MTH and 1-gauge????

I think sales of large scale equipment overall have been weak for some years, although production by LGB, Piko and others have been sustained.  Aristo has gotten out of the business. The one major magazine in the scale seems to be thriving with lots of advertising.

MTH is primarily doing direct on-line sales of their large scale equipment in recent times, as I recall, presumably due to lagging sales and lack of dealer interest.

Landsteiner has it right.

The MTH Large Scale product is very nice and very well made (LS hobbyists I know can't seem to get enough of it), but the domestic LS market overall has suffered significantly in recent years due to the loss of LGB and more recently, Aristo, not to mention the lagging economy.

Some new LGB is now being made under Marklin ownership (I just received one of the new engines in the past week or so), and MTH, although it has not released a current printed catalog, does have a new catalog online and it is planning to release new product this year.

My guess would be that MTH, which was fairly deeply involved in LS up to a few years ago, is "cautiously exploring" things at this point.  It is a fine product, and I would have a good amount of it IF they offered some smaller motive power.

Allan;

Odd, I'm looking for the opposite. I want the Big Boy in 1 gauge !!!

Then I'll be motivated to lay track in the yard because it sure wont fit in the house 

Walt. Check out forum sponsor Charles Ro. USA trains.  Those are the first trains I see when I walk into Charlies. Some nice looking equipment!

http://www.charlesro.com/store...amp;Category_Code=GR

Well, you can buy the USA Trains 1:29 scale Big Boy for $3,700.  Practically need a truck to carry it.

Not sure about the current price and availability of the MTH Big Boy, which was made in the (correct) 1:32 scale.  That one was cataloged in 2005 and released in 2006, I believe.

What I would like MTH to do is manufacture European-style trains in gauge 1.

Thanks Chris.  I'll let my brother know.  he was just there 2 weeks ago as a side-stop during his business trip.  Maybe that's what got his 'big train' juices flowing - again (he's been talking about it for 4 or 5 years now!)

I have a large collection of USA Trains, best large Scale trains around, very dependable and very well made.

My brother wants to know about MTH SPECIFICALLY and their interest level in the bigger size.  Thanks

- walt

Large G scale is flat right now. The price of track seems to be one factor.....it has gone through the roof in the last 10 years. I love the stuff....but it does take a lot of space and thus time. Lots of cool stuff!

Well, Walt, I'm afraid only someone directly involved in the top management of MTH can answer your brother's questions because at this point nobody else really can provide the answers with any degree of certainty.  The Large Scale products MTH made in the past were very well received by the active Large Scalers I know, but there's no denying that the firm's commitment to Large Scale diminished significantly in recent years.

In the U.S., at least, offering models in 1:32 scale (the correct scale for representing standard gauge trains on 45mm track) faced an uphill battle while the likes of Aristo and USA Trains established something of a foothold with their readily availably 1:29 scale products based on U.S. prototypes.

We'll just have to see how well the consumer market reacts to the latest "feelers" from MTH to see where they might decide to go from this point on.

Nope…that must have been some other Allan because I have never pre-ordered a Hudson in Large Scale or any other scale.  I did consider buying a VO-1000 at one point, but if I was going with 1:32 scale (certainly the correct scale for modeling std. gauge on 45mm track), I would want to be able to buy more than just one locomotive.  I decided to stick with adding to my 1:20.3 roster instead, and have added several Accucraft items to my inventory recently. 

Thanks guys.  I'll send a link to this thread to him.

- walt

Thanks Brian, I will forward that link to him.

- walt