MTH Electric Trains has licensed the Lionel and American Flyer names from Lionel LLC for use on MTH tinplate toy train reproductions. While MTH has been able to use the Ives name for some time (such as on the Olympian set that I last blogged about), it will now also be able to use the other two great names from the golden age of Standard Gauge trains, allowing the modern reproductions to at last be letter perfect down to the names. I've verified with MTH that these reproductions will be available, as most of the Tinplate Traditions line has been, in both traditional (reproduction original AC motor) and contemporary (modern PS2 electronics controlled by DCS) versions, giving hobbyists a choice of a perfect reproduction down to the motor or a perfect reproduction in appearance with all the modern bells and whistles that many hobbyists really enjoy hiding inside.
Archive for December, 2008
An Interesting Development
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008A New Video and Video News
Monday, December 8th, 2008The MTH Ives Olympian Standard Gauge set that I talked about below deserved to have its own video and now it does. It appears on the Multimedia page of my web site as well as on YouTube. While you can just click on the video here to see the YouTube version, the versions on my web site, in your choice of Windows Media, Real Media, and MPEG-4 formats, are higher quality in higher resolution and play much better. Speaking of YouTube, over the last 22 months, I've uploaded a total of 90 small train videos showing my MTH trains in action. They have now racked up an astonishing two million views!
More Reefers, More Madness
Monday, December 8th, 2008Will it never stop? Atlas released five more forty-foot woodsided reefers, their seventeenth regular issue. Well, it was supposed to be five but one of the cars has two different paint schemes for the two road numbers, so there are really six new cars. All are included on the master list and now appear in the photo catalog on my main web site. Here's a taste to whet your whistle.
A Visit With Mike Wolf (And A New Train!)
Sunday, December 7th, 2008This past Friday, my friend Bob and I went down to Trenton to visit with Mike Wolf, the president of MTH Electric Trains. He was visiting Trains & Things, a very nice train store down there. Mike hadn't been around when we visited MTH in Columbia, MD during the summer (entries below) so it was good to have a chance to chat with him again. I found out that the new Premier model camelback will be arriving at the end of January, which is exciting for me since I have one on order. Mike had a production sample (undecorated) with him, and the level of add-on detail is amazing. Here are two photos of that sample.
He also brought with him the completed models of some of the European steam locomotives that MTH has started to produce. Though not my cup of tea, they are exquisite as you can see in the following two photos.
Last but not least, here's Mike himself. 
While at the store, my eye was caught by an Ives Olympian set that they had on display. Ives was a manufacturer of toy trains back in the golden age and made exquisite Standard Gauge trains that many think were the height of the art. MTH has been making reproductions of the old Ives Standard Gauge trains for some time now, and this set, produced in 2007, incorporates all of the latest PS2 innovations, allowing it to be run with DCS, while maintaining the appearance of the original. For those not familiar with them, Standard Gauge trains run on track that is much wider than O Gauge track and the trains, being true toy trains, are not in any way to scale. You can get relatively small Standard Gauge trains, such as the Christmas trains that I have (you can see videos of them in action on my Multimedia page), or you can get relatively enormous Standard Gauge trains where a locomotive and four cars can stretch out more than six feet. The Ives Olympian set falls into the latter category. During our visit I kept coming back to examine the set more and more closely. Other than the two Christmas sets, I have no Standard Gauge trains. Well, I didn't until now. It was a case of love at first sight, and I'm now the proud owner of the Ives Olympian! Here are a series of photos of the locomotive and the four cars (which in fact make a train more than six feet long) on my Standard Gauge "layout" on the library floor.
Finally, on a personal note, today is Pearl Harbor Day, marking three years since I "got retired".
