Can MTH move forward with catalogs?

Nope.

Rusty

I don't think the MTH entity will last very long.  Right now...it looks like Mr. Muffin is driving MTH production.

How much MONON can you sell/buy?

NO!!!!! 

Yes

MTH should do a digital catalog, showing all their special announcements in one location, The high cost of printing & publishing makes a paper catalogs just to expensive.

A digital catalog would be well received by their customers.

Gary

@trainroomgary posted:

Yes

MTH should do a digital catalog, showing all their special announcements in one location, The high cost of printing & publishing makes a paper catalogs just to expensive.

A digital catalog would be well received by their customers.

Gary

That’s what I was thinking. A bi annual small digital catalog would be cool. Supplement it with the limited dealer exclusives. With menards entering the mkt, anything could happen, including a new entity in the game (unlikely but stranger things have definitely happened).

@SD60M posted:

How much Monon can you sell/buy?

I'm still trying to figure that out because I can't stop buying it.

@trainroomgary posted:

Yes

MTH should do a digital catalog, showing all their special announcements in one location, The high cost of printing & publishing makes a paper catalogs just to expensive.

A digital catalog would be well received by their customers.

Gary

It would certainly be a way of gathering up enough orders (across all dealers) to do larger runs, especially for popular roads. I also love catalogs, so it would be nice if they did something again like they used to, but it's OK if they don't. I'm enjoying all these special run announcements, and I'm looking forward to what MTH ends up doing in the future.

@SD60M posted:

I don't think the MTH entity will last very long.  Right now...it looks like Mr. Muffin is driving MTH production.

How much Monon can you sell/buy?

Berwyn Toy and Trains has also been fairly active.

However, I wonder how long relying solely on the custom run business model can hold up.

Rusty

With MTH retaining 80% of their tooling, I’d say at least a digital catalog would be well within their abilities provided they have someone to do the desktop publishing part.  Heck, I’d volunteer to do it if given the assets used to make previous catalogs.

https://mthtrains.com/news/706

Paper train catalogs were never accurate and have become a thing of the past. You don’t always receive what was shown, especially colors.

I would like to see a rotating 360 view of the item like the automotive sites have. Web access to everyone and real time changes / updates could be made by the OEM's on the fly.

Example: It’s important to me to see the numbers on the front / back of an engine along with head lamp and railing details. We could never get that view from a catalog. Car dates and trucks are also an important detail for period modelers as well.

@SIRT posted:

Paper train catalogs were never accurate and have become a thing of the past. You don’t always receive what was shown, especially colors.

The same can be said for online versions.  Plus, not everyone's monitor renders colors the same.  When I was working, my work computer showed colors a little differently than my home computer.  Same for my laptop vs. my desktop.

Rusty

I doubt given the current business model of MTH that you’ll see a catalog in any format. It appears ( at least for the moment) the “new” MTH is only doing custom runs for its network of dealers. It’d be a nearly impossible task given the already multitude of custom runs in the works, and being delivered already,…..perhaps on their website they might have a listing on what’s being made, and who’s selling it, but that’s not likely either, I’d imagine trying to stay lean and trim to survive, they’ll leave the advertisement part of the program up to the retailer that initiated the custom run,…

Pat

@trainroomgary posted:

MTH should do a digital catalog, showing all their special announcements in one location,

Gary

I am fond of the MTH 36' Premier Reefers.  With so many custom runs being announced recently I would like to make sure I don't miss any that I would like to purchase.  I do receive the emails, but things do get lost.  I too would like to see a central place where I could see any custom runs.

@Frank Mulligan posted:

I am fond of the MTH 36' Premier Reefers.  With so many custom runs being announced recently I would like to make sure I don't miss any that I would like to purchase.  I do receive the emails, but things do get lost.  I too would like to see a central place where I could see any custom runs.

I thought there was a place on MTH’s website listing all the New issued items? Maybe someone here can confirm and/or post the link.

Edit - here is the link from the Mth newsletter for all the newly issued post catalog items - https://mthtrains.com/prod-sea...field_catalog%3A7742

here is the newsletter - https://mthtrains.com/news/701

@Up & Down the Monon posted:

It would certainly be a way of gathering up enough orders (across all dealers) to do larger runs, especially for popular roads. I also love catalogs, so it would be nice if they did something again like they used to, but it's OK if they don't. I'm enjoying all these special run announcements, and I'm looking forward to what MTH ends up doing in the future.

Astute observation. Dealer limited runs need a wider platform to reach a bigger customer base, beyond the usual sources, like hobby magazines and Internet forums. A manufacturer’s catalog, real or virtual, would go a long way to meeting that need.

Another option to see everything made this year is to click on the FG FH FI and FJ catalog link on one of the 2020 or 2021 announced products on their website.

Edit: I just realized FG and FI were 2020 printed catalogs.  That leaves FH and FJ for the new stuff.

Here’s the FJ listing.

https://mthtrains.com/catalog/fj-2021-all-scales

And it looks like dealer custom runs go under ZZ…

https://www.mthtrains.com/cata...zz-uncataloged-items

@MTH if you are reading this, you should consider separating ZZ un-cataloged items by year so folks can track what’s getting made.

I would bet we would see something like what 3rdrail does.  All on the website until the project is done.

It appears that MTH at least for the present will rely on special orders from their big dealers. Offer it, sell it, build it. Already sold just pack and ship. No inventory, no investment on their part.

They might also consider a description on the website as well!

@Rusty Traque posted:

The same can be said for online versions.  Plus, not everyone's monitor renders colors the same.  When I was working, my work computer showed colors a little differently than my home computer.  Same for my laptop vs. my desktop.

Rusty

The same can be said about color printers for paper catalogs.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

They might also consider a description on the website as well!

Click the link below it.

@rplst8 posted:

Click the link below it.

You really did miss the point, didn't you?

With the simple inclusion of the description, I don't have to follow each link!  Given the fact that the MTH site is REALLY slow nowadays, I could spend a long time looking through the list.  I don't know about others, but I have better uses for my time than to wait for a very slow website to spit out a description.

True, I agree.  I wasn’t sure if you noticed the links is all.

Why do you think the site is so slow: reduced server size or lots of interest driving traffic?  I know one person here on the forum mentioned they were downloading all the sound files in case they went belly up, but I don’t think that’s happening any time soon.

I would prefer catalogs, whether hard copy or .pdf.  Keeping up with all the emails, posts for special runs and new products is simply not feasible for many of us.  Either that or send a summary email every week or two with all the special runs and newly scheduled non-dealer runs.

Ring! Ring! 1960 is calling and they want their catalogs!

Personally, I like monthly announcements over waiting six months for any news of a new product.  I believe MTH is putting out announcements on their website whenever they have something news-worthy.  To me, this makes more sense, then putting together a catalog in terms of time and money.

Jim

Traditional  catalogs. It’s fun to turn the pages but most of all it’s good to have a reference to what was produced and what features it has. Look how much excitement the Lionel catalog has generated. Producing a traditional catalog is also a sign of a stable, healthy company.

@rplst8 posted:

True, I agree.  I wasn’t sure if you noticed the links is all.

Why do you think the site is so slow: reduced server size or lots of interest driving traffic?  I know one person here on the forum mentioned they were downloading all the sound files in case they went belly up, but I don’t think that’s happening any time soon.

As someone who works for a technology company, people scraping data isn’t anything new when it comes to web sites, so that’s a likely reason the site has been so slow lately.

I thought they were done as of April , and tooling sold to three different companies so why a catalog ?

@Up & Down the Monon posted:

As someone who works for a technology company, people scraping data isn’t anything new when it comes to web sites, so that’s a likely reason the site has been so slow lately.

One other issue is their tech stack is partially based on 2010~ish technology, would be nice to get a product data dump (searching their o scale line is painfully slow) to either spin up a new product info finder or rebuild their current one to use a more optimized search system

@SirCaptain posted:

One other issue is their tech stack is partially based on 2010~ish technology, would be nice to get a product data dump (searching their o scale line is painfully slow) to either spin up a new product info finder or rebuild their current one to use a more optimized search system

I hope the remaining MTH entities going forward invest in their web sites a bit.

No because the new
MTH cannot afford the costs of marketing and printing catalogs.

@Rick Rubino posted:

I thought they were done as of April , and tooling sold to three different companies so why a catalog ?

There was an announcement from one of the sponsors stating that mth would continue. We have no idea how much Lionel bought, as they said that there would be more than was released in the recent catalog.

@Madockawando posted:

No because the new
MTH cannot afford the costs of marketing and printing catalogs.

I figure print catalogs are long gone, but digital is still a possibility.

@Madockawando posted:

No because the new
MTH cannot afford the costs of marketing and printing catalogs.

Did you decide that for them, or are you speaking with first hand insider knowledge?……I do believe they won’t produce a catalog based on the current  business model they’re portraying as I’ve stated above, but I didn’t go as far as you’ve decided that they can’t afford it,…how did you decide that for them?…do you work there?..

Pat

@Madockawando posted:

Traditional  catalogs. It’s fun to turn the pages but most of all it’s good to have a reference to what was produced and what features it has. Look how much excitement the Lionel catalog has generated. Producing a traditional catalog is also a sign of a stable, healthy company.

That would definitely explain the price increases we see from Lionel!

@Madockawando posted:

No because the new
MTH cannot afford the costs of marketing and printing catalogs.

Can you site your source for this information or are you guessing.

@H1000 posted:

Can you site your source for this information or are you guessing.

The source is MTH themselves based on their current state of the company (declining and shrinking) and that they suddenly stopped issuing catalogs when it was their long practice to do so. Pretty logical. Of course, feel free to present a counter argument that MTH is a growing company  that believes emails to a few select mid-west dealers is a better marketing strategy then a large mass market catalog….

@Madockawando posted:

The source is MTH themselves based on their current state of the company (declining and shrinking) and that they suddenly stopped issuing catalogs when it was their long practice to do so. Pretty logical. Of course, feel free to present a counter argument that MTH is a growing company  that believes emails to a few select mid-west dealers is a better marketing strategy then a large mass market catalog….

Uhhh, Mike Wolf retired and didn't want work that hard anymore.