To recap, MTH started making HO scale trains in 2008, starting their line up strong with a nice mix of well known Steam trains such as The Southern Pacific Daylight and J-Class. By 2010 the line-up had a nice mix of steam, diesel, electric, with passenger cars and fright cars as well.
They also released 5 starter sets that all came with an F3 diesel and 3 cars (gondola, hopper car, and caboose.)
In this blog, I'll be going over the rest of MTH's HO scale line, starting with the 2011 Volume 1 catalog.
Right off the bat, I do like how MTH offered their Norfolk and Western J-class with the streamline passenger cars. It's not a starter set with track and controller, but it is a nice set to have in the collection, and while I agree $779.95 is pretty expensive, it seems less expensive then I thought it would be.
Of course I'm afraid to know what something like this would go for now adjusted for inflation...
The GG1 finally made her debut in the MTH Ho scale line, coming in her PA paint scheme alongside other paint schemes as well.
Also featured in this catalog was MTH's scale track, which was basically regular track without the roadbed.
The company would also start selling flex track. For those unfamiliar, flex track is track that can be bent (carefully) to make certain curves that can't be done as easily with regular track.
I'm going to have to skip over to 2013's first catalog as the ones for 2012 aren't available to be viewed online, and I don't have a physical copy of them.
That said MTH would start off their first volume of 2013 with an European steam engine.
Back around this time, MTH was making some European engines for their O scale line. They still stuck to mostly making American trains, but would sneak in one from overseas every now and then.
Also included in this catalog were the Norfolk and Southern Heritage line of diesels. I really like the schemes on some of these engines, with my favorite being Savannah and Atlanta and the Reading scheme.
In the passenger car section, MTH released a blue version of the Norfolk and Westerns streamline cars.
While I do prefer the dark brown version of the cars, I do have a soft spot for the blue ones. This is also the first time this version of the cars were released (for HO scale) so MTH has bragging rights to that.
The 2014 volume 1 catalog had a few good things of note in it.
Things number 1 was the General Electric ES44AC that featured flashing charging lights.
Thing number 2 involves me having to make a slight correction in regards to how many MTH HO train sets were made, as in this volume they introduced two more starter sets, this time with GP38-2's as opposed to the EMD's.
The coal car was swapped out for a box car now as well. Two sets were shown, one with Norfolk Southern and the other for Union Pacific.
I do feel kind of bad for not bringing these sets up in volume 1, but I didn't know about them at the time. It is nice to see MTH had made some attempts to get some more starter sets out there.
Anther nice surprise in the volume was heavyweight passenger cars being added to the HO scale line-up. While I'm more of s streamline car kind of guy, I don't mind the heavyweight cars, and MTH showed off a decent amount in the first volume for road names such as Pennsylvania, Union Pacific, and Milwaukee road.
Last but not least are bridge kits that MTH sold. Alongside being easy to assemble (at least according to MTH), I also like how any type of track could work with the bridges, from Bachmann's roadbed track to the regular old non-roadbed track.
It's something I kind of wish more bridge kits would do if they don't already. I know 9 times out of 10 the bridge kits are going to be made for non-roadbed track, but it would be nice to have an option for roadbed to work just as well, especially if the person buying the kit just wants it for their up-only-in-December Christmas Village.
While the 2014 signature series wasn't all HO scale, it did include some interesting HO scale trains that had weathering to them.
These trains included the NYC Dreyfuss Hudson, Empire State Express, 4-8-4 GS-4, and the Union Pacific Big Boy.
Passenger cars with weathering on them was also made available to purchase.
As much as I like the idea of cars and trains coming weathered already, I can understand the argument that one could just do that at home. It wouldn't hurt to practice the technique with a piece of equipment that you don't use or may be damaged.
One thing that the 2015 catalog had going for it was subway cars. I don't know if subway's were ever done in HO scale before this, but MTH was giving them out to those who wanted them in their HO scale collection.
Nothing too fancy, but for what their worth, they did have a lot of nice detail to them. They also smelled a lot nicer then their real life counterparts.
The 2017-2018 catalog featured more schemes for the ES44AC Diesel, including a Christmas and Halloween Scheme.
I remember smiling when I saw the Halloween scheme back when this catalog came out. While I know Halloween and model trains don't mesh together as well as Christmas and model trains, it still bugged me that there weren't really any Ho scale Halloween trains.
Your best bet was to go over to Bradford Exchange and pay for a train in 3 easy installments of $69.99 or just customize your trains to make them look spooky, and mind you, this was before Lionel would finally give HO scale model railroaders an Halloween train set.
Anther scheme that was nice to see be made into HO scale was the Norfolk and Southern first responders engine.
Though it was the second to last catalog MTH would do for HO scale, the 2019 catalog still came with some good stuff.
Featured was not only the George Bush funeral train, but also the Union Pacific car that was carrying his casket.
MTH also included a "Spirit of Union Pacific" series that celebrated the Military and fighting forces that served to protect America.
I really like the schemes on these cars and while their no "Spirt of 76" set, they do capture the same type of patriotic pride that set does...
Speaking of honoring those who serve there community, MTH also offered a First responder and Veterans CSX ES44AC engine.
Finally, there's the last catalog MTH did in HO scale for 2020-2021.
Right off the bat, this catalog doesn't really include anything too new, but the one thing that did catch my eye was the Christmas Gondola cars.
These are just the neatest things in my opinion. Up until now, HO scale hasn't really gotten any Christmas cars that light up (not including passenger cars), and I really wish these things made a comeback.
I know adding little lights to HO scale cars would be more difficult then in a bigger scale, but it can be done.
In my last blog about MTH HO scale, I kind of gave it away what happened to MTH's HO scale line, in that most of the tooling was sold off to a company called "ScaleTrains."
Truth be told, MTH was downsizing/getting ready to close up shop after 2020. The HO, S, and G lines had all ended, and while the company is still around today, they've downsized greatly.
As oversaturated as the HO market is, I kind of wish MTH's HO line would stick around for just a bit longer. I really like what the company did with their HO scale line, and in general I feel it was a smart move for MTH to try and sell HO scale products, as the scale was still just as popular, if not more then O scale due to it's size being not too big, and not too small.
That being said, the HO scale tooling from MTH is in good hands in my opinion. From what I've seen from ScaleTrains, their a company that's focused on making quality products for those who are on a budget, or have the money for detailed trains.
They certainly did a good job bringing the J-Class back alongside it's streamline passenger cars.
