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Post by riogrande on Jun 11, 2020 3:04:56 GMT -8
Or interest in all the product lines.
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Post by westerntrains on Jun 11, 2020 6:32:46 GMT -8
Something just does not seem right here. Why would Mike just walk away from the business. I wonder if there is some angle where he is looking for a buyer. The company has to be worth something. Just going out of business with a series of liquidation sales seems strange. Wouldn't he at least sell the tooling? ?
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Post by valenciajim on Jun 11, 2020 10:09:17 GMT -8
Something just does not seem right here. Why would Mike just walk away from the business. I wonder if there is some angle where he is looking for a buyer. The company has to be worth something. Just going out of business with a series of liquidation sales seems strange. Wouldn't he at least sell the tooling? I'm sure that there are things going on that are still beyond our wildest guesses. On another list a real estate person looked up the warehouse sale. Wolf did very, very well. My guess is that the company will be sold in chunks because I don't think there are any pockets in this business deep enough to buy everything. Maybe Bachmann does with the production possibilities available to Bachmann's Chinese principals. Lionel, Atlas, Horizon, and Walthers as well as Bachmann could probably buy chunks that have synergy with their existing businesses. And then there is the whole DTS line that has no traction in HO but is pretty much the de facto standard in larger scales. The Rapido/MTH speculations are interesting because I can't think of any two companies that are so different from the ground up and inside/out. Fundamentally, I wonder if Jason would have the will to become that large a business. Whatever becomes of MTH I'm sure we are in for months and years of joyful speculation! You raise a number of great points. Properly configured warehouses sell for a premium these days as either logistics facilities or as potential homes for data centers. If Mike got a top of the market deal for the warehouse that funds his retirement, he can probably deal with liquidating MTH on a longer basis. I agree that the company may be digested in pieces by competitors in order to maximize value. The sum of the parts may exceed the value of the whole business. You are also correct about upcoming speculation. My perception is that Mike is a pretty smart guy and he is going to figure out how to maximize what he gets for MTH. We are likely to see further consolidation among industry participants. Economic downturns always accelerate consolidation and technological implementation.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2020 17:44:30 GMT -8
4) Toy-like features (remote uncoupling, clunky details, etc.). And that's somehow better than a Kadee magnet on top of the rails? They took a bit of a push to couple, but it was pretty awesome being able to uncouple anywhere. Their passenger cars were actually really nice. I have the N&W set and it looks / runs great. I have 7 of the 8 first-run Powhatan Arrow cars, and they are easily the best HO scale passenger cars I've ever owned. The J is really nice, too, IMO it's the best J on the market.
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Post by Paul Cutler III on Jun 11, 2020 22:02:37 GMT -8
greenwizard88, Kadee magnets can be hidden under the ties, you don't have to use the ones mounted on top of the ties. There have also been electromagnet types under the track, folks have used small but powerful magnets between ties, and then there's the Rapido magnets that can be turned "on" or "off" (really, they rotate but that's besides the point).
A coupler must perform two jobs: couple and uncouple. The MTH fails to couple without "a bit of a push". I'd say that's a problem, especially with today's free-rolling cars. If I have to grab the rolling stock and loco and push them together just to get them couple, I would feel like I'm back playing with my father's Lionel train set when I was a kid. That's toy-like. Especially compared to a Kadee's ability to couple softly. Many times I have eased in to make a hitch with Kadees and got the knuckles to engage without even jostling the car I'm coupling to. Can MTH's loco couplers do that?
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Post by gevohogger on Jun 12, 2020 6:11:13 GMT -8
4) Toy-like features (remote uncoupling, clunky details, etc.). And that's somehow better than a Kadee magnet on top of the rails? Ha ha ha people actually use those? In all my years, I've never seen one, and I've been to a lot of home layouts and clubs.
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Post by sd40dash2 on Jun 12, 2020 6:13:45 GMT -8
And that's somehow better than a Kadee magnet on top of the rails? Ha ha ha people actually use those? In all my years, I've never seen one, and I've been to a lot of home layouts and clubs. True. And yet, most modellers still do not cut off those ugly coupler trip pins, even when the car has a nice air hose detail part in the correct spot.
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Post by rails4dmv on Jun 12, 2020 8:08:07 GMT -8
I just got this e-mail from MRR.
Say what you will about MTH, they have, at times, put out some decent locomotives in HO over the years (after you remove their DCS system) . I hope someone will come in and buy their HO product line (possibly Atlas?). I know my buddy who has tons of O gauge MTH products is going to be in tears.
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Post by Paul Cutler III on Jun 12, 2020 8:15:09 GMT -8
gevohobber, Yeah, we do use the above-the-tie Kadee magnet. My own 25' x 50' layout used them, and my 65-member club has used them since we switched to Kadees back in the 1950's. When you're drilling a lot of cars in a big yard and you only have a certain amount of time in which to do it, Kadee magnets are great vs. uncoupling with something like a bamboo skewer. This goes double for harder to reach areas that are too far from the operator or inside a building, etc. We used to have a sign at the old club that said, "Only great big giants pick up little trains." We had an emphasis on hands-free operations, and at our old club layout, that's pretty much what we had.
They are also great for passenger car operations. Just try to uncouple passenger cars with touching or close-to-touching diaphragms without magnets.
Kadee magnets also make for easy railing of cars when you're adding a bunch of equipment to the railroad. Not their primary purpose by any means, but a useful feature.
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Post by rails4dmv on Jun 12, 2020 8:32:26 GMT -8
Would it be karma if Broadway Limited bought the company?...
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Post by riogrande on Jun 12, 2020 8:41:20 GMT -8
Hah hah. There have been a lot of complaints about Broadway electronics so you may be onto something there. I don't own any MTH products but I do have the BLI California Zepher passenger cars and 2 RSD15 engines. I'm hoping the engines run well need to get a layout going first.
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Post by brakie on Jun 12, 2020 8:57:04 GMT -8
And that's somehow better than a Kadee magnet on top of the rails? Ha ha ha people actually use those? In all my years, I've never seen one, and I've been to a lot of home layouts and clubs. I still use them because I enjoy the hands free uncoupling and with today's $30-60.00 fragile freight cars poking a round stick between cars is not a option I would consider with my shaky shake hands.. Besides it was this hands free uncoupling that sold me on KDs back in '68. I know of two clubs that uses between the rails magnets in order to protect members cars and locomotives from being damage...
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leikec
Junior Member
Posts: 95
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Post by leikec on Jun 12, 2020 9:04:43 GMT -8
I know the S scale modelers are extremely nervous about the former S Helper line.
Jeff C
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Post by rails4dmv on Jun 12, 2020 9:11:45 GMT -8
Hah hah. There have been a lot of complaints about Broadway electronics so you may be onto something there. I don't own any MTH products but I do have the BLI California Zepher passenger cars and 2 RSD15 engines. I'm hoping the engines run well need to get a layout going first. I've only owned 3 MTH products in my lifetime. An O gauge NYC subway set which I never ran, kept it in a glass display until I moved out of NYC, a HO GG1 which, aside for the DCS system, is a very good model, and I just recently purchased their HO scale NYC subway set, which is a very good detailed model.
I have to suspect Atlas would be very, very interested in their O scale product line. And maybe Athearn would be interested in their HO locomotive tooling, especially MTH's passenger car tooling. I would love to see what Athearn could do with the MTH Little Joe.
But maybe BLI knew something we didn't. After all, they just re-released another run of GG1's after all these years, which just so happen to have the majority of the same bells and whistles as the old MTH GG1. Just without the crazy MTH couplers.
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Post by riogrande on Jun 12, 2020 9:20:40 GMT -8
Agreed. Atlas might be a good company to pick up the O stuff.
I am hoping BLI re-runs the CZ cars in Amtrak; I still need an ex-CZ diner and BLI never ran the 48 seat CZ coaches, converted in the early 60's from 16 section sleepers.
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Post by bnsf971 on Jun 12, 2020 10:16:11 GMT -8
Would it be karma if Broadway Limited bought the company?... Somehow I think Mike and Bob would both rather have their hair set on fire, and have it put out with a sledgehammer, than to allow that to happen.
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Post by thunderhawk on Jun 12, 2020 10:17:15 GMT -8
If it gets picked up it needs the concrete pads that were added for ballast under the pans to look right for a MILW unit. Especially since the body has the class lights they were not built with. The class lights were added in the late 60's.
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Post by riogrande on Jun 12, 2020 10:25:39 GMT -8
Would it be karma if Broadway Limited bought the company?... Somehow I think Mike and Bob would both rather have their hair set on fire, and have it put out with a sledgehammer, than to allow that to happen. Well there is that; I forgot about the acrimony that probably lingers from the legal battle.
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Post by Colin 't Hart on Jun 13, 2020 4:53:39 GMT -8
Would it be karma if Broadway Limited bought the company?... I seriously doubt that that will happen!
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Post by brakie on Jun 14, 2020 1:07:12 GMT -8
As far as BLI engines I have a SW7 and so far so good. The horn has a nasty annoying echo though.
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Post by bnsf971 on Jun 14, 2020 4:03:03 GMT -8
As far as BLI engines I have a SW7 and so far so good. The horn has a nasty annoying echo though. You can turn off that in cv settings. "disable alternate horn ending", I think it's cv245.
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Post by brakie on Jun 14, 2020 18:14:52 GMT -8
As far as BLI engines I have a SW7 and so far so good. The horn has a nasty annoying echo though. You can turn off that in cv settings. "disable alternate horn ending", I think it's cv245. Thank you! Thank You! Thank You! I shall look into that in the morning.
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