Toy Train Time capsule reflecting on the last twenty-five years

Just a year ago I was discussing the fact that it seemed inevitable that Lionel would be owned by MTH at some point. Many people who knew more or knew the right people kept saying the same thing. I think the twist and turns have caught everyone off guard.

@Madockawando Thank you for posting this article.  Very Informative to someone like me who recently joined the forum and didn't know many of the details about Mike Wolfe's career and his struggles.  I definitely have a lot more respect for him after reading this article.

@SteveH posted:

@Madockawando Thank you for posting this article.  Very Informative to someone like me who recently joined the forum and didn't know many of the details about Mike Wolfe's career and his struggles.  I definitely have a lot more respect for him after reading this article.

Steve, that is an excellent take away. I came away with the same level of respect for Mike Wolf as well after reading the article

Good to note that the "Inc." article is from August 2004. That's almost 17 years ago.

Much of the information has been superceded by additional information and an understanding of events that make this article extremely dated and to some degree inaccurate.

That's a valid point RT. I think that is why I tried to stay away from the details of the case itself and focus on the state of Lionel in the early 1990s and how the competition from MTH did push Lionel to become the innovative and exciting company we have today.  I also found it prophetic statement for this article from 17 years ago predict that the loser of the lawsuit (Lionel) would at last the winner. It's fascinating.

Anybody who's been in the Hobby for sometime knows that Mike Wolfe single-handedly changed the face of O gauge railroading. To say any less would be a disservice to the man because of his diligence foresight and competitive nature we have what we have today. Lionel was going down the tubes and the hobby was going along with it. I'm not a great fan of Mike Wolfe because I think he also caused segregation of the hobby but that's my personal opinion only, but I give him a lot of credit and I always admired the man. He changed the hobby for the better, period.

@E-UNIT-79 posted:

Anybody who's been in the Hobby for sometime knows that Mike Wolfe single-handedly changed the face of O gauge railroading. To say any less would be a disservice to the man because of his diligence foresight and competitive nature we have what we have today. Lionel was going down the tubes and the hobby was going along with it. I'm not a great fan of Mike Wolfe because I think he also caused segregation of the hobby but that's my personal opinion only, but I give him a lot of credit and I always admired the man. He changed the hobby for the better, period.

Some really insightful observations. As you have observed, real life is complex and people and events can not always be easily categorized. However, even if you don't own any MTH trains, you have to admire Mike Wolf's impact to the hobby.

I think it is fair to say that Mike Wolf and Lionel were using each other in the time period when Mike was producing all that Scale product that Lionel was stamping their name on.  Lionel had been doing nothing new and certainly nothing that had any detail that we would expect from the mid 90's forward.  Lionel bought time to try and upgrade their product line.  Mike created a supply chain that put him in position to become the leading force in the transformation of the industry to Scale.

Mike always played hardball.  Whether it was ousting the Williams product line when he was the largest distributor,  developing and marketing the infamous diesel in direct competition with Lionel when he was a Lionel subcontractor or working behind the scenes with Weaver and his Korean connections to develop the 'Weaver' Brass line of steam engines, highly detailed diesels and passenger sets(for that time period) again behind Lionel's back, Mike played to win.

I only know from hearsay that Mike wanted to own Lionel.  But, can you imagine a story line where that was not the dream?

Mike provided competition to Lionel, who stepped up their game. In the final analysis, "Lionel" as a brand carried more weight. Mike was one-man show, who could only do so much. He was good for the hobby. Mark

Although I just got back in the hobby in 2012, I did so because of MTH and DCS. Unfortunately, I was orphaned by Commodore with the Amiga and Toshiba with the Thrive. And now I feel the same is happening with MTH/DCS. Fortunately, I’ve only got 2 engines, the TIU and Remote, so I don’t have that much invested, but I’m about to start construction and I’m left wondering if I should bother. Guess when we get home from our vacation in Georgia I’ll do some soul searching and make a decision. I’m already not happy with the space I have, so the demise of MTH is just another reason to reconsider moving forward. Still, I give Mike credit for what he’s done for the hobby. I don’t know the history between him and Lionel, but it looks to me like there might not be an O Scale hobby if not for MTH. And the road forward seems very unclear.

I do think the hobby will be fine with the innovative and exciting Lionel Legacy we have now. The hobby is light years ahead of where it was back in 1995 .

Lionel is like “hold my beer, wait until you see what we got for 2022?”

the hobby will survive and thrive.

@barrister.2u posted:

Mike provided competition to Lionel, who stepped up their game. In the final analysis, "Lionel" as a brand carried more weight. Mike was one-man show, who could only do so much. He was good for the hobby. Mark

I am sure you did not mean to overlook the team that Mike built and brought along with him.  Had it not been for the team it could not have happened and without Mike it would not have happened.

I too give Mike a lot of credit for moving the O gauge/O scale market forward. When I entered the hobby in 1997 Lionel was run by people that didn’t understand the market and relied on the hallmark and legacy of the Lionel brand. Offerings were minimal - not the variety or volume Mike was producing. Enter Dick Maddox and it was game on. Lionel held onto some ‘traditional’ product, but started offering scale products- and some novel animated accessories. Then came the whole lawsuit debacle - Lionel vs., K-Line vs., MTH vs. - I think the potential was there to ‘derail’ the O gauge market. It did shake up the hobby and shake out a few manufacturers  

I was surprised when it was announced MTH would cease production and eventually close  Even more surprised Atlas acquired some MTH tooling  

I think a great time capsule is looking through past OGR editions (and the ‘other magazine’) to truly see the evolution of the hobby to date.

After reading the 'INC.' article and further reflection the well-known proverb "Necessity is the mother of Invention" comes to mind; Mike Wolf realizing from the outset that there was a market for more detailed, higher quality scale O gauge product and Lionel - as a result of Mike's growing market share and successful court case - eventually realizing that they must 'step up to the plate' if they wanted to remain in business.

Unfortunately, as the article points out, the 'saturation' of O gauge product by the various manufacturers which existed at the time turned out to be detrimental to the assorted companies; notwithstanding that competition is generally regarded as good by hobbyists for several reasons including variety, innovative features and quality to name a few.  That said, with fewer O gauge manufacturers today now the feeling among many hobbyists seems to be that the latter will be compromised.

Only time will tell.

The technical revolution that is currently sweeping the model train market will most likely keep it alive. Innovations like smart device app control, voice control and battery power are attracting and bringing in new younger modelers which is essential. Without these changes, the outlook would be very cloudy. Of course, the issue of maintaining quality will always be an issue.

Lots of water over the dam to be sure. But Lionel was not static in the early to mid 1990s.  While Mike Wolf was touting the greatness of PS1, a devalued product from what QSI was offering, in terms of user friendliness, reliability and capabilities, Richard Kughn and Neil Young were developing TMCC and Railsounds, which make PS1 look pretty limited and unfriendly by comparison.  PS1 was a major kludge, in my view, having owned a few. PS1 had the infamous internal battery which could lead to significant problems, utilized the even less fun multiple button pushes and levers to control functions/sounds, and then some locos had chips that went south when certain conditions were met.  Makes the quality problems of the 2020s look pretty good by comparison.

So it wasn't all brilliance and industry leadership at MTH and laziness and complacency at Lionel.  Turns out Neil Young and Richard Kughn were every bit the innovators as Mike Wolf, but they get little credit due to the hero worship going on in the hobby.  And lest we forget, Weaver, Right of Way and Williams had pioneered large brass scale steam locomotives long before Mike Wolf finished college.  Wolf refined, expanded and main streamed their ideas, but the leaders of these companies deserve some credit for their efforts.

MTH made a huge impact no doubt, but give some credit to Andy Edleman and others at MTH who brought great common sense, restraint and leadership to the company along with Mike Wolf.  And the simple fact is that when it came to control, sound, couplers, etc. Lionel did some leading of their own.

Landsteiner, great observations as always.

@Landsteiner posted:

Lots of water over the dam to be sure. But Lionel was not static in the early to mid 1990s.  While Mike Wolf was touting the greatness of PS1, a devalued product from what QSI was offering, in terms of user friendliness, reliability and capabilities, Richard Kughn and Neil Young were developing TMCC and Railsounds, which make PS1 look pretty limited and unfriendly by comparison.  PS1 was a major kludge, in my view, having owned a few. PS1 had the infamous internal battery which could lead to significant problems, utilized the even less fun multiple button pushes and levers to control functions/sounds, and then some locos had chips that went south when certain conditions were met.  Makes the quality problems of the 2020s look pretty good by comparison.

So it wasn't all brilliance and industry leadership at MTH and laziness and complacency at Lionel.  Turns out Neil Young and Richard Kughn were every bit the innovators as Mike Wolf, but they get little credit due to the hero worship going on in the hobby.  And lest we forget, Weaver, Right of Way and Williams had pioneered large brass scale steam locomotives long before Mike Wolf finished college.  Wolf refined, expanded and main streamed their ideas, but the leaders of these companies deserve some credit for their efforts.

MTH made a huge impact no doubt, but give some credit to Andy Edleman and others at MTH who brought great common sense, restraint and leadership to the company along with Mike Wolf.  And the simple fact is that when it came to control, sound, couplers, etc. Lionel did some leading of their own.

I don't know how important timelines are, but Mike in cooperation with Nicolas Smith Trains had taken over Williams' Brass production by the mid 80's absorbing the entire production and Mike spearheading refinements to the line.  By 1987 Mike was producing most if not all of Lionel's Scale line and their prewar offerings.

In 1990 it was Mike who was behind Weaver's development of the Brass engine line and the related diesels and passenger sets with Franks Roundhouse and Weaver fronting the effort.  The catalogs and related advertising was done in house at MTH.  It was Mike's ongoing relationship with Samhongsa that gave us some of the best quality product that we had seen in the toy train market.

Everyone involved deserves credit for moving the hobby forward.  Some more than others.  Even we deserve a great deal of credit that I don't think we get.  If Lionel was doing 80 Mil, MTH 60 Mil and others back down the line adding to the annual expenditures, you and I over the last 30 years have spent a whole lot of money for toys that appear to lose value faster than new cars.

@Landsteiner posted:

Lots of water over the dam to be sure. But Lionel was not static in the early to mid 1990s.  While Mike Wolf was touting the greatness of PS1, a devalued product from what QSI was offering, in terms of user friendliness, reliability and capabilities, Richard Kughn and Neil Young were developing TMCC and Railsounds, which make PS1 look pretty limited and unfriendly by comparison.  PS1 was a major kludge, in my view, having owned a few. PS1 had the infamous internal battery which could lead to significant problems, utilized the even less fun multiple button pushes and levers to control functions/sounds, and then some locos had chips that went south when certain conditions were met.  Makes the quality problems of the 2020s look pretty good by comparison.

So it wasn't all brilliance and industry leadership at MTH and laziness and complacency at Lionel.  Turns out Neil Young and Richard Kughn were every bit the innovators as Mike Wolf, but they get little credit due to the hero worship going on in the hobby.  And lest we forget, Weaver, Right of Way and Williams had pioneered large brass scale steam locomotives long before Mike Wolf finished college.  Wolf refined, expanded and main streamed their ideas, but the leaders of these companies deserve some credit for their efforts.

MTH made a huge impact no doubt, but give some credit to Andy Edleman and others at MTH who brought great common sense, restraint and leadership to the company along with Mike Wolf.  And the simple fact is that when it came to control, sound, couplers, etc. Lionel did some leading of their own.

Umm. Dont forget itvwas Jerry Williams that hired Mike Wolf and later Andy E and Rich F. To assemble those Standard guage trains of the 1970's. Later Jerry sold the Standard Guage line to Mike Wolf.