MTH'S S-GAUGE CARS HAVE ARRIVED

OK, finally have something to look forward to!!

Roger

Looks good.

Nice to see MTH used the underframe with the AB brake gear  rather than the fishbelly underframe with the K brake. 

(A little knitpicky, I know.  It's a hang-up of mine...  The K brake was outlawed for interchange somewhere around 1935.)

Rusty

Nice looking.

At last...high quality production cars.

Now that I have actually seen a production car I have ordered the five reefers I've had my eye on for a year now.

Mark

While I am glad to see them shipping product, I'm not sure what the excitement is all about honestly. Is this not the same exact tooling that has been available for years? I'm pretty sure you can find them any day of the week on eBay.

Don't get me wrong I'm glad to see MTH getting up to speed, but I must be a little harder to please. I wouldn't refer to a rerun of existing tooling as a "home run". That's just me though...

The tooling could have just as easy gone off to tooling Val-Halla, or Don Thompson using it as ballast for his boat.

Any tangible, hold-it-in-your-hands S product is good news.  The drought's been way too long.  Sure, you can pick up pre-owned SHS on ebay or elsewhere, but that's not growth, that's stagnation.

The journey of a 1000 trains begins with one freight car.

Rusty

At least this news gives me a reason to blow the snow. The postal carrier must get through to the mailbox.

Ah...so Rusty-san...sage advice!

Mark

Looks like the floodgates are opening a little wider yet...

From MTH:

http://www.mthtrains.com/news/5

The website shows these cars in stock at MTH:

let's keep 'em coming!

Mark

I'm glad you see it that way. If you are going to stay in S for the long term that is a very positive outlook. I hope a lot of people feel the same way, because if MTH doesn't sell a boat load of these SHS reruns it will be a very long time before any new tooling sees the light of day.

I understand reusing the tooling you already have. That's low hanging fruit from a business standpoint. But what if they don't sell? What then?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully they all sell very well and it is a moot point.

When Lionel revived the American Flyer line way back in 1979, they started with 3 cars.  Bay Window Caboose(Chessie), Box Car(Santa Fe) and Gondola(Burlington.) 

Releases afterwards weren't exactly being released at lightspeed.  Over the years, Lionel tinkered with the Flyer tooling, but there wasn't a breath of fresh air until 2003 with the B&O and NYC Mikados.

I won't deny S is a tough scale to get into.  It was like that even when times were good. S has never had the retail presence of O, HO or N.

It took over two years for S-Helper to get the 2-8-0 out.  I also remember the F3's taking longer than anticipated. 

AM did new releases in spurts with dry spells in between.  When AM finally did their first caboose (the bay window) it was "helped" by a New Jersey Club.

Things would be a little different now if Sanda Kan didn't jettison their "small" customers, but it's no longer the go-go 90's and 00's and we can't change history.

Rusty

They do like like nice cars, but don't they all seem to be riding low on their trucks? Reminds me of very early N scale releases...

Mark in Oregon

Good news. Doesn't MTH have 100+ S scale cars and locomotives planned for late spring 2014 delivery?

Iam thinking hard and just might jump over the fence from O..to..S....still reading about it.

That would be more prototypical.  You may be too used to seeing the highwater cars and engines turned out by most hi rail/toy train manufacturers.

I suppose so...although my PRS and AM boxcars look to have more "air" between the top of the trucks and below the car frame. Could be just the camera angle,I guess...

In any case, the B&O car looks especially nice.

Mark in Oregon

In a word: no.

Rusty

If you were new into S ..like me...what track would you recommend for a layout with today's options ??. Thanks...didn't mean to hi jack the thread..mods can move this if they see fit.Thanks

Well,there you have it. I stand corrected...

Mark in Oregon

Yes,do it,do it! I think you'll be glad you did.

Mark in Oregon

My take on this is divided.

If you want a more prototypical/scale look to your empire you can buy American Models track which while not actually "scale" it looks great. You would need to install a separate roadbed and ballast if desired:

MTH will soon also provide a 40" Flex track that requires roadbed and ballast.

If you want an easier approach you could use the soon to arrive S-Trax from MTH.

This track has an incorporated roadbed similar to Lionel Fastrack. It will come in 3 curved radii and a variety of straight lengths and accessory pieces. It is basically a re-issue of the old S-Helper-Service track still occasionally found in on-line auctions.

The coloring of the "ballast" on the roadbed looks good:

Lionel/American Flyer also currently has a molded roadbed track. It is S gauge "Fastrack" and is quite similar to the MTH track except for the joining tabs and roadbed coloring. It too will soon have additional radius curves and straights.

The big advantage to this track is that it is available NOW:

I use the AF Fastrack and it works great. You can run High rail or AF "scale" wheeled cars on it.

In short...check the catalogs from these three manufacturers and make a choice.

Good Luck!

Mark

Mark,

What roadbed is that in the pic - homasote?  Can you still get it?  It looks pretty nice.

It's AM Flex Bed: (from their website)

Mark

George...see the MTH Shipping Schedule for S gauge.

Yes, that page shows by my count 145 separately catalogued items for S gauge.

Most are due by late spring 2014 as you say. A few are already here.

That page does show a shipping date for one "uncatalogued" item which is I guess a special run or car number as it is a club car:

35-78025--40’ Woodsided Reefer Car - Fairmont Creamery (TTOS 2014 Convention)

MTH also shows a stock # for the 2014 MTH RR Club car for S gauge:

Mark

Another S question....does S have scale cars and  non scale cars ?? If so what's the Diff ??? Are they diff sizes ??? Thanks

For the most part, most S Gauge cars are scale sized. The K-Line cars are old Marx dies, and over-sized.

The MTH FEB 28th Shipping Schedule email is now showing many more of the 'REBUILT STEEL BOXCARS' coming in ..

Notice that the inside of the box car has been authentically painted white.

Andrew

I saw the White interior and wondered if that was correct...

Now I'm getting worried. I have not received my Sentinel boxcar yet. I hope the post office didn't lose it. 

Easy does it...I don't have mine either and a friend who lives 30 miles away received  his last week. I have no experience with MTH shipping so I have no base line for reference. If I don't receive it in another week...I'll join you and we can worry together.

Mark

Did not get my car either!

I spoke to MTH just yesterday when I renewed my club membership and they said they will not have completed shipping all the "S" Club cars until the end of this week.  The time to worry will be late next week.

Rocco

Could it be simply the bare, white plastic shell?  Seems from a production standpoint, it would be easier NOT to paint to the interior & use white plastic, as opposed to painting then masking it...   You are going to have to mask it either way, so why not just start with a white shell? 

OK, it's been two weeks since Ken opened this post and the first reports were out about people getting their B&O Sentinel cars.  Here I am in Ohio still waiting for mine!  Yesterday, MTH told me they were all shipped out last week via Smartpost and that there was some delay because of the weather.

Is anyone out there still waiting for theirs or am I the last one?

Mike

don't feel alone I did not get my car as of yesterday, Since I got everything else that came with the membership I assume it is not a error just at the end of the list.

Nope...you're not alone. I too received the same info from Kristin at MTH via email.

friends of mine in my area who signed up long after I did already have their cars.

I'm taking the view that if the car doesn't arrive by the end of the month I'm going to request my membership fee back and forget the whole thing.

More than likely the weather has played a major role in the delay.

Mark