I now have a weird love hate relationship with MTH. Their business practices turn me off. The whole grabbing credit for the UP trademark thing was also a turnoff. Their folks at shows will tell you that DCC is a fringe market (isn't that a gas?!!) In fariness, though they used to, they may not say this anymore as they are now offering "DCC ready" models, but their wiring does not conform to NMRA standards, so have fun installing your decoder. It can be done, but it's more work than a typical install.
Their sound is loud, they have done a good job with speaker and baffle selection and design, but then they drop the ball with the prototype fidelity of many of these sounds (don't even get me started on the train wreck sound effect!
). One example: Their GS-4. The whistle sounds like an N&W whistle to me. Nothing like the prototype which I happen to have heard up close & personal. Spoiled the model for me. Their GS-6 is actually a GS-4. Totally wrong for the prototype. The optical dedector they use to regulate chuff is nice, and the three cylinder sound effect on their 4-12-2 is dead bang on the money, based on audio recordings of a real 4-12-2 I have heard. Then they go and articulate the model. Arrrghh! I suppose I understand. How many of us have a layout that could accomodate a non articulated 4-12-2 unless it had several sets of blind drivers? But I don't have to like it, and I don't. You can lock the frame and eliminate this feature if you want to. Their NYC streamlined Hudsons are very nice. A fellow club member has one and he likes it. He never double heads it with anything, so no big deal. He did get frustrated when programming the thing initially. Long story short, they don't make anything I want in the loco department. OTOH...their passenger cars are absolutely killer! I waited for a couple of years for the BLI Daylight cars, and never got past the observation car. After seeing repeated postponement announcements, and seeing another fellow club member's MTH Daylight cars, I broke down and bought a set. These things are drop dead gorgeous. Excellent detail, sharp paint work and lettering, and they roll like nobody's business. I can pull a 16 car train with a single brass GS-3 with a little bullfrog snot on two of the drivers. I'm lucky enough to belong to a club with a 48" minimum radius, so I can use the inner coupler mountings, and the operating full width diaphragms touch. The train looks awesome. If they made any errors duplicating the prototype, they are insignificant, and I'd catch them. I know this train! I've also seen their Powhatan Arrow set, and it too is very nice, so they are doing some things right. They still have a "toy train mentality" though. They are beginning to understand that there is a difference between HO modelers and toy train enthusiasts. No flaming intended, we just like different things, and have different priorities. There may be some hope for them to be accepted by mainstream HO modelers if they will learn to work & play well with the rest of the industry. The verdict is still out on that one though. Let's hope they "get it".
