MTH Specialty Trains... Is this a good strategy???

I don't think there is any guarantee that MTH is even planning to make the matching passenger cars. The web page on the Rocky Mountaineer doesn't make any mention of the passenger train or where the Rocky Mountaineer runs. Maybe they are hoping for good sales just on the appearance of the loco.

And if it sells well, they will probably consider making matching passenger cars.

I have to wonder how much they'd have to invest to make the passenger cars. Does MTH have generic passenger cars that are suitable, or would new tooling be required to turn them out? Many people are no longer satisfied with generic. They want high fidelity scale models, which has to limit what the manufacturers can make.

Maybe MTH is testing the response on their locomotive sales, dont they use the very same locomotive paint scheme for their freight service. This could also have to do with a licencing agreement regarding the passenger train.  I'm told the HO scale sets sold very well when made a few years back, not sure if Rocky Mountaneer still sells them aboard the excursion train.

Color and sharp paint schemes sell and they are selling! Also the MTH lit Christmas cars are a huge hit and very popular at the train shows and folks want to know where to get them.

For short term , it's good strategy but in the long run- maybe a couple of years- the novelty will wear off, sales drop and the hard core enthusiast that supports MTH will get bored of the product line since there are no new models in the pipeline now or in the forseable future. MTH has gone from proactive in the marketplace to reactive.

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

For short term , it's good strategy but in the long run- maybe a couple of years- the novelty will wear off, sales drop and the hard core enthusiast that supports MTH will get bored of the product line since there are no new models in the pipeline now or in the forseable future. MTH has gone from proactive in the marketplace to reactive.

And they are making money doing it and that is the bottom line period.

dk122trains posted:

Color and sharp paint schemes sell and they are selling! Also the MTH lit Christmas cars are a huge hit and very popular at the train shows and folks want to know where to get them.

Good point, Don.  And I guess those Christmas cars with the LED's and trees could be considered specialty trains as well.  But I wasn't thinking about those when I started the thread, since they're something MTH has already shown a track record for continuing the series from one catalog to another.  So we buy a car or two each year, and after a few years you have a nice train.  And I really love that kind of stuff for the Christmas holidays.

The two examples I mentioned are in a different category though, since MTH is essentially asking enthusiasts to plunk down $400+ on a locomotive.  And for that, MTH has the luxury of using us for their market research, before they even preview much less announce the matching passenger cars.

David

Buying an engine and waiting for the cars to show up (or visa-versa) is dicey.  It can be a crap shoot.

I bought a Lionchief Plus Reading and Northern steamer last year.  I wanted to get into trying the LionChief Plus technology, and I thought that this would be a handsome way to try it.  Now, I can only hope for some matching properly sized passenger cars.  They offered this the next year too, but I don't know if this is hopeful or not.  Did they offer it again because it was so popular, or because they had a lot of left over stock.  I'm hoping for the "popular" explanation so as to increase the chances of matching cars.

If they don't come I would consider buying some 2400 series cars in poor shape (just paint-wise) and color match painting them.  However, I'm not sure how I would get matching blue paint.  The trim color on the engine is gold, so I could get bold and paint the cars a gold color.  That would be outstanding one way or another.

Alan