Your reasons for not buying MTH HO are sound ones Sheldon, obviously they don't fit your purposes so there's no point in your spending money on them. Can't argue with that.
It's for the same reason I have no interest in purchasing any of Lionel's "LionChief" only controlled products. I want that conventional control option, and if I can't get it from one manufacturer I'll get it from another.
"LionChief+" is another matter, the conventional option's there. However, at the present time they're not building anything I'm interested in that's set up that way, so the money stays in the wallet.
I do have a "LionChief+" locomotive, a GP20 with Susquehanna markings. It's a great runner, but I've only used the "LionChief" remote that came with it once, just to see how it worked. It worked just fine. However, when I was done with it I pulled the batteries, put the remote in a drawer, and switched the locomotive back to conventional control.
By the way, the hobby shop where I purchased the Lionel GP20 also had an MTH Susquehanna SD60, and for less money too, but I passed on it. At 17+ inches long it was just too big for my layout. That's the only time I've passed on an MTH locomotive for a Lionel one.
Wayne
There are 4 MTH locomotives and 3 MTH RailKing cars in my bedroom right now. 3 of the locos are on display (one of them permanently when not pulling tonnage: the Dreyfuss Century Hudson if you're curious) the N&W 0-8-0 is currently doing the honors on my little 4 by 6 oval. So I'm not completely anti-MTH.
That being said, NONE of my MTH locos are running the way they were supposed to. Or at least not the way they were "advertised" to. ALL 6 of my locomotives have had their electronic guts removed and all 6 are running on DC hot wired directly to their motors. Practically worthless on the resale market, but at least I found a way to make them move.
To be fair, I purchased the PS-2 20th Century Hudson, a PS-2 Santa Fe 2-6-0 and the whistle only N&W 0-8-0 (which came boxed with 4 hoppers) as stand alone items whereas the other 3: PS-2 SP Daylight, PS-2 Southern Ry 4-6-2 in green and a PS-2 MILW non-streamlined Hiawatha 4-6-2 came with starter passenger sets. (The GS is a bantam by the way.)
But all 5 of the PS-2 locos lost their minds after being run on an MRC Dual Power O27 pack, something MTH and/or MRC should have been able to figure out and warn consumers about long before my electronics boards went to the funny farm. Heck, even experts at Rockwell Systems Automation couldn't make heads or tails of them after they quit. They were just plain unusable. So, money or no, I stopped even thinking about buying a ProtoSounds loco a long time ago.
I AM sorry to see MTH shutting down. I personally believe that without Mike Wolf the O gauge realm would still be using postwar castings and molds just as they were around 1995 when the RailKing line appeared. (I purchased a "midrange" 2-6-4 with an air whistle tender for $300 in 1995) He forced the industry to innovate.
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
I find the MTH engines I have gutted run just fine on normal track power. My belief is the electronics dropped so much voltage on the input, they needed more input to get usable power to the motor. Gut them, they're fine.
I like older cast engines. I am writing an article right now showing how to obtain something different. Or two. Or three.
Like this one, couple of articles down the road.
or something simple like fixing stack location:
Good evening all,
I have to thank Mike Wolf and MTH for making standard gauge available again. I have several engines and many pieces of rolling stock from all three types of brands, Lionel Classics, Tinplate Traditions and Lionel Corporation. Of all the possible resurrection scenarios, the return of those particular products are the most far fetched. The tremendous decline in prices on eBAY had almost already precluded that possibility. For now and the forseeable future, I will continue to enjoy what I have and acquire anything else that might come along when the chance presents itself. I hope everyone has a good day.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
My last MTH gut was a copy of the Ives 1134 (?). Separate gear train for the code wheel. Electronics everywhere.
Cleaned it up, lubed, ran on the club layout for a bit over two months and went "eeeep" out the speaker and it was dead.
Gutted it all out, electronics, brackets, speaker, contacts, code wheel reader, pitched it all, Dallee reverser, runs fine and QUIET.
If it wasn't for the mandated DCS stuff, with added cost, I'd a probably bought something. But NOT paying a premium so I can cut it out.
I sure did a lot of PS-1's over the years. Boy could you pick them up cheap when the PS-1's took a dump.
I got this thing in the wrong thread.
S.J.
"IT's GOOD TO BE THE KING",by Mel Brooks
Charter Member- Tardis Train Crew (TTC) - Detroit3railers- Detroit Historical society Glancy Modular trains- Charter member BTTS
Flintlock76 Sheldon! Great to see you here! (And you folks should see some of the pictures of his home restorations! Wow!) I need to remind folks of something. Remember the flap 15, maybe almost 20 years ago now, of Union Pacific versus the model railroad and railfan publishing industries? How UP was trying to put the squeeze on both for some heavy payouts concerning the use of UP's (and the predecessor 'roads UP aquired) logos, heralds, and markings? Remember all the consternation in the hobby? I do. In the past railroads were thrilled to see their names on toy trains, it was free publicity! Hey, back in the 40's The Santa Fe, the New York Central, and EMD even chipped in to Lionel to pay for the tooling to produce Lionel's classic F3 diesel! But not this time, UP was after the bucks. Well, it was Mike Wolf who negotiated a settlement amenable to all, both the rail model industry and Union Pacific. As I recall, overall UP DID suffer quite a bit of embarassment, there was a lot of negative press concerning the mess. I'd be surprised if someone at UP didn't lose their job over it. So if you're a Union Pacific fan* and you model "Uncle Pete," give a little thanks to Mr. Mike. He's saved you quite a bit of painting, hand-lettering and decaling! * And the 'roads UP absorbed.
Sheldon! Great to see you here!
(And you folks should see some of the pictures of his home restorations! Wow!)
I need to remind folks of something. Remember the flap 15, maybe almost 20 years ago now, of Union Pacific versus the model railroad and railfan publishing industries? How UP was trying to put the squeeze on both for some heavy payouts concerning the use of UP's (and the predecessor 'roads UP aquired) logos, heralds, and markings? Remember all the consternation in the hobby? I do.
In the past railroads were thrilled to see their names on toy trains, it was free publicity! Hey, back in the 40's The Santa Fe, the New York Central, and EMD even chipped in to Lionel to pay for the tooling to produce Lionel's classic F3 diesel! But not this time, UP was after the bucks.
Well, it was Mike Wolf who negotiated a settlement amenable to all, both the rail model industry and Union Pacific. As I recall, overall UP DID suffer quite a bit of embarassment, there was a lot of negative press concerning the mess. I'd be surprised if someone at UP didn't lose their job over it.
So if you're a Union Pacific fan* and you model "Uncle Pete," give a little thanks to Mr. Mike. He's saved you quite a bit of painting, hand-lettering and decaling!
* And the 'roads UP absorbed.
WILLIAM LAUGHLIN DC The part you left out was that Lionel had ALREADY signed the original deal with U.P. They were quite content to let the rest of the hobby world fend for themselves. Mike did ALL of us a favor.
Interesting, I didn't know Lionel caved on that, I never saw that published anywhere.
I think I know what Joshua Lionel Cowan would have said and done:
"What? You don't like all the free publicity and advertising I'm giving you by putting your name on MY trains? OK, I'll tell you what. You want to see your name on my trains from now on? I'M not gonna pay YOU, you're gonna pay ME!"
Don't think he wouldn't have done it either, J.L didn't fool around!
More likely scenario has ole' J.L. making a deal with the U.P.'s biggest competitor, BNSF, for exclusivity.
Penny Trains More likely scenario has ole' J.L. making a deal with the U.P.'s biggest competitor, BNSF, for exclusivity.
Oh, yeah! And he probably would have sweet-talked BNSF into chipping in for the R&D costs too! That man was a genius in more ways than one.
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