MTH buys S-Helper Service, enters S gauge

[Seayakbill]

Seems like Lionel has the market share of S Gauge products, is there enough volume for 2 companies to succeed.

[Major]

This is great news to those of us in the S-Scale community as S-Helper has produced excellent products.  There has been concern that with the production turmoil in China that some companies would not survive.  I am glad to see MTH purchase their tooling.

[Bob Keller]

 

FOR RELEASE ON May 22, 2012

M.T.H. To Enter S Scale Market In 2013

Columbia, Maryland, May 22, 2012 --- M.T.H. Electric Trains has purchased the tooling

and production related assets of The Showcase Line® and the S-Trax System®

previously produced by S Helper Service, Inc. of Cliffwood, New Jersey. The sale

includes designs, tooling, marketing and trademark assets related to all of S Helper's S

Scale, 1/64 model railroading products. All in-stock inventory and the general business

assets of the company will remain with S Helper Service.

 

“We are pleased that the S model railroading products of The Showcase Line and the STrax

System will be continuing with a company whose standards of prototype accuracy,

prototype detail, state-of-the-art technology and high quality are commensurate with the

standards we had set for ourselves with the products we have delivered to S model

railroaders,” said Michael Ferraro, President of S Helper Service.

 

Don Thompson, Vice-President of S Helper Service explained further that, “As Michael

Ferraro and I approached retirement age, we sought alternatives for the continuation of

the line of S scale model trains, track and accessories that we had developed over the last

20 plus years. The transfer of the Showcase Line and S-Trax products to M.T.H. will

further boost the continuing growth of S model railroading within the model railroading

industry. M.T.H.’s resources and strengths, in particular their digital sound and train

control technology, will take S to a whole new level. The infusion of features like

synchronized puffing smoke, LED lighting, cd-quality sound, remote uncoupling and a

host of unique operating functions will make S more exciting than ever before and that

has been our hope for the products we created.”

 

Founded more than twenty-years ago, S Helper Service was formed to advance the S

scale segment of the model railroading industry by providing more new and diverse

products, establish entry-level starter sets for S and provide products made to the highest

standards in the model railroad industry. Since that time, The Showcase Line of

locomotives, rolling stock and accessories has expanded to include eight locomotives,

eighteen diverse freight cars and a variety of accessories. The S-Trax System now

includes thirteen sectional and flex track components along with track accessories. At the

time of the sale, both The Showcase Line and S-Trax System have additional products

under development.

 

All of the products from S Helper Service had become the standard to which all products

for S model railroading are compared. The detailed models and operational qualities of

the products are unsurpassed in the model railroading industry. The S-Trax System is the

leading track line for S scale.

 

M.T.H. Electric Trains, founded in 1980 by Mike Wolf, has become one of the very

largest and most diverse manufacturers of model trains in the United States. The

company originally began as a mail order toy train retailer before establishing itself as a

model railroad manufacturer of classic tin-plate reproductions from the first half of the

Twentieth Century. By 2006, M.T.H. had product lines in 3-rail O Gauge, 2-rail O Scale,

HO, One-Gauge and O and Standard Gauge tinplate reproductions.

 

Today, M.T.H.’s DCS Digital Command System and its line of onboard Proto-Sound®

digital sound and command control locomotive modules comprise a technology package

considered the most versatile in all of model railroading. Proto-Sound 3.0, the latest

onboard package found in all M.T.H. locomotives, will be incorporated into M.T.H. S

Scale products in the 2013 product line which will be unveiled later in 2012. Proto-

Sound 3.0 equipped locomotives operate under AC or DC track current, in conventional

or command modes in both 2 or 3-rail environments. Most importantly, Proto-Sound 3.0

equipped locomotives respond to DCS or DCC command control protocols ensuring that

M.T.H.'s expansion into the S Scale market will provide the S Gauge marketplace with

locomotives unmatched in their versatility, features and performance.