What are most people opinion about MTH Closing?

We shall see in due time...

I believe it is a bad thing for the hobby. I do not believe any company will purchase MTH and the long term employees most likely do not have or can not raise enough capital to continue the Company. Losing a manufacturer of this magnitude and a visionary like Mike has been all these years can not be a good thing. Jerry

Competition is good.  Because of it, with MTH developing more scale, more realistic products, Lionel got better, too.  The reality is that the O Scale/ Gauge hobby is pretty small to support two major companies.  Because of that, I think it will be Lionel, and a number of smaller, specialty companies like Third Rail.

The hobby, overall, is resilient...IMHO.  However,....

HO w/DCC+Sound will grow even more.  (New highly detailed/affordable/reliable players in the market in the past 5 years....e.g., Scale Trains)

O3R and S will decline with the demographics of participating consumers.  (MTH was a major resuscitating/innovating player)

N scale will always be a player...it's THE portion of the hobby for small spaces....witness the recent "Tiny House" craze in this country.  It's also one of the few scales MTH didn't directly impact/participate in....and N scale continued to grow in popularity/technology/new players (Again, e.g. Scale Trains)

G gauge?...outdoor model railroading?...the 'no-masking-required' club haven in these pandemic times?  Maybe a resurgence...who knows?

Then there's the influencing unpredictables...trade wars, real wars, political wars, pandemic wars, financial wars, ....

In the mean time....Peace be with all this holiday season ahead of 2021.

Random thoughts, FWTW.

Meanwhile, I most certainly and once again wish Mike Wolfe a happy, stress-free, healthy, l-o-n-g, well-deserved retirement.

KD

Sad to see MTH go, they put out quality products at reasonable prices and were fairly easy to deal with if you know what I mean.

If no one picks up the product line, it’s a loss. MTH made better, more affordable rolling stock. MTH starter locos were just as powerful as the Premier line. I wish Lionel put the effort into the quality of their “lower end, yet more expensive rolling stock”.  MTH starter sets COULD end up being the only Loco you need as the Christmas train gets longer and you keep adding cars. Compare detailed interiored passenger cars to silhouettes. Rolling stock that a 4 year  old can play with, looks sturdier and can sit in a 20 car consist and not pull open. DCS.... I like it. I run it. But MTH couldn’t make the leap into Bluetooth for the home and something more like TMCC or fingers crossed the next generation could have 5G WiFi On board.

In short.... I’m gonna buy up some real trax (because I’ve already committed an it’s quieter that fast track) and I’m gonna treat my locos well and hope for aftermarket repairs.

A loss!  I miss the variety that flowed out of Williams, Weaver, and K-Line, so another "fallen flag" is definitely not welcome.

MTH was a disappointment for S folks.  Two catalogs (2013, 2020) during the 8 years they owned the former S Helper Service tooling.  Partly because (IMO) MTH didn't understand the mind of the S market and partly because they had to re-invent the wheel for locomotives to incorporate DCS. (It took MTH 4 years to release the F3 announced in 2013...)

Even with the announcement of a brand-spanking "new" fishbelly hopper (actually begun by the original owners of SHS) they missed the mark.  Unlike the PS2 covered hoppers offered in the first catalog, the fishbelly hopper would have been a natural for release in two 6-packs, plus a separate number.  Instead, we get just 2 numbers.

Oh, well...  Whats done is done.  Even with the trickle of products, MTH will be missed by S folks.  I have serious reservations that the S line will be continued even IF there is a buyer for the company as a whole.  In these trying times, I doubt the S scale tooling is marketable alone.

Rusty

It's a real loss for the Tinplate world. Mike was the only one mass producing tinplate, particularly standard gauge.

Sad, to be stuck with just Lionel with all their issues.  I’m worried for the future.

It was widely speculated for some time that there would be changes with MTH, so it really isn't a surprise in a lot of ways.  However, time will tell.  Much like K-Line, tooling finds its way into other hands.  Lionel had access to some tooling for a while until Kader Industries bought the factory and Bachmann became the sole manufacturer.  For that matter, Marx tooling became a part of K-line along with AMT tooling.  When Weaver closed, tooling ended up with Atlas and Lionel for the most part.

It is a cycle.  It is reasonable to suspect that some of this product will show up again down the road while some will not.  In this industry one has to remember it's not about the company, but rather the company that can gain access to the factory that owns the tooling and negotiate for its use.

As someone who likes DCS, I'm a bit disappointed. 

Someone hinted at the idea of Lionel taking up MTH's tooling.  Maybe Lionel would produce engines DCS-equipped as one of the choices, just like MTH did with their Standard Gauge line of DCS or traditional.

Lionel will never use DCS is their products.

I have to go with Marty, no way, no how Lionel uses DCS!  If, as it's seeming pretty likely at this time, no new stuff is manufactured with DCS, that control system will slowly fade into history.

Man I hope not, almost everything I have is DCS!

back when tmcc was in its infancy and so was dcs. the mark missed due to competition was both companies not setteling on a standard operating system for o gauge like they have in the HO world. I think marty and john are spot on if no one buys mth. dcs will be relegated to those who have it and will eventually be old and outdated in 5 or 10 years maybe sooner. this is why I have backup tius and lots of remotes.

I love mth preimer products and now is a good time to get good deals on bearly used engines I could never afford when they were new. so my collection is growing and almost maxed out on what I always wanted. I am happy to know at least the dcs portion will live on for at least a while. that way I can stock a few ps3 kits in my collection just in case a engine ever goes bad on me. I will miss the for sure.

@Lionelzwl2012 posted:

back when tmcc was in its infancy and so was dcs. the mark missed due to competition was both companies not setteling on a standard operating system for o gauge like they have in the HO world. I think marty and john are spot on if no one buys mth. dcs will be relegated to those who have it and will eventually be old and outdated in 5 or 10 years maybe sooner. this is why I have backup tius and lots of remotes.

There probably some value in DCS and it's continued development.  I don't see it going away, but re-emerging elsewhere as a small technology company or perhaps picked up as separate entity by the likes of a Bachmann.  There is little likely hood that MTH will be purchased outright.  It's cheaper to buy the pieces of the company over the whole.

Agreed, Lionel likely wouldn't be a good match as they are heavily invested in Legacy.  Maybe it's time to develop a more user friendly DCC interface that follows the NRMA standard so all our trains can finally play with each other?

Bad for the hobby. MTH was a great company and the loss of competition is never good. Really a no brainer.

Pat

My concern with DCS being a small technology company is that they won't have the economy of scale of large scale production.   If that happens it's likely the DCS system suddenly gets very expensive and simply prices itself out of the market.  When you're producing a large quantity of locomotives that are all using the same board sets, the production costs per unit go way down.  I can tell you first hand the difference in producing 100 boards and 2,000 boards is huge on a cost per board basis.  So, extend that out to even large quantities and you can see where being a very small fish in a big pond is dangerous water.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I have to go with Marty, no way, no how Lionel uses DCS!  If, as it's seeming pretty likely at this time, no new stuff is manufactured with DCS, that control system will slowly fade into history.

My thoughts exactly. I said this from the moment I heard that DCS will continue, if nothing new is produced with it, it'll be gone quick.

I've always been a big fan of MTH's subway sets. The variety and prices were very affordable. I have the Redbird PS2 Set. Still runs great!

I also liked all of the uncataloged box cars that MTH came out with over the years. I have quite a few and it's been fun collecting them. I have Chick-fil-A, Craftsman, Kenmore, Italy's, etc.

I'll miss that!

@GG1 4877 posted:

Much like K-Line, tooling finds its way into other hands.  Lionel had access to some tooling for a while until Kader Industries bought the factory and Bachmann became the sole manufacturer.

Actually, Lionel is still using K-Line tooling. For example, Lionel's recently released Legacy B6sb and 4-6-6T locomotives are former K-Line tooling.

Williams by Bachmann has used very little of the K-Line tooling. That's unlikely to change.

@Sean007 posted:

I've always been a big fan of MTH's subway sets. The variety and prices were very affordable. I have the Redbird PS2 Set. Still runs great!

Subways from MTH are fantastic! Regardless if it's NYC or CTA, they made awesome models. I already have a few NYC BMT subways and will be adding some IRT ones in the future!

Another thread just like others we have already.  AND, has drifted off of the original question in the title.