April is right around the corner . . .

The only thought I have is how much I shall miss MTH trains. Without MTH, I shall probably be buying fewer trains in the future - and my purchases will go to Sunset/3rd Rail.

MELGAR

Thinking about it isn't high on my priority list.  We have no control over if or who buys MTH, so why worry about it.

Rusty

Grateful to have the marvelous MTH products that I have, and hopeful that I can find someone to repair them, if needed. Also, hopeful that quality and affordability will be maintained of LC+ and LC+2.0 products by Lionel. Arnold

Hoping that I will have no issues with my MTH locomotives as I am neither handy with electronics not interested in learning how they work.  I just want to run trains.  I probably should have stuck with conventional Lionel, but I just love command control.

Also hoping that somehow MTH will continue.

Is there any substantial evidence that MTH will continue? What I see is the company archives auctioned off, the building sold, and with just a few months to go, no announcement of "new ownership". Looking at it objectively, it looks like the end.

@Madockawando posted:

Is there any substantial evidence that MTH will continue? What I see is the company archives auctioned off, the building sold, and with just a few months to go, no announcement of "new ownership". Looking at it objectively, it looks like the end.

I disagree.  Why would a buyer want that extra weight.  If I was a potential buyer, I would have no interest in their archives or their building.  Everything is manufactured overseas, so I don't need their building to store items when they come in, that could be done anywhere.  I suspect that the design of any new products could be done anywhere, even remotely if you wanted to retain the current team.  I think not being tied to MTH's current location is a selling point...but what do I know.

I think you cannot predict the future .  That said, the absence of any formal announcement of the proposed "parts company," "DCS company" and any plan to continue manufacturing the entire line of trains, track, etc. with only a few months to go isn't a good sign. May not be the end, but we've seen nothing to suggest that the termination in May or June of 2021 isn't going to occur.  Certainly could see some of the tooling resurrected in the future, but I doubt anything like a full 100 or 200+ page catalog of MTH products will be seen in the future.  But predictions are worth the paper they are printed on, not much.

@Bossman284 posted:

I disagree.  Why would a buyer want that extra weight.  If I was a potential buyer, I would have no interest in their archives or their building.  Everything is manufactured overseas, so I don't need their building to store items when they come in, that could be done anywhere.  I suspect that the design of any new products could be done anywhere, even remotely if you wanted to retain the current team.  I think not being tied to MTH's current location is a selling point...but what do I know.

Maybe, perhaps... But what is going on looks like a business that is closing. But let's do a thought experiment. Let's assume, you are right and MTH is not going out of business but is being prepared to being sold to new owners without a building, archives, or engineers or employees. On top of all this, MTH announced they are closing for good but are really getting new, yet to be named owners.

So, if you are willing to accept those things as saying "MTH will continue under new ownership." How would all those things be different that would actually convince you that MTH was really, truly, going out of business?

I'm not saying these things because I want to see MTH go out of business or because I don't appreciate what they have done for the hobby. I am interested as someone in the hobby. Looking objectively, everything looks to be what MTH says it is: they are closing for good.

Hope for something. If their new milk cars are any indication at all, Lionel cannot even get the couplers right. John

@rattler21 posted:

Hope for something. If their new milk cars are any indication at all, Lionel cannot even get the couplers right. John

What’s wrong with the Lionel milk car couplers? Opening on their own? How does it relate to MTH?

As I understand it, the “tooling,” that resides in China and supposedly belongs to MTH, really doesn’t, as it is controlled by the companies who possess it and those companies are under the control of the Chinese government.  One would think that one of the main assets of MTH is all that amazing tooling, but what buyer is going to invest millions to buy something they can’t actually own—or even control?

Mike’s business was built from nothing into a juggernaut.  Mike kept innovating and reinvesting in his company, because it was his and he had a mission.  Without Mike as the owner, along with the fact that the market for model railroad products is shrinking and that there is just SO much product out there already, I do not believe the company holds any attraction to a buyer wealthy enough to swing the deal.  I hope I’m wrong.

Just a heads up! Andy said on Wednesday night that MTH is continuing as an employee owned Parts and DCS Company. Don't believe me? Watch Andy say it on Train Worlds Virtual Video of Wednesday night. It is at the end when Andy finally speaks. Of course there are still many of you who will say no not true. So wait till June and see.

Curtis

@CurtisH posted:

Just a heads up! Andy said on Wednesday night that MTH is continuing as an employee owned Parts and DCS Company. Don't believe me? Watch Andy say it on Train Worlds Virtual Video of Wednesday night. It is at the end when Andy finally speaks. Of course there are still many of you who will say no not true. So wait till June and see.

Curtis

I think this has been known for a while. Will the company be called "MTH" ? Will they catalog and sell new trains under the MTH name?

Again!?!?!?...

Time to purge the dirge!   

Let's give it a rest....It is what it is!

Aaand its gone

The interesting takeaway from wednesday's TW session was the reasoning for all of these uncatalogued announcements. Andy said that they were expecting some of the catalogued items to take longer than the May 1 date to arrive, so they may as well make some more stuff to. Also, there are more announcements coming (they were previewed in the meet). Its going to be sent to some other location (Andy's garage? The 17th hole?) for distribution so there's not likely to be extras beyond store orders.  But it does make you wonder why they'd keep ordering products beyond a closure date if it werent to keep the factory alive....

@Boilermaker1 posted:

The interesting takeaway from wednesday's TW session was the reasoning for all of these uncatalogued announcements. Andy said that they were expecting some of the catalogued items to take longer than the May 1 date to arrive, so they may as well make some more stuff to. Also, there are more announcements coming (they were previewed in the meet). Its going to be sent to some other location (Andy's garage? The 17th hole?) for distribution so there's not likely to be extras beyond store orders.  But it does make you wonder why they'd keep ordering products beyond a closure date if it werent to keep the factory alive....

Okay... you caught me... I'm buying MTH!!!