier steam engines as well as the RailKing product line. Personally, I'm very pleased with the transactions announced so far--this one with Atlas and the previous one with ScaleTrains--and I'm hopeful about the remaining transaction(s).

Keith, I think your thinking sounds very probable.

I’m detired too!!  I always forget to tell you I like that statement 😄

Wish Atlas would work on the tooling and offer in 20-21"

Absolutely Paul.  I can’t run them on my small layout, but the long cars I see at the Pittsburgh Independent HiRailers setups are fantastic!

Not a big surprise. I suspect these were already in the MTH pipeline and now they just put them in an Atlas box rather than a MTH box. It’s not like they had to start from scratch.

Good choice though. Now it will be interesting to see their first engine.

@pennsynut posted:

I may be late to the MTH/Atlas deal specifics, but the announcement might infer that MTH is not dissolving but will be doing business in the steam locomotive end of the business. Just a thought.

Edit: Sorry. Just saw another thread on the MTH Pacific steamer being issued. Like I said, I'm late to the party.

I’m not sure how that conclusion can be inferred from the announcement. MTH is being sold off, piece by piece.  The only we can infer is that the steam locomotive tooling hasn’t been sold off yet.

@MartyE posted:

Not a big surprise. I suspect these were already in the MTH pipeline and now they just put them in an Atlas box rather than a MTH box. It’s not like they had to start from scratch.

Good choice though. Now it will be interesting to see their first engine.

BINGO!! Atlas doesn’t move that fast and go from acquiring tooling to dealers shelf in 5 months .

@MartyE posted:

Not a big surprise. I suspect these were already in the MTH pipeline and now they just put them in an Atlas box rather than a MTH box. It’s not like they had to start from scratch.

Good choice though. Now it will be interesting to see their first engine.

Of course they’re not starting from scratch.  Why would they?  That would sort of defeat the purpose of acquiring existing tooling, wouldn’t it?

Atlas has basically gained the ability to offer a whole bunch of ready-to-go products that can be built relatively quickly at well-run facilities with a proven track record for turning out quality products.  That has to be an incredibly refreshing concept for a company that has had so many issues bringing its products to market for so many years now.

Now all they have to do is select a former MTH item that they acquired, announce it, take orders, then build it if there’s enough demand...and then put it in an Atlas box.  Boom...just like that Atlas can put themselves back in the “O” game...if they want to be.  My gut tells me there will be many more “quick-to-market” products (at least by Atlas standards!) coming our way.

And if they’re going to coordinate product releases with the entity that becomes of the former MTH, then even better for them...and for those of us who enjoy purchasing/operating products from ALL manufacturers.  I wish Atlas nothing but success with this.  Who says “O” is dead?!?!

A logical starting point to test the waters.  A proven car that was built a bazillion times and the QC won't be as difficult with a car over a locomotive.  A smart move on their part, but in some ways dilutes the brand that has previously been known for scale excellence.

However, it doesn't take a genius to understand that scale excellence takes a back seat to a sound business practice.  Those who enjoy the 18" cars will be very happy and that is good for the market overall.

Nothing here for me; not even in the MTH locomotive tooling they procured, but I'm delighted with this news. I don't want to see these tools go unused or worse; to scrap. Maybe the next announcement will have something I'm interested in.

Well I must say, I'm more than a little disappointed . I thought they would carry on where MTH left off and release a multitude off items with all the molds that they purchased. Like maybe some diesels or premier rolling stock. Not the same old generic MTH passenger cars that aren't really accurate for any RR.
  Was really hoping ..... but , its not to be. I think it has been 5 years now we have been waiting for the Canadian Pacific RSD 7/15 HN. Hopefully we will not have to wait 5 years for Atlas to release an SD70ACu or AC44CW with DCS ps 3.0.

@GG1 4877 posted:

A logical starting point to test the waters.  A proven car that was built a bazillion times and the QC won't be as difficult with a car over a locomotive.  A smart move on their part, but in some ways dilutes the brand that has previously been known for scale excellence.

However, it doesn't take a genius to understand that scale excellence takes a back seat to a sound business practice.  Those who enjoy the 18" cars will be very happy and that is good for the market overall.

What’s the chance that all or nearly all of mth tooling goes into the trainman line. From the photos I’ve seen of the trainman dash 8, they look awesome. This is not to bash mth, if they live on through rail king, I will likely buy a ton, but will wait until the dust settles.

This is basically a fake announcement. "A full announcement with pricing will be available soon with an estimated delivery of September 2021." Its quite obvious this was in the MTH pipeline and the timing just landed such that they'll come out with a change of the box color.

They havent announced anything. No price, no specific offering, nothing. So in that regard, I'll remain cautiously optimistic that this is really just to help MTH sell the steam engines that were simultaneously announced (by showing people that a matching set of cars is going to come too), and help get the "ATH" operation off the ground by getting some orders moving.

I think we all hoped that getting a factory out of this would get atlas back in the engine production business again. I think its been about 3 years since they've delivered a locomotive. Hopefully the "full announcement" is just the April news letter that should be coming in about 3 weeks and it includes a locomotive announcement as well.

Do we know what the pirces will be like on these new pieces?

@GG1 4877 posted:

..".. A proven car that was built a bazillion times and the QC won't be as difficult with a car over a locomotive.  ....

......Those who enjoy the 18" cars will be very happy and that is good for the market overall.

These are 70’ cars, not 18” cars.  18” cars scale out to 72’.  That is why MTH never called them 18”.