MTH enters S scale market

You know what they say Jim, competition is good for the market and good for customers.

Now that MTH has entered the S scale market I'll bet that the offerings coming from Lionel with their American Flyer line will also increase.

 

One of the problems with S scale is that until now no large manufacturer has really tried to develop that niche of the market. That will soon change as more and more product and accesories find themselves available to modelers.

 

Steve Tapper 

Steve

 

We need to recognize how well S helper did fill that niche market, developing a nice line of Flyer compatible track well before there was a fastrack product of any kind. They offered a variety of locomotives and detailed freight cars quite like an Atlas product. The company offerred train sets and published catalogs for a number of years.

 

Likewise with Lionel, their investment in an S gauge fastrack product and those detailed steamers of recent demonstrates an interest in my opinion. This year we have a stand alone Americn Flyer catalog for the first time in more than 40 years.

 

I hope that MTH continues the fine approach of S helper to the scale. I think that the downturn in the economy and the consolidation in the orient really hurt these people and the scale. 

 

It seems to look good for S gauge at this time

It's actually pretty amazing how much SHS has put out in the past 20 years.  They may not have put out the mega-catalogs like Lionel and MTH, but for a small company, the two guys from Jersey did all right.

 

Even American Models, even though they only put out one catalog a couple of years ago, has put out quite a fair variety of equipment  since 1985.  Hopefully AM will get rolling again soon.

 

Add in the new scale proportioned stuff Lionel/Flyer's been doing since about '03, although all hirail 'till this year, River Raisin, S Scale America(formerly Pacific Rail Shops,) the dearly departed Omnicon and Southwind Models, plus Overland's brief foray into S many moons ago, there's been quite a bit available in a scale where "nuthin's available!"

 

Now, if we can get Woodland Scenics and Walther's involved in making S scale structures...

 

Rusty

Mark my words Rusty... We will see RTR structures from MTH in S in the near future. Just like in O.

 I have been a little late in responding to the thread. I have just been reading everyone else's and taking it all in.

  I think this is the biggest thing to happen to "S", since Lionel decided to re-issue freight cars back in 1979! MTH is the Leader in model railroading command systems(IMO).

  They have done incredible work in continually producing smaller boards to fit in various locomotives and scales, without comprimising sound quality.

  I wish MTH the best success, and I hope they continue with the DCS system in the "S" scale line.

  Looking forward to seeing some F7's in GN and the old CNR paint scheme. Plus some #5 turnouts and crossovers.

 Truly a new era for "S" gauge.    Al

Trying to figure out why this thread is so "special" for so long on the Three-Rail Forum.  Not understanding...my bad, I guess.  

RT:

I think it's possibly a whiff of cedar-scented smoke wafting up lazily towards one's nostrils, or perhaps the memories of those wonderful little soft red plastic smoke fluid dispensers, or even the more prototypical two-rail track mounted firmly in pliable rubber roadbed with the ties molded into the ballast.

The absolute numbers of Gilbertistas surely must lag behind the Lionelistas of the dim and distant past.  Nonetheless, there are doubtless legions of once youthful American Flyer fans yet out there.  They must be figuratively licking their chops over the prospects of MTH-enabled fulfillment of their garish-catalog-art-inspired dreams from yesteryear!  Yes, they're here.  They've patiently and quietly lived among us swashbuckling three-railers for decades.  It's they who are keeping this thread alive and thriving!  I find that somehow deliciously refreshing.

EnlightenedBearishOne

EnlightenedBearishOne:

You've hit the nail on the head, even if you didn't have to.

Thanks, Rich!

 

Once in awhile I get lucky and hit the nail rather than my entire thumb!

 

Even though I had Marx and Lionel as a kid and got hooked on three-rail very early, I did have friends whose parents, for whatever reasons, started them out on two-rail Flyer trains instead of the more well known and popular Lionel, or the less costly products of Louis Marx and Company. 

 

Playground disagreements about the virtues of two versus three aside, I confess I was always a little jealous of the fact that my pals' Flyer trains had the same number of parallel rails as the 1:1 Union Pacific and Great Northern roads which served our little wheat-growing town in eastern Washington!  They always won the prototypical accuracy argument by default, but were able to back it up with articles about the relative realism of Flyer track in the Gilbert catalog if the obvious wasn't persuasive enough.

 

Playing with my buddies' trains after school also hooked me on cedar-scented smoke.  Even these days, when I'm strolling through the Orange Hall at York, a whiff of that nostalgic stuff always draws me inexorably towards the smoke fluid dealers' booths.  Only there can I relive treasured olfactory toy train moments from my youth.  Nothing propels  imagination quite like aroma!

 

PoeticallyAromaticBear

 

 

Humm.  Good stuff!!  Great memories!! 

 

Still....  Three-rail.  Two rail.  Humm.

Let's try to keep this topic going for six months.  MTH needs the hype.

 

Norm

Once MTH gets S production rolling, there will be plenty of hype to go around!

 (Incuding, not doubt, some kool-aid wars...)

 

Rusty

Having never needed to watch the way MTH has done business in the past, I am not sure when they put their catalogs out. Is it a safe bet that they will be out by York in the fall just like Lionel?

MTH usually releases the catalogs at Yorktime.  Them's that go to York gets them there, it usually goes online the Monday after York and the rest of the folks wanting a hard copy get to wait another week or two or so.

 

Rusty

Look for the S scale catalog around November according to MTH. They are working to get the others ready for York. The S catalog should follow shortly after.