What where these small sets? Where they old williams tooling or did mth make them? Seems like alot of tooling for a few rtr sets They only made them a year or two.
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Bantam locomotives were new tooling for MTH. Rolling stock came from the RailKing product line.
Rusty
MTH Bantam is like Lionel 027. The Bantam steamers are:
>N&W J 4-8-4 and it also cataloged in SP Daylight;
>Jersey Central Blue Comet 4-6-2 which is also cataloged as a Christmas engine.
There was also a Bantam Pennsy turbine. The Bantam Turbine, J and GS4 shared the same drive mechanism.
Guess the Bantam locomotives proved all good ideas aren't necessarily good ideas...
Rusty
These sets were made for a good period around 2000 through 2008 or maybe more. Even a Blue Comet. Pretty good return on investment considering how many sets sold over that time. G
I had the Blue Comet Set . It came with the MTH 13" cars. It looked fine on my smaller
Layout with 0-31 curves. It looked to me to be about the same size engine as a TRADITIONAL Lionel engine.
PS It ran and sounded great. Whomever bought mine is probably really enjoying it.
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I still have the Bantam N&W J. The electronics went into another locomotive (the Dreyfus in the photo) that needed 5V boards, so the J is going to be a park display engine.
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I have the Pennsy turbine, bought it used from a forum member, it has pulled 8 Lionel PRR 027 cars (16001 etc.) cars on my Layout since it arrived. Never had an issue, great runner.
I wish they would bring them back. Great starter sets, and a lot better looking than the Scout-types that Lionel still has on their bottom entry line.
Originally Posted by Rusty Traque:
There was also a Bantam Pennsy turbine. The Bantam Turbine, J and GS4 shared the same drive mechanism.
Guess the Bantam locomotives proved all good ideas aren't necessarily good ideas...
Rusty
Actually the Bantam sets were a GREAT idea, I bought Three of the Daylight sets, still have one for myself, and gave each of my Sisters a set.
MSRP of $349.99 IIRC, which my LTS got down to $309.00 out the door, for a PS2 Steam locomotive, Three passenger cars, Track and Transformer, that's a hard deal to beat.
Growing up and living in the Portland area, the 4449 is a Hometown Girl, and those Bantam Daylight sets are Very popular with the Nieces, Nephews and Granddaughter, as well as many Adults.
Bantam sets NOT a Good Idea?,
If you have any Bantam Daylights cluttering up your train room, send me an email, I will give them a good home. I have a Great Nephew, that I Know would be thrilled to have one.
Doug
These "bantam" sized engines and sets were outstanding. They fit a perfect niche and were intended to be sold to newbies coming into the hobby. They all looked very nice, performed great and sounded great.
I had the first N&W passenger set from 2000 running under our tree last month. I also had the SP Daylight running as well.
The sound set in the American Freedom Train version was outstanding. The bantam Southern PS-4 version was also very sharp. The Blue Comet and PRR S-2 Turbine were very high volume sellers.
Great, great engines and perfect for kids to enjoy their first hand at the controls.
