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No MTH at ECLTS


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Weird that MTH did not go to the train show. Their lame reason of just getting back from the west coast just didn't cut it. Here they claim they don't sell much large scale stuff, yet miss the only large scale show in America. If you want to sell you have to get out there and push your product and show some stuff so people know you exist. Those tiny ads in Garden Railways don't attract much attention. I wonder if they are going to set up at the convention in Denver? They sure showed stuff in Germany, why not here?

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I heard the same thing Sean.  

 

To be commenting on MTH and not even mentioning that Polks Generation Next didn't even show up (for their own show) I find curious to say the least. (Especially given Polk's no-show was already widely known and talked about).  This post really just appears to be a regurgitation of another person's comments on another forum.  

 

So what was Polk's excuse?   

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That and MTH was also showing at The Worlds Greatest Hobby Tour in Edison, NJ. where I'm sure the attendance was 10X the ECLSTS.

 

Polk's didn't even attend their own show...What a farce! You'd think they'd at least show up to answer questions...if anything show they still have a presence in large scale! :P  

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Scott Polk was at the show, Friday only. Crest Electronics was there also but neither had any new or good news. Crest was doing a Demo of the HO REVO.  I purchased some USAT, 3 - 42 foot modern tank cars, one Bachmann Tidewater tank car and 3 Bachmann passenger cars for my Grand Sons train . 

 

Also a brass PRR N5C caboose which Aristo sold many years ago. This one was complete and no broken parts. I ordered some nice code 250 track to display it on.

 

I to was disappointed in MTH so my money went to the above.

 

Sure was the bleakest show I was ever at..........................Jim

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The World's Greatest Hobby show is a great one to attend for sure.   Over the course of the last many years I've supported both Largescale and All-scale shows with displays/Trains and the ones that drew the largest crowds and gave us the most attention was the All-scale shows (particularly the World's Greatest Hobby show).  


 


This is a photo from the 2008 World's Greatest Hobby Show.  


 


post-16-0-83751900-1427910299_thumb.jpg


 


Our display was the most popular and had so many people around it I had to take a photo because I simply could not believe it.  We had more people asking questions about the engines and the scale than any other show I ever supported.  The single biggest comment I recall was "I didn't even know they made trains in this scale"  So if MTH is focusing on shows like this it's because they know these shows generate so much foot traffic.  From what I've seen, if people want to promote this scale, the thing to do is to show up at popular All scale shows with a Largescale display, but VERY few people dedicate that kind of time and resources to do it.  I invested a lot in track, etc for the big largescale displays I setup.  There were fun but were a lot of work.


 


To hear that ECLTS was the bleakest some have seen doesn't surprise me.  There's a reason why Aristocraft closed up shop but to me, things turned bleak when Aristocraft when out of business.


 


So in the end, MTH has attended ECLSTS several times over the years but somehow not showing up for this particular show is a problem requiring this kind of post.  Seems reasonable.  There were voices that were relentless against Aristocraft for years and now they are finally out of business.  Now folks are back at it, focused on the mfgs again.  I guess some won't happy till all the mfgs are out of Largescale scale.


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I heard that Aristo/polksgenerationext weren't there either.

 

I was there with Bridgewerks - Polksgenerationnext had booth space across from us, Scott was there on Friday, with a few things, but folded his tent Friday afternoon and wasn't seen afterwards.

 

I found the show to be well attended and well worth our time and cost to attend.

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Thanks Mark and glad to hear you were there as well.  In the end I hope the show went over well.  

 

Do you have any new info / Photos to share on any of the redesigned power supplies?  (Can move that to another thread)

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Jim,

 You'e right and I'm wrong...sorry  :o

 

I found the list...

 

11 posts • Page 1 of 2 • 12
List of Vendors for ECLSTS for 2007 AS OF 3-18
Postby Harry Hartman » Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:31 pm

OK ECLSTS participants, here is the list several of you have been asking for.

Here is the current "working list" of Vendors for the 2007 ECLSTS

ACCUCRAFT

APPALACHIAN GARDENS

ARISTO-CRAFT TRAINS

BACHMANN TRAINS

BIG TOP TOY CO

BRIDGEWORKS

CVP PRODUCTS

CHARLES RO & CO/USA TRAINS

COLORADO MODEL STRUCTURES
CUSTOM MODEL PRODUCTS
DALLEE ELECTRONICS INC.
DR. MIKES GLUE

ELECTRIC MODEL WORKS

G SCALE JUNCTION

GARDEN METAL MODELS

GARDEN RAILWAYS MAGAZINE

GREAT BIG TRAINS

GREX POWER TOOLS

HARTLAND LOCOMOTIVE WORKS

HILLMAN'S RAIL CLAMPS

JACKS TRAINS

JAMIES COLLECTABLES

JIGSTONES
JOHNS HOBBIES

JOHNS TOY TRUCKS

KERNVALLEY RAILWAY

KIETHCO/LOCOLINK

KUHNS EUROBAHN TRAINS

LARGE SCALE ON LINE

LGB OF AMERICA
LENZ AGENCY OF NORTH AMERICA
MIKE SETZER HOBBIES

MICHAELS CUSTOM WOODWORKING

MODERN RAILS & DECALS

M.O.W. EQUIPMENT CO

MTH ELECTRIC TRAINS

MYSTIC MOUNTAIN ARTS

NICHOLAS SMITH

N PIRE MODELS

P&R HOBBIES
PETERBORO RAILROAD
PHOENIX SOUND SYSTEMS PRECISION PRODUCTS
QUISENBERRY STATIONRY MODELS
R K ENTERPRISES / HIGH RAILS
RLD HOBBIES
RAIL RITE INDUSTRIES, LLC
RAILWARE BY REBEL RAILS
RAM TRACK ROOM

TO GROW LANDSCAPING

SJT ENTERPRIS WIRELESS COLOR CAM

SANTANA'S MINIATURES

SHAWMUT CAR SHOPS

SINBAD GLUE

SOUTH EAST TRAINS

SPLIT JAW RAIL CLAMPS

ST. AUBINS NURSERY

STAR HOBBY

STEPHENS PHOTOGRAPHY
TOWN & COUNTRY COLLECTABLES

TRACK N TRAINS LIL'PEOPLE

TRAIN TIME
TRAINS BY FRANK & ANNE

TRAIN WORLD

TUSCARORA CREEK MINIATURES

VES STRUCTURES LAWRENCE (YOGI) WALLACE

As I said, this is the current list. AS OF 3 - 18 - 2007

We still have a couple booths available. It is starting to fall into place and looks like the 2007 ECLSTS is going to be another GREAT SHOW. This is where G Gauge is HAPPENING!
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Harry Hartman
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Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2003 9:00 pm
Location: Rt #1 Box 567 Ridgeley WV 26753

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I like MTH, don't get me wrong, as you well know Ray.   :)  . Just seems if they want to sell more large scale they would have been at a large scale show. Makes sense to me anyway.   I'm sure there are other reasons, I guess. I'd like to see them prosper, since I like their Gauge 1 trains and would hope they would attract more to them.

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Thanks Mark and glad to hear you were there as well.  In the end I hope the show went over well.  

 

Do you have any new info / Photos to share on any of the redesigned power supplies?  (Can move that to another thread)

The show went very well for us - for the past few months, we have seen a big increase in our business level.

 

The only new (sort of) product that we brought with us to the ECLSTS was the new version of our Mag 15 power supply.   It looks identical to the old version, except that there is a '-R' after the MAG 15 name.   The difference is that the output voltage is now regulated - on the old version, the output voltage could be quite high when there was no load, but once the unit was loaded, the voltage would drop to ~24V, now the output voltage is set at 20V where it remains regardless of load.   You can also request that the output voltage be set to 18V.   The other change was a current limit set on the output so that the supply will not be damaged by short circuiting the output.   -  There is probably not enough new exciting stuff to warrant a new thread.

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  • 3 weeks later...

As of 4-05-15, MTH is not displaying at the NGRC. I can't speak to how MTH decides which shows it does and does not attend. I can say that I've seen them at the Denver TCA show for the past few years, and in looking at their displays, you'd never know they did 1:32. Read into that what you will. I tend to think that if you've got product to sell, you at least take it to the shows you're going to--especially when you're set up within eyesight of LGB, Bachmann, and Piko's displays.

 

Like Jerry (and probably all here), I'd love to see MTH succeed with 1:32. I think with Aristo's stuff in limbo, MTH could nose into that market fairly easily--especially with their DCS v.3 now being DCC-compatible. The ball's in their court.

 

Later,

 

K

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It’s not in MTH’s hands it’s in the consumer’s where it’s always been.  When sales tanked at the start of the economic downturn MTH had plenty of product available (along with the other mfgs).  Sales dropped off dramatically due to the economy and consumers not spending money.. not because of MTH (or any other mfg) not having product available.  So the consumers caused what happened in the largescale market, not the mfgs.  My understanding is that Kader who manufactures a high percentage of the world’s model trains saw a 60% decline in global model train sales across all scales.  Assuming the drop off was at least 60% in Largescale in an already small market is major.  The dealer I worked with for years shared that sales came to a screeching halt when the collapse hit.  In the next few years, we saw St Aubins, Ridge Road Station, San Val (went to online only sales) and Aristocraft all exit the market.  While each of those had other behind the scenes mitigating circumstances, it’s no coincident that all this happened in the last few years. 

 

Anticipating demand has likely started returning MTH produced the 2013 catalog and just recently announced in Europe the Big Boy will be re-run.  So they are making the product it will be up to the consumers to spend.   If they do you can expect more will be invested in more models, if demand is still weak then you can be sure variety and production quantities will be limited.  Based on what I’m seeing now it would appear sales are pretty brisk with some rolling stock selling out within weeks of delivery and it appears some diesels models are being delisted from online ordering which would seem to indicate they are getting close to selling out of the planned production numbers.  So MTH is doing its part by bringing product back out, now will see if the demand has really returned.

 

When sales originally tanked, MTH had already produced in a short time a Challenger, Big Boy, Hudson, GS4, GS2 and Triplex which is more substantial mainline steam than the other two big players have still yet to produce.  (USA Trains for instance has so far only produced a Hudson, Big boy and 0-6-0 Docksider for steam)  So to try and make an argument that somehow MTH hasn’t done or produced anywhere near enough is ridiculous. 

 

From what I have personally seen in the many people I have gotten to know during my time as a dealer, a good percentage of people buy only a very limited number of engines and rolling stock.  It seems many are satisfied with 2 maybe 3 major engines and a limited number of rolling stock and this is regardless what is available for them to buy.  The reason is they only want to invest so much money and they only have so much space to store these large models.  So it makes sense why the market is so small.  It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just the way it is.  From what I have seen if you want to grow sales you need to keep bringing in new people not already in this scale.  Introduce them to it and show them what it’s all about.  That’s why I spent so much time and money doing the trainshows I did with the large layouts.... I felt if you want to promote the hobby people should get out there and do their part instead of just complaining online about what doesn't meet their narrow range of criteria of what they consider acceptable.  I agree it’s still good to support the existing Large Scale customer base by providing information but it’s very important to inform people the scale even exists and the way to do that is to show up at All Scale shows.  In the last few years when production halted on their One Gauge line, sure they were probably focused on showing off their new product in other new scales they were entering and not bringing around the largescale stuff.  (Other lines of business that helped keep them in business)  But as has been already discussed here before (and from I have seen myself in the many prior years) that they did in fact display and promote the largescale product.  So again to point at not showing up this year as some big issue is ridiculous.  You can be sure, if the money is there to be made in this scale the mfgs will be there to meet that demand to make the money.  If demand is tepid then so will production.  It’s common sense, not a conspiracy or mindless neglect.

 

The tone and intent of the original post and posts made on other forums is very clear.   There was nothing positive or well intentioned by it or the original posts that started this topic.

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