Mike Wolf CEO Of MTH Trains Showing You His Factory From China On Facebook Live! Wednesday Night 9:00PM EST

CW, I agree that "It's not the consumer's job to determine whether a request or suggestion is feasible. That's the responsibility of the manufacturer/importer."

But whether they're handling it just fine, at least from the audience here, is certainly subjective based upon any thread here discussing a new catalog arrival. "Nothing for me, no new tooling, just more re-runs." As all the companies have said - even in other scales - that when they pour thousands upon thousands of dollars into new tooling, it has to be a product that will have positive sales over an extended period of time over multiple production runs. And actually pertaining to MTH, they did just tool up the scale 44 ton switcher.

Wish lists and reality are two different worlds. For example, there is a reason why there are so few decals currently made in O scale and it has everything to do with sales numbers and profitability.

In one of the prior Trainworld/Trainland live streams, someone asked for a particular product in a particular road name for HO scale. The rep chuckled and responded that if they wanted to pay for the tooling and the entire production run, they could consider it.

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Ken, you are doing an outstanding job with all these video projects and live streams you have done thus far. In the past there have been threads here about what can be done to promote the hobby. Well, it seems to me that you folks at Trainworld/Trainland have hit upon one idea and are carrying through with it. Regardless of the company or the scale, you have boundless enthusiasm that is certainly obvious in the videos. You no doubt have your own preferences and likes, yet like a good reporter you leave them aside (a lost art these days) and give the company reps a chance to shine. Bravo!

The one with Jason Shron should be very enlightening indeed. He's been very open about discussing the challenges, risks and costs of bringing new product to market in HO and N scales, which are far bigger markets than the 3-rail one. Looking forward to all your future video streams and YouTube posts.

KenJrTW posted:

Rapido Trains Jason Shron (Not sure where or what he will show but he is a out of the box thinker so Im sure it will be wild!)

If you do a YouTube search on Rapido Trains, there are video's showing their factory and process.

Rusty

KenJrTW posted:

Thanks everyone!  Mike and I were really excited and happy with how this went. I still can't believe the amount of work that goes into these trains.  Stay tuned for more upcoming live events. 

 

I missed this last night because a mother of a headache from the weather change. I'll be sure to catch it tonight when I get home. Thanks KenJrTW for taking the time to get with Mike and post this out there. Hopefully Mike will continue to make engines(steam, my favorite) that have not been made or not been made correctly. Sure there is more diesels and electrics that are on that mix as well.

An excellent job by both Mike of MTH and Ken from Trainworld. As I stated on Facebook: A real service to the hobby. I enjoyed watching and participating (in a small way by offering a couple of comments).

brianel_k-lineguy posted:

Ken, you are doing an outstanding job with all these video projects and live streams you have done thus far. In the past there have been threads here about what can be done to promote the hobby. Well, it seems to me that you folks at Trainworld/Trainland have hit upon one idea and are carrying through with it. Regardless of the company or the scale, you have boundless enthusiasm that is certainly obvious in the videos. You no doubt have your own preferences and likes, yet like a good reporter you leave them aside (a lost art these days) and give the company reps a chance to shine. Bravo!

 

AMEN! Well stated!

I am only about 10 min in so far, but working in industrial processes all my adult life, the man taking freshly molded frame out of the press in open toed sandels, and the complete lack of safety eye-wear for anyone really sticks out.  I really enjoy my trains, but I don't want anyone to risk injury during the manufacturing process.

 

JZ

Thank you Ken Jr. and Mike Wolf for open up the manufacturing facilities to see the actual productions from start to finish-simply mind boggling. Thank you Mike for taking the time away from your golf tee time and/or getting ready for the "fish" football season.

Truly amazing what goes into manufacturing. Been told about this from another train company executive but seeing it, is beyond what you think it takes.

Pretty cool.

The only thing better - much better - was an in-depth, first-hand tour of the Lionel factory in Mt. Clemens back in 2000 as part of the LCCA-LOTS Convention.

Thank you that was outstanding!

That's all i can say is this was absolutely amazing !!!!!!!

Thank you Mike Wolf and Train World

Alex

This is great of Trainworld to go above and beyond to promote the hobby. Thanks to MTH for letting us in too!

It's cool to see the process and a glimpse of how the new 1 gauge Big Boys are made. I can't imagine how MTH handles so many projects at once from a catalog and many manufacturers, being such a small company. I still see comments on the Utube video of people stating the overseas manufacturing vs. American jobs. I have to wonder if they know where all their trains have been made? ( and for how long this has been the way)

 So anyways, I have to guess that Mike puts trust in each contractor to do their job. I wonder just how many miles he travels in one year to check up on them? He did state that the products come from many sources in different countries. I have to bet that Mike doesn't have a lot of time to rest at home!

 Thanks again to you both for doing this!

That was awesome!    Definitely would like to see more tours of the factory's.   Thanks Ken and Mike for putting this together.

Mike and Trainworld that was really cool to watch. I even liked the cell phone camera, you did a good job Mike. Definitely not a TV show

Thank you

Clem k

I agree about promoting the hobby, KenJrTW is doing a fantastic job, and being able to try and answer the live stream questions as fast as they come. That certainly can't be easy, like juggling chainsaws.

About what is being made, there is potential to do anything naturally, but it also depends on if someone will buy it. What is the best marketing strategy to go with, will you be left holding the tooling on the shelf because no one is buying? Some things sell without so much as a bat of an eye. If things were possible to make without any doubt, we would see it made. I would think one of the main driving forces for items to be made is most certainly longevity, and by that I don't mean the tooling, I mean the particular engine or item in question. It is more likely we would see Hudson's, Northern's, Mountain's/Mohawk's, K4's and the like more so than some obscure engine that got scrapped because of unpopularity, unreliable, etc., etc.

Wish lists are just hopes and dreams we look forward to but may never see come. How long did it take for the first articulated engine to be made in O scale in the history of O Scale? Quite some time for various reasons obviously. See what can be done as I am sure that if Mike or any of the other manufactures think that they can do it, they will certainly give it a try.

That was amazing!!! Thanks to Ken and Mike for taking the time to put this together. So fascinating to see how these amazing toys come to life. I'm looking forward to the next episode!! 

THANK YOU!!!!!

The video concept is great.  As much as I could watch of it was very telling.

My problem was with the quality of the video.  Somewhere I thought I read that it was being done by a professional videographer.  The video kept going in and out of focus with generally poor focus.  The handheld camera was always unsteady.  These were rather disturbing quality issues.

However, it's a great concept, and I certainly appreciate the effort to enlighten us as to how the manufacturing process works.

Alan

That was a great presentation of Mike's factory over in China. Great to see the process that goes through with putting his trains together.

Wow, great video, neat seeing behind the scenes at the Chinese  factory. I was lucky to see one of my preorders being built.

Kudos to Ken at Trainworld for coming up with this idea, and Mike Wolf for going along with it.

Great stuff!

Next, I want to see a behind the scenes video from Mega Steam, I want to see how Jeb makes his special sauces.

Craignor posted:

Next, I want to see a behind the scenes video from Mega Steam, I want to see how Jeb makes his special sauces.

That maybe a secret family recipe that he is not willing to share.

Mike appeared to be using a cellular phone for the live video. That would not have been possible 35 years ago.

I have played the video a few times listening and watching bits(mostly listening to since was working on my PC) and hats of to Mike, and a big thanks to Ken Jr for making this possible. To listen to Mike describe everything that was going on like he was the shop steward or foreman with great detail and also talk about the staff  doing a great job is comforting. Him having pretty much the same group of people he has worked with for 37 or so years really says a lot about him and MTH. Gotta love that.