European tooling

I was not aware that MTH ever had any "European tooling". Now, if you are referring to the MTH tooling for various European steam locomotive models, then I have no idea if anyone has purchased such tooling from MTH.

It was more than a rumor:  Lenz officially announced in a March press release that they had acquired some of the MTH tooling, specifically the E94 and Br44, and that they would be doing the E94 first after it had been reworked to Lenz specs [ ie, as a minimum, obviously a Lenz decoder instead of PS3 ].  But since then, silence -- that press release, or indeed any mention of MTH or those items, are not to be found on the Lenz website.  In December I asked a fellow in Germany if he had heard anything one way or the other, and he essentially replied  no additional news;  he just thought that in view of the rather extensive changes that would have to be made, that it would take a while.  [ On the other hand, Lenz has never been shy about announcing items well in advance;  for example, their E41 was announced over ten years ago and still isn't out.....]

At about the same time a French firm indicated it was looking at getting the Orient and OCEM tooling, plus the design work on the follow-on DEV coaches, but was having difficulty with getting good information [ eg, samples ] on the condition of that tooling.  Since then, nothing on that front either, that I've seen, and I've been checking.

The Rheingold cars would probably have gone to Lenz, although they didn't say so, if only so nobody else would get them.  That leaves everything else:

-  The Swiss crocodile and 2 axle freight cars

-  The four modern electric locos and the Eanos / tank cars

-  The remaining steam.  [ Opinion:  I can't see anybody buying these ].

If Atlas or Lionel thought they could make a reasonable return on their investment in buying / revamping / marketing / selling product from the MTH Euro tooling, they would have done so, wouldn't they ?  Perhaps a better question might be, will MTH themselves do anything with it ?  The economics would be better that way I would think.

Best regards, SZ

Hello SZ,

Thanks for your very detailed reply. I guess my next post should be asking about how many  people would like to see these items be remade.

To update my January 8 post above:  Lenz has recently reiterated in new announcements on their website that they will be producing the E94, and later the Br 44, as part of what they term their "MTH-Line".   There is no mention of any other items, nor is any pricing or delivery date furnished;  they admit to having enough problems, especially with the latter, with their existing production due to pandemic / shipping / electronic parts delays.  They do list the five variants they will be producing initially, which somewhat mirror the MTH ones with one exception;  darn it, I was hoping for an ÖBB Ep III [ eg, before the Austrians mods ] version.  Oh well.

Best, SZ

No mention of the British Princess class of steam locos as well as the mk1 coaches.