Looks like MTH is putting the new Imperial ES44 in the RTR sets. Good move. There hasn't been a "good" RTR catalog since 2007/8 or so. Ever since, it has just been, more or less, repeats of the same old sets over and over. Hopefully this year will change that. 

Regardless, I saw the BNSF ES44 at York...tempting....and in a RTR set, that may be enough to sweeten the pot. 

WHY?

Why is this called a "Ready to Run" catalog, when ALL MTH trains are ready to run? They don't sell kits, do they?

It reminds me of late '90s Lionel catalogs called "Classic" and "Heritage." One had cheaper trains than the other. But which one?

Also, "Legacy" is a weird name for a fancy new control system. "Legacy systems" are generally those in place at the time of a merger...so they're older, not newer.

OK, that's all my deep thoughts for the day.

The catalog is up and available for viewing...

Because Athearn's already taken "Ready To Roll."

Rusty

Didn't see any must haves, for all the Lionel catalogs and now the MTH RTR catalog, nothing ordered. Maybe the MTH Premier catalog will have something that interests me.

A couple of things that got the "cool-o-meter" reving up.....

1) ES44 sets, especially the Pennsy set. Heck...ALL of them............

2) Chessie/LIRR 2-8-0 passenger separate sale sets

A bit disappointed to see a good chunk of "re-do" sets. 

I'll most likely order the B&O Gondola, possibly the Canton ore car. 

A little disappointing. I won't be ordering anything.

I notice there are Long Island Railroad RTR passenger cars; but I do not recall a Long Island Railroad RTR engine released previously.

Cart before the horse?

The working Oil Tanks are very nice, and MTH makes such great structures.

Never noticed the "Themed" Layout examples for RealTrax and ScaleTrax, that sure perked up my interest.

Holy Cow!  I know they are starter sets but have those tenders and engines always been so far apart?  And yes I know you can purchase shorter ones.

I called the ES44 sets!!!  OK, I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I said a while back that there was no logical reason for MTH not to do them, and they are typically good sellers.  I would have preferred to see stack cars or a better freight mix;  Give me three trailer flats or a few coal hoppers - something prototypical that we see on a more regular basis.  A caboose?   Ummm... OK... I guess.   I understand that people new to the hobby, and especially kids, like to see the mix; I'm just selfish 

Other than that, no real surprises - and now we wait for for 2015 v.2 and hopefully some nice, crunch surprises 

Maybe one or 2 freight cars for me, nothing big.  Saw the subway entrances, but they are re-issues from 2013, not new station names.

-Dave

That is fairly common in the RTR catalogs.

Jeff Davis

If I was still into Railking I would definetly buy the NS ES44AC RTR set. I think it's a nice looking set. I think I'll wait for the premier version, hopefully in the next catalog.

The MTH Imperial ES44 is a great engine, but this catalog's Merry Christmas version is hideous.

It might be hideous by itself, but it's claimed to be a decent match for some previous cars.  Might be nice for collectors of those cars, if it does in fact match up well.

-Dave

Agreed.  At some point the kids start asking how strong you had to be to THROW the coal into the firebox 

It has been common in recent years. In past years, particularly before the economy blew up, MTH always had a tremendous variety in RTR sets - Scale RS3, GP9s, F3s etc. Bantam 4-6-2s, 6-8-6, 4-8-4s, etc. 4-6-0 ,2-6-0, etc. Tons of variety. Not so much anymore. 

I didn't see any "midwest" road names so my credit card is save. 

Did not see anything that I would want to get. But I did see two errors that I don't beileve should be made in such a publication.

On page 85 they insinuate that UL approves transformers and power supplies. UL does not approve anything; they simply list the devices that have passed their tests. A UL listed transformer should be safe to use, but that is all the UL listing means.

On page 86 they say that (DCS) ". . .  is ACCESSABLE from any IOS . . ." The correct spelling for that word is accessible.

I know, nit-picking, but that's how I feel when it comes to terminology and the English language (my second language). Although such errors may be acceptable (mostly) when posting a thread on a forum, they are not so in a professional publication.

Alex

"Eggnog Yellow" if I'm not mistaken.  Almost "Bile" with with a little less yellow...

PS:  I'm likely in for an NS ES44 set;  I've been partial to scale diesels as of late, but I like these RK Imperial diesels specifically because of the detail, and because of the fact that I can consists a couple of them together on my layout with it looking strange.  There's nothing quite like two or three scale ES44/SD70's pulling 5 boxcars... 

It's not like Lionel has ever made a mistake or typo in their catalogs...

Rusty

I pre ordered the Blue Crab aquarium car for my daughter. She loves all things related to the sea

Well, I'm always hoping I'll be surprised and see some of the Rugged Rails (older pre-scale Railking) train sets, or engines and cars back in the catalog. Nevermind seeing the ES44AC as a Rugged Rails model... even some of the previously tooled engines.

I've been in train shops that carry both Lionel and MTH sets, and despite the quality of the MTH sets, the Lionel ones are the ones that move out the door. I'm sure Lionel has the market on starter sets, so MTH tries to offer something different that Lionel doesn't offer in starter sets. 

Still, that nearly scale length ES44AC has got to look as toyish and even silly, going around the included 31 inch diameter curves as any more obvious traditionally sized engine does on 027 curves. Oh well, to each his own.

As far as hold-overs from last year's catalog... well even the new RTR Lionel catalog has quite a few. Makes me wonder if maybe even Lionel didn't do as well this past year with starter set sales. The only two not in the new RTR catalog are the RS3 Santa Fe LC Scout and the RS3 Alien LC sets, both of which were gone from distributors long before Christmas so I was told. That could also be a matter of a smaller production run.

Still, a nicely presented catalog. Just nothing that fits my size limitations. I think all the train companies are struggling right now a little more than they are willing to acknowledge.

For Pete's sake, these are toys, just toys.

Will make a great companion to the Lionel Lobster Aquarium Car. I just picked one up from a set break up.

This is a RTR and Accessory catalog. There is always one or two fun cars to put in my kids train in these catalogs.

I was hoping MTH would introduce some DCS controlled products like

1. Crane - The new Lionel crane is ok, but I don't want a hand crank for the boom.

2. Coal Loader

3. Crane Car & Tender

4. Transfer Table or Turntable

Looking forward to the regular catalog in April.

Paul

Having perused the catalog at lunch, I probably won't order anything, but i'll buy some things when they are finally on the dealer's shelves. Did notice that the "scale" modern dwarf signal got recataloged, along with some other accessories that weren't in the last one. The one glaring error I found was the subway entrance labeled for Vernon-Jackson ave. There is no such entrance on the #7 line. Vernon-Jackson IS a stop on the 7 line, but it's an elevated stop, not an underground one. The other entrance labeled for Main Street- Flushing is correct, as the terminal stop of the 7 line IS underground. just my pet peeve. OOPS- my bad- memory failed me- Vernon Jackson is underground, not elevated. Why i remember it that way is a mystery---

The Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Ore Car is in the arrow scheme that I was not able to purchase when the previous version was released. I have to get at least one of the DM&IR Ore Cars with the arrow scheme.

Andrew

I can't find the on-line catalog.  I tried railking.com and nothing.

Can somebody PLEASE post a link.

Thanks.

Lots of buildings in the new RTR catalogue. My favorite is GENCO IMPORTING.

Vito Corrleone figure not included.    

http://www.mthtrains.com/sites...2015_ortr/index.html

MTH should really do the Genesis set with Amtrak's current paint scheme.  I don't think Amtrak has had locomotives painted in that scheme since the early 2000's.  

I had an interesting observation on the DCS wifi module.   In this 2015 RTR, it shows the DCS wifi module using the same case as a TIU.  It is the TIU case with an antenna and no jacks on the sides.   I am surprised it is going to be that big for just a WIFI module.  In the last catalog (2015), the DCS wifi was a smaller case.  Does anyone know if the picture of the wifi module in the RTR was an older mock up vs. the one showed in the last 2015 catalog is the real one?    Hopefully, MTH is producing the smaller one.  

It's nice to see the Hooverville station and Drucker's store but I would have liked to see a Shady Rest Hotel.

BTW, did anyone else notice the different headlight placement for the NS/PRR units vs. CSX and BNSF?    Not a big deal, but I thought it was a nice touch.  Perhaps this has been the case with the NS Heritage units all along - I suspect based on the PRR version that it was and I just never saw it.  Still, having not realized it before, I'm glad they did it in the RK line.   

PS;  I don't know how they look going around O-31 curves, but they look really nice on O-60 and pretty good on O-54.   As good or better than a premier on O-72 IMHO.  Between these and the Imperial SD70Ace models, I'm not sure you can do better in semi-scale for the price.  They are still large enough to be physically imposing, and the sounds/detail is quite good.   When I run them with my RK Imperial steamers, they still provide a good sense of perspective.  Compared to the RK K4s, they seem almost impossibly large;  next to the RK Challenger, you get the sense of just how big some of the BIG steamers really were.  

Yes, it all comes apart when you start stacking them up against scale models, but that's not the point.  

As far as the catalog being a disappointment, what were people expecting?  The RTR catalogs have never been ground breaking in my experience;  a few new things here and there, different paint schemes, etc. is about all I've ever really expected.  For someone just jumping in, everything they need is in there at reasonable price points to help them get started- for everyone else, there's April 

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe trailer on the TTX flat car in the BNSF set is one reason to get the set.

Andrew