Model Power officially out of business


The really sad part is for the employees, as has been stated. It also shows the disgusting way of doing business banks have now; they tell you how to run your business when they know nothing about it. The one-size-fits-all mentality of doing "business" in America strikes again. Maybe that French economist is on to something in his book about the U.S. economy? It's sold out on Amazon.

Photoman475
 
photoman475 said:
It also shows the disgusting way of doing business banks have now; they tell you how to run your business when they know nothing about it.
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That has ALWAYS been the way banks do business, because to a bank money is the business. JP Morgan (the banker) told Edison how to run his company (and eventually just took it away from him). The banks told Westinghouse he had to ditch Tesla. The banks told Carnegie he had to run the plants 24 hours a day. The banks dictated J Gould had to sell the Union Pacific railroad (or was it the Western Pacific, I forget) etc, etc, etc,
 
G'day..Some of my first items , mostly rolling stock but also four really cheap but good runner GP 9...locomotives...were/are Model Power...Any company , especially a model company that gets derailed is bad...our hobby needs the cheaper brands because that's what gets most of us going in the first place...Thanks for sharing the news..Cheers Rod.
 
kbkchooch said:
I kinda saw it coming, they never were a major force in HO. The 1:87 cars were neat though, but what is going to happen to the Mantua line now??
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I was under the impression that the Mantua line was taken over by Bowser, but Bowser has decided to discontinue the Mantua line, especially steam locomotives due to the tooling wearing out. Shame about all of these old lines. The Mantua steamers made great candidates for all sorts of kitbashing projects. :(
 
One of the last N-scale 4-6-2s. Got this guy in the mail today. RIP MP. Ironically, it came with warranty information.

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Iron Horseman:

The point I was trying to make was that at one time, at least with smaller businesses, they'd at least make the attempt to pretend to listen to the person running the business. After all, he/she might actually KNOW something about what they were doing. Now they don't even do that. I'd suggest the 2008 economic meltdown was caused in part by banks telling other people how to run their businesses when they themselves had no idea how to run a bank! I'd add some others to that list, but then the conversation gets very off-topic and I don't want to do that.

Photoman475
 
MikeOwnby said:
One of the last N-scale 4-6-2s. Got this guy in the mail today. RIP MP. Ironically, it came with warranty information.
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Don't feel bad. I have a $10,000 50 year bond certificate issued by the New Haven RR on May 1 1954 promising to pay at 4% interest. The NH ceased to exist on December 31, 1968. :(
 
It's such a sin. Granted most of their stuff like freight cars and locos were pretty much geared toward the toy market but still their vehicles and structures were pretty good. The vehicles were a good deal especially when you consider the price.
 
DirtyD79 said:
It's such a sin. Granted most of their stuff like freight cars and locos were pretty much geared toward the toy market but still their vehicles and structures were pretty good. The vehicles were a good deal especially when you consider the price.
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Yeah, that's what is really going to hurt, especially in N scale. Not exactly a ton of people out there making the vehicles & structures to begin with. As for the rolling stock, I agree. Most of their stuff does look too toy-like to want it on my layout, but considering the price their steam is actually pretty good in N scale. A little light on detail, but definitely not to the point of toy-like on those. The do run well also, and are super-easy to convert to DCC. Model Power definitely did a good thing when they took the effort to run that extra set of wires to the motor.
 
Model Power owns Mantua. Bowser owns Stewart, Penn Line, Cal Scale, and Carey.
I talked to Lee English at length a few weeks ago, and he was disappointed nobody wanted the molds and production machines. He said the way that stuff was made, and what it was made out of, would give any state environmental department official a coronary if they found out anybody wanted to manufacture the stuff here in this country.
 
Wow. I have to take it back about Model Power's steam engines. I have a 4-4-0 and a 4-6-2 that I bought used a couple years ago and they're fine. But the new one I just bought? Complete and utter crapola. After researching a bit, it appears that their quality varied wildly, and the best bet probably IS getting them used from someone who had one that ran well. Anyway, after I had to repair the wires that were only very barely twisted together in the tender (and had come loose, of course), I finally got it running with a decoder. Then after one lap one of the drive rods fell off and got caught in the wheels at about 80% power. I've never seen quite so spectacular a wreck in N scale.

Anyway, thank goodness for MB Klein (aka modeltrainstuff)...it's on its way back to them with no hassles whatsoever. And while Model Power scenery is a loss, and the jobs are certainly a loss, I'm not going to shed any more tears about their rolling stock going away.
 
bnsf971 said:
Model Power owns Mantua. Bowser owns Stewart, Penn Line, Cal Scale, and Carey.
I talked to Lee English at length a few weeks ago, and he was disappointed nobody wanted the molds and production machines. He said the way that stuff was made, and what it was made out of, would give any state environmental department official a coronary if they found out anybody wanted to manufacture the stuff here in this country.
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A real pity about Mantua steam. In the last year or so I've purchased several on e-bay. Not that I need any more steamers, and I have a number sitting on display shelves, the latest ones are an invitation for kitbashing, presuming I can find something to model that I haven't done before. I'd kinda like to see if I could come up with an articulated: like, maybe a 2-6-6-2 or a GN 2-6-8-0. I'd be interested in trying a UP 4-12-2, but doubt I could get that one to run on my layout. (UP had trouble running them on some of its curves!) One thing I'm noticing is a lack of brass superdetail castings that used to be plentiful 10-20 years ago. At least over the years I've laid in a modest supply of drivers, driver bearings and other parts, either Mantua or compatible. :(
 
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