MTH one gauge catalogs (2005-2010)

 With Summer unofficially here, and the weather nice enough to go outside (hopefully), I'd figured why not kick summer off by looking at the first few catalogs from MTH's one scale line. 

While MTH had made it's name in O-scale and O-gauge, the company was starting to expand into different scales. I already went over their HO scale line, and it was around that time that MTH also got into S scale. 

One gauge was basically MTH's G scale line, though the company stated that the line was more true to scale, had the bells, whistles, and smoke their O gauge line offered, and was fun to run (which I hope it would be given the price tags). 

MTH's one gauge line was introduced in 2003, with them releasing a catalog that same year and the following year. 

The 2005 catalog is one of the earliest to be viewed online still, but it gives an insight to what MTH was offering at the time, and like the HO scale line, MTH came out swinging. 

The first train MTH offered in the catalog was the 4-6-6-4 Challenger. 

Following that up was the 4-6-4 Ja Hudson, 

The Southern Pacific 4-8-4 GS4 in her regular, American, and black paint schemes

and the good old Union Pacific Big boy. 

MTH offered a pretty decent selection of diesels as well, with the Dash 8

F3's 

and Dash 8 Narrow Noses. 

In rolling stock, MTH offered box cars for sports teams such as the Pittsburg Steelers and Philadelphia Phillies, alongside box cars, hoppers, tanks cars, and cabooses. 

Operating cars were also made available, with Helicopter cars and dumping cars. 

Though a small selection at the time, MTH did offer streamline cars for Amtrack, Southern Pacific, Freedom train, and unlettered cars. 

2007's one gauge catalog saw the debut of the 2-8-8-8-2 Triplex. Even without seeing the train in person I can tell this model is massive. 

VO-1000's made their debut in the line, alongside F-7's. 

Continuing to expand the diesel line up, MTH offered Alco PA's in paint schemes for Santa Fe, Delaware and Hudson, New Heaven, Pennsylvania, Rio Grande, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific. 

Finally, MTH would introduce the GG1 electric engine. 

Fright cars would mostly stay the same, though I do like the addition of flat cars with NASCAR'S on them. 

MTH's passenger car section would expand with streamline cars from Canadian National, Northern Pacific, Pennsylvania, New Heaven, Delaware and Hudson, and Rio Grande. 

Rounding out the catalog, MTH offered some figures of workmen, operating track sections, a maintenance kit, track cleaning block, and smoke fluid. 

And yes they did offer Eggs and Bacon...

While the 2010 catalog didn't offer any new engines, it did have some new paint schemes for existing engines. 

The VO-1000's for example came in many different types of paint schemes, from Great Northern and Western Maryland to ones for Harley Davis and Budweiser. 

The 1947 American Freedom Train was offered in the Alco PA section, and those who had a sweet tooth could buy an M&M's F7 Diesel. 

Rolling stock mostly stayed the same, with the addition of some M&M fright cars to go along with the M&M F7 Diesel. 

Final thoughts: 

Nothing against LGB who are well known in the garden Railroad community, but I really think MTH gave them a bit of a run for their money. The line offered not just detailed American trains, but trains that could stand being outside. 

Semi-spoiler alert but the line did end in 2020 along with some of MTH's other train lines when the company decided to downsize. Thing is I'm not quite sure what happened to the tooling MTH used on the trains, if it was sold off to anther company or just scrapped completely. 

I do hope someone out there picked it up, as the line definitely offered some really good looking G scale trains, and mind you these are just the first few catalogs of the line.