This may be a dumb question, but I really do not know. Are MTH and Lionel cars compatable with each other? I guess the same could be asked about any of the different manufacturers and Lionel. Also can Lionel cars hook up to say MTH engines? Thanks guys.
Larry
Yes.
Love those short and sweet answers. Thanks Bob.
Larry
Operation wise they all work together fine. Visually some people object to Railking cars next to post war Lionel as they are higher. “Premier” cars would be out of scale with postwar and RailKing. Williams cars are the same proportion as Lionel postwar and look good with them. Weaver cars are all scale. K-Line has both scale and traditional size,so does Lionel.
Dale Hz
It works with analog engines. If you go digital, TMCC and DCS (?) are 2 different types of languages which don’t communicate. In Europe there is a system which has the possibility to communicate to every available digital protocol for european standards (Márklin motorola, Lenz (roco) and FMZ (Fleischmann)) but I don’t know if something like that is available for the protocol’s used in american trains.
The engines all have different ways of starting up. An MTH engine (normal non-digital operation) starts in Neutral, Williams always in forward etc, but they all can be used with the same transformer and all have the same type of coupler. (The h0 european operators are jealous on that, they have no less then 12 different, not fitting couplers!!)
Lionel post war and modern are completly compatable. So is DCS and TMCC, if you have the adaptor cord. Some of the Lionel post war cars are almost S-guage in size, and MTH cars are larger, don’t worry about that. There YOUR trains…
Yes, MTH and Lionel cars are compatable with each other, as are Williams, K-Line, Weaver, Atlas, and a host of others. As noted by others here, there can be size differences between various makes, but if your question was would they all couple and operate together, the answer is “yes” they will.
This is a great topic for beginners like myself. I’ve been trying to find an answer to this same question. I just picked up a Lionel Sante Fe Fast Freight RTR set and I expect to expand it. I’ve been eyeing some MTH models and I was wondering about the compatibility. I would love to get the MTH wireless remote control but I was worried about that product not being able to control my Sante Fe. Is it possible to use it with Lionel trains?
YES, tough I don’t have the MTH DCS system yet, I can run my MTH on Lionels’ TMCC system in conventional mode. Here is a link to help I hope !
http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/003/603gizjw.asp