Meaning of prefix "MT" prefix on older MTH passenger cars

I'm a newbie so I don't know for sure.

 

Probably a simple mistake in your post. Premier is 20, RK is 30.

 

I went to the MTH site and checked out older catalogs.

 

It appears all items had a 4 digit # back then.

 

They might have used MT as a generic prefix for everything?

 

I'm only seeing 10-, 20-, 30- showing up in Catalog 1997 Volume 2 onward.

 

Maybe because it's late but I don't see anything in that catalog explaining the change.

 

-Brian

Thanks, Hardware, I edited my post.

The MT and RK are old, old codes, early to mid 90's era stuff.  The thing to look at is box color.  Yellow and it's Rail King which are semi-scale/traditional sized.  Purple and it's scale.  Don't quote me on this part, but I believe MT is the same as 20 and RK is the same as 30.  MTH has since updated their website to show the items with the 20/30 prefix.  Type in the number (6019) in the product search and when you find the item listing, you'll see if it's a 20 or 30 and now know if it's scale or not.

This is just a guess on my part, but MT might have stood for Mike's trains? Back in the early days of MTH, the company was known as Mike's Train House.

Original railking boxes were also purple (but said Railking).

You need to look up the item on the website and make sure its a premier line item. Some of the early RK stuff also had MT numbers.

From a detail perspective, they're probably quite primitive compared to the new release cars. The silhouette strips are also long gone. The cars now have interior furnishings and people in them. Probably a lot of molded in details vs. separately applied in the new cars as well.

 

Pretty sure that the "MT" was simply "Mike's Train (House)", as N5CJonny  says. It was a new company in what was actually a new field (quite realistic 3RO equipment) , was unknown and that "MT" would have stood out in ads (mostly paper ones, then).

 

I think that it was just an ID; it may have originated as a "Korean" designation using the Latin alphabet, to distinguish these items from others made for other companies.  

 

(BTW, I see this often, and I see it in this thread, but as we are discussing "wording",

20-series equipment is "Premier", not "Premiere". The second word is French, and has no meaning in English - unless you are using it in the French manner (a movie "premiere", for example).

My post was made with the info and experience I have had.  Of that same era I have a RK-1113LP locomotive.  It is now a 30-1113-1.  Other things I have checked have been MT->20 and RK->30.  But in the end, it doesn't much matter as there is always an exception to the rule.

Maybe MT was a code for no interior? As in "empty"?

For all intents and purposes (FAIP) this...

 

"My post was made with the info and experience I have had.  Of that same era I have a RK-1113LP locomotive.  It is now a 30-1113-1.  Other things I have checked have been MT->20 and RK->30.  But in the end, it doesn't much matter as there is always an exception to the rule."

 

is the answer.  You should be able to type in MT/RK...  and get the equivalent item results back from the locator.

 

FWIW.

Latest rumor is all the new Lionel 21" passenger cars will have new SKU's beginning with NP-6-xxxxx... as in NO PASSENGERS.  Or in deference to Northern Pacific fans, perhaps the new prefix should be PNI-6-xxxxx... as in PASSENGERS NOT INCLUDED. 

 

David

Just an aside, in the real railroad freight world "mt" is short for an empty rail car.

 

Charlie

I'm not near any of my sets but doesn't that destination mean it's s part of a set of cars and a locomotive?

MT - made in Taiwan maybe?

MT was part of the early SKU number. 

30-1111 may not be the same item as MT-1111. Even if it appears to be the same item.

No, MT was not part of the early SKU system. The MT is the prefix for cars included with a locomotive as a set. If you buy the set the loco and cars the set will have the 20-xxxx-x number but the individual components of the set will be MT-xxxx-x. If your cars have the MT designation then they were part of a loco and car set. These are the same cars that were sold in the 5 car sets but we're coupled with a loco and only 4 cars

Fun question...no history easily available discuss MTH part numbering history.

 

However, the 15th anniversary catalog was the first to show Item No.'s. based on the online archive at MTH.

 

When you search the four digit item number, the result is either a 20- or 30- reference that seems to correctly show the item. The Madison coaches of the NYC Empire Builder set in the anniversary catalog show as 20-4005 and in the catalog as Item No. 4005 when only the  four digit number is used.

 

So, Mike's Trains (MT) sounds good to me.