MTH shipping steam?

I was thinking the same thing but one of the engines I'm interested in is still TBA however the Railking Imperial Bigboy (another engine I'm interested in) is listed as February online....

I just sent MTH a message on Facebook asking them what's up. They are usually pretty quick to respond there.

Thanks Greg. I commented on it as well. I had recently MTH the other day but got nothing out of them. I agree, they usually get back to you within 24 hours of asking a question.

False alarm. Website was incorrect.

Bummer, I too await a long overdue Steam engine.

I just checked on the Santa Fe Blue Goose set (20-3436-1) that I preordered eons ago, and the shipping date now is "TBA". - - - In other words, keep dreaming about it!

Alex

What I don't get is, you have a product that your coustomers are foaming at the mouth to buy. Why would you let a manufacturing delay go on for so long? Do what you gotta do and get your product to market and make that money!

quote:

Originally posted by greg773:
What I don't get is, you have a product that your coustomers are foaming at the mouth to buy. Why would you let a manufacturing delay go on for so long? Do what you gotta do and get your product to market and make that money!

They probably don't have enough orders. Waiting until they get enough orders so that they can justify the minimum build/buy with manufacturer of the engine.

quote:

Originally posted by greg773:
What I don't get is, you have a product that your coustomers are foaming at the mouth to buy. Why would you let a manufacturing delay go on for so long? Do what you gotta do and get your product to market and make that money!

Well in all fairness to MTH, thats what Lionel did, and the amount of failures and defects is rediculous. When their products finally do arrive, and if there isn't post after post of "this is wrong" and "that doesn't work" MTH will be the winner. I'm currently running tmcc, and if MTH maintains a level of new product reliability, maybe I'd just as well add DCS versus upgrading to legacy. My most recent legacy steamer had an incorrectly assembled gearbox....totally unacceptable. I'll take a faulty smoke unit or a bad board (to a degree) but a bad gearbox,gimme a break!

Imperial Railkings first in about 2-3 months and first Premiers by Summer it is hoped

quote:

Originally posted by Charlienassau:
Imperial Railkings first in about 2-3 months and first Premiers by Summer it is hoped

Charlie,

I thank you. My wallet doesn't. Much appreciated.

Talked to a local dealer and he said that there is a shortage of chips for protosound 3. This is due in part to the Earhquake/Tsunami in Japan last year.

Take it for what its worth. I have nothing on pre-order as there was nothing for me in the last couple of catalogs, plus my own financial squeeze.

quote:

Originally posted by Charlienassau:
Imperial Railkings first in about 2-3 months and first Premiers by Summer it is hoped

Are you saying I can expect the first Premier Challenger in the summer. It was rescheduled to a March 2012 delivery. Is that date no longer any good?

Wouldn't it be great if part of the reason for the delay was the MTH was furiously working on upgrading the steam sounds to be more like Lionel? The wait would be worth it IMHO.

Unlikely, but one can hope.

Ron

quote:

Originally posted by yankspride4:
Wouldn't it be great if part of the reason for the delay was the MTH was furiously working on upgrading the steam sounds to be more like Lionel? The wait would be worth it IMHO.

Unlikely, but one can hope.

Ron

Ron, my PS3 European steamers sound fantastic, particularly the Bavarian, they already are excellent.

Didn't MTH announce they have a problem with their die-cast machine and would not be producing any steam locomotives for some time?

quote:

Originally posted by NYC 428:
Didn't MTH announce they have a problem with their die-cast machine and would not be producing any steam locomotives for some time?

Yes...I heard that as well from a reliable source. It also is impacting GG-1 production as well.

Ron

I have a blue goose on order but my guess it will be summer before it arrives.

I ordered the Premier Blue goose and the Hiawatha sets.In the meantime, I'm expanding my roster of Legacy steam engines to get my train fix.

Ricky

quote:

Originally posted by NYC 428:
Didn't MTH announce they have a problem with their die-cast machine and would not be producing any steam locomotives for some time?

That's the story that I heard as well.

What I was told by a very reliable source is that the factory in South Korea that was producing the MTH steam engines closed without notice to MTH making the dies inside unavailable to move to another manufacture. Mike Wolf had gone there hoping to get the dies moved. I don't know if he was successful or not.

Ed G.

I am quite sure Mike is covering all the contingencies and will get the issue resolved. I urge patience.

There's a lot of reliable source's on this thread. But no steam engines.

According to the conversation I had with MTH this week, Imperials will be delievered first followed by premier later this year. Tooling has been sent to a new casting company in another country-China???-from Korea?? and the "bugs" need to be worked out with the new machine setup procedures,---shot size, compression timing, overall cycle times, etc. If I understood correctly, Big Boys were in the mix for delivery. This information is displayed here from what I remember without writing anything down so don't hold it as gospel truth. They are making an honest attempt to get out the products that they advertised. No new steamers are in the near future until backorders are filled and production gets back on a regular schedule.

Frank