"My first Recollection of MTH" whats yours....

So when I was an obviously younger lad, my uncle was full blown into collecting 3 rail lionel, particularly SD-45's.  I remember I was still in high school at the time.  Uncle Richard and Aunt Suzie took my to York as a guest ( and it took me over 20 years to make it back!).  I had been to a couple trains shows, but had no idea what I was walking into.  And in a corner somewhere was a modest mth display of two helix's of tubular track, and an mth Dash 8 was pulling 3 flatcars of lead weights up the helix and back down without hesitation.  I knew then that's what I really wanted in a train locomotive.  I also remember the simple front and back flyer with images of the dash 8 loco's.  I really wanted one and that wide nose safety cab just looked awesome.  I really wanted the Conrail one as we lived around Reading PA at the time.  Turns out a did get an mth loco for a high school graduation present. It was indeed a big mth conrail diesel, although it was a narrow nose dash 7.  I know my parents tried for the one I wanted but couldn't get it through the local hobby store.  I still have that loco, although I had GunRunner John upgrade to ps-3.  I tried to have Mike Wolf sign it a couple years ago at the pre York tca museum presentation. I wanted MW to sign it huge, but he wanted to make it small on the cab roof. Unfortunately despite letting it dry for a long time the sharpie still smudged in transport home - Oh well.  

I have often wondered what happened to that simple looking display, although I supposed it was dismantled or discarded.  

Went into a long gone train store circa 1995/1996 in Charlotte NC. Owner had a catalog on the counter that caught my eye. I said "who makes these"?

A black NS SD60? and a CSX Engine were my first acquisitions. I remember being impressed with the ditch lights. I became an early adopter of their engines and rolling stock.

The rest is a wallet draining odyssey.

Paul

after he started to make standard gauge,,,i bought a 3 car ives/lionel transition set,still have them but ,i sold them in the late 80's and found them for sale a couple of years later at a hobby store,,,so i bought them twice,,,,

MTH brought me back into running trains in 2003 when I saw  an operating 3-rail layout in the window of a hardware store in West Plains, MO!  It was captivating.  The store owner explained that it wasn't Lionel, but it was a small company called Mike's Train House.  He operated some RailKing, and I was transported to back when Dad set up a Lionel train around the Christmas tree when I was . . . just say I was young!  Thank you, Mike Wolf, for keeping me broke, but engine happy!

Back in the mid-90's I was just getting back into the hobby.  Most of my activity at the time was going to local train shows in NJ & Pa. (and weren't they all over the place at the time!) and just looking (drooling might be the better word) at the items offered.  Must have been in '95 or '96 I went to a show in Cranford NJ, was walking down an aisle when a set of D&H Madisons caught my eye.  They were gorgeous and that was my roadname where I grew up.  Was the only thing this little guy was displaying.  Struck up a conversation with the guy and learned he was in charge of the company that was making them, he was the Mike of Mike's Train House, so I ordered a set from him.  That was my introduction to Mike Wolf, and to MTH products which, as someone already said, began a wallet-draining odyssey.

early to mid-1990s, at a Farmington MI hobby store called 'Joe's Hobby'.  Went in just to look around and got blown away by the new MTH Railking Protosounds Southern Crescent Pacific.  I went home and couldn't stop thinking about it.  No plans to enter the hobby, in an apartment with no chance of a layout but it called to me.  I went the next day and bought it and the passenger cars, Z-4000, some track and the hoarding began for probably 12 years before my first layout.  I stare at that engine now every day as I work from home and smile at the memory of the trigger emotions.  That is what people not in the hobby don't get.

Mid '90s a new train store opened up very close to my home. Mikes Trains ironically. I was still 99.999% HO at the time and Mikes had all scales. Mike had a display of MTH scale trains behind the counter. It was the first time I had seen scale three rail and was very impressed. No chance of me buying any due to the prices though being many multiples of what HO was selling for even more than brass. Sadly the store closed after only a few years.

Pete

A local hobby shop in my area. nicest 3 rail models I had seen to date. only problem was the owner had a hard time demonstrating them with all the clinks and clunks from conventional transformer control. Kinda put me off until PS2 came out. 

I bought Williams from Mike when he still worked for them. He sold out of his parents basement. 

My first recollection was in 2002 when I attended one the first TCA Division meetings when I became a member as an HO modeler.  One of the LHS owners came by to do a demonstration on the introduction of Proto-2 and DCS.  There was quite a bit of angst from members who were already invested in Protosounds.  

Not trying to be negative about MTH, but there were more than a few upset people in the room when they learned they'd have to upgrade their locomotive fleets to use the "new" system.  

Around 2000, my son and I walked into Collectors Choice trains in Lenexa, KS, and I saw a KCS E8 and a full set of Premier KCS passenger cars on display.  That hooked me.

My first was an early PS1 Erie Lackawanna GP9 with its attending "clinks and clanks". It seemed like rocket science back then! I'm going to ERR it some day soon. 

An LHS in my old territory, Todd's Train Depot in Wendell, NC  said I really ought to buy a set of these new Mike's Train House F3's .  So I bought the blue & tangerine CNJ  PS-1 set without knowing anything about MTH, I think the set was around $600 in the mid-90's ?  Believe only 100 sets were made of the CNJs.  Never really liked that paint scheme so I sold them off a few years later on eBay for almost triple what I paid for them !  (that's never happened since !)  

My first MTH memory is unforgettable. After I retired from the Air Force I was able to settle down and build a layout. I had a PW SF F-3 set and an PW 4-6-2 steamer.  My Mom had stored these in a leaky shed for twenty years and I knew nothing about them so I had to find a local shop to give them an overhaul. I went to Arnies trains out here in So Cal to have them serviced but the problem was the didn't service Lionel trains. While I was there the owner introduced me to MTH trains. I couldn't believe the diesels had sound and smoke.  I was totally blown away and couldn't believe my eyes and ears. I bought a really nice starter set that came with a SF War Bonnet and passenger cars in which I still have and wouldn't trade it for anything. I didn't know that Lionel had been doing that for years too until I went to the Train Crossing in Costa Mesa and John the owner did an awesome job restoring the Lionel engines to working order. I was sold on modern railroading ever since. Being away from America for a long time a lot can change. 

I was just "accumulating" HO with  Colorado roadnames, more involved in the car hobby, when a  USAF officer said there were clubs where l could find my childhood Marx 3/16.  I started attending club meets, pursuing that, and discovered the Williams brass 3r Mikado, tracked one down and somehow was offered a D&RGW Challenger, by MTH.  Even then my theme was shortline, but this was a Colorado road!  Hook, line, and sinker.  I kept hoping for more but not much else fell into my roadnames categories, except the lamented McKeen, but l religiously followed MTH offerings for ever more 

Sometime back in 2000, I was sitting in the diner reading the other magazine and I saw a review of an MTH Railking F-3 AA Florida East Coast. I had to have it.

It was bright red and yellow and it was beautiful! Being from New Jersey, I had never seen a train that colorful. Shopping online was in its infancy then but I located a set at Ready to Roll in Miami. It's PS1.

I've since found a B unit from MTH and some FEC passenger cars from Lionel. Still one of my favorite trains!

For me, it was 1996. I was enamored with the "scale stuff" being issued and I bought Mike's scale Pennsy K4 and matching "Madison" heavyweight passenger cars. The engine number was 5495 and it had Protosound . Wow. The matching  cars were close to scale size and the only ones bigger were the scale guys made by Weaver. 

Next I had to have the scale diecast GG1 issued in 1997. I would mix up the engines and run them on the concentric loop layout I had incorporated around the room with my N scale stuff.

One eventful Christmas morning, I was "staging" the passenger train for visitors later in the day. Did I mention I had a "drop in bridge" at the entrance to my old train room.....long story short.....The GG1 along with a few cars made a really awful sound as they crashed to the concrete floor. I never put the bridge back in when I walked in to the room and it was hidden from view by a N scale mountain. I did not have a very good early Christmas morning but the whole story should make excellent read in another post.

Donald