MTH buys S-Helper Service, enters S gauge

Classic Toy Trains Forum
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FOR RELEASE ON May 22, 2012

M.T.H. To Enter S Scale Market In 2013

Columbia, Maryland, May 22, 2012 — M.T.H. Electric Trains has purchased the tooling

and production related assets of The Showcase Line® and the S-Trax System®

previously produced by S Helper Service, Inc. of Cliffwood, New Jersey. The sale

includes designs, tooling, marketing and trademark assets related to all of S Helper’s S

Scale, 1/64 model railroading products. All in-stock inventory and the general business

assets of the company will remain with S Helper Service.

“We are pleased that the S model railroading products of The Showcase Line and the STrax

System will be continuing with a company whose standards of prototype accuracy,

prototype detail, state-of-the-art technology and high quality are commensurate with the

standards we had set for ourselves with the products we have delivered to S model

railroaders,” said Michael Ferraro, President of S Helper Service.

Don Thompson, Vice-President of S Helper Service explained further that, “As Michael

Ferraro and I approached retirement age, we sought alternatives for the continuation of

the line of S scale model trains, track and accessories that we had developed over the last

20 plus years. The transfer of the Showcase Line and S-Trax products to M.T.H. will

further boost the continuing growth of S model railroading within the model railroading

industry. M.T.H.’s resources and strengths, in particular their digital sound and train

control technology, will take S to a whole new level. The infusion of features like

synchronized puffing smoke, LED lighting, cd-quality sound, remote uncoupling and a

host of unique operating functions will make S more exciting than ever before and that

has been our hope for the pr

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This is great news to those of us in the S-Scale community as S-Helper has produced excellent products. There has been concern that with the production turmoil in China that some companies would not survive. I am glad to see MTH purchase their tooling.

3

Seems like Lionel has the market share of S Gauge products, is there enough volume for 2 companies to succeed.

4

Three, counting American Models.

5

THis is Awesome. MTH please don’t cheapen the S-Helper line of track. it is the best on the market! Look out lionel!

6

Our hobby used to be sort of a cottage industry, but now everybody is buying up everbody else. Lionel got K-line, Bachmann got Williams Trains and now this. I guess that’s the way it goes.

George

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Don’t think Lionel got K-Line. Lionel leased K-Line tooling from Sandi Kan for a few years. When Kader Industries ( parent company of Bachmann ) acquired Sandi Kan a couple years ago they received the K-Line tooling also. Now Williams by Bachmann is using some of the K-Line Tooling but is also leasing out some of the K-Line Tooling. RMT has started using a lot of that tooling, their latest catalog looks like a mini K-Line catalog.

8

Hopefully they will make S gauge trains as affordable as their O gauge trains are so even more people an enjoy this scale as of right now a quality S gauge set is very high.

9

Does this company use a more traditional or even scale knuckle couplers. I always thought the American Flyer S Gauge couplers were cumbersome.

10

I never have understood the company name - - - S-Helper Service.

What exactly does that mean, anyhow?

Rich

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I just saw a SW type switcher with the knuckle coupler. I am guessing that this is the industry standard coupler for the modern S Gauge. The coupler looked gigantic compared to the small SW type switcher. MTH needs to go with scale couplers right out of the starting blocks.

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You can place scale wheels and couplers on the SHS locomotives (and many came with the scale wheels in the box), but from what I’ve been told over the years, more S gaugers than S scalers buy S gauge products. You would also get into backward compatibility issues. As with O gauge, it is better to let the customers and the market decide what they want.

13

All this attention to S scale recently is interesting. It seems that more than one manufacturer sees some significant potential in S. Somewhere, A.C. Gilbert must be smiling.

I agree. Nonscale Lionel couplers don’t look so bad on an O model, especially of the semi-scale variety. But Flyer-style couplers just look enormous on an S scale model.

14

If I was getting into the electric train hobby today I would seriously consider S Gauge. Lionel has been putting out some nice stuff the past few years and now with MTH jumping in it can only get a whole bunch better.

15

With the MTH PS3 board S-Helper engines will get new sounds. I am just wondering though if MTH isn’t spreading itself a little thin. Some say O ga sales are down and that might be true but I would think sale’s in the other sizes would be down as well.

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Seayakbill,

S Helper Service offered their products where the parts to convert from High-Rail To Scale were offered in the same package (The only exception was the 2-8-0 steamer). Also, SHS had a “Kadee clone” scale coupler in their product line.

SHS’s products were high quality,. Let’s hope that MTH keeps the tradition alive.

Robyn

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Rich,

A “helper” is a locomotive or a group of locomotives that help push a heavy train over a steep grade. Therefore “helper service” is common railroad jargon in mountainous or operating areas that had steep grades. S Helper Service mission was to “push” S gauge/scale forward in offering new products that are on par or better than what is offered in other scales.

The Sandra Kan fiasco had really hurt them and with the owners of the company nearing retirement, it was time to sell. I wish them the very best.

Robyn

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Robyn,

Thanks for that explanation. I appreciate it.

Rich

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Further diversification, further diversion of attention from the product lines that established the company. Any undergraduate Business School student can recite a litany of fallen firms that went down that path. [:(!] [:'(]

20

Well, Bill, about 90% of the sales of S are to folks that have large flanged locomotives and cars and large American Flyer Compatable couplers. If MTH goes with scale couplers right out of the starting blocks, they will lose 90% of their potential buyers. S is not a big enough market to make that kind of move. It is far easier to make locomotives and cars that can be back converted the other way. Offering scale wheel sets and making the car or loco with a mounting pad that allows the modeler a way to install scale couplers are a quick and easy fix.

If MTH can put the sound and sound packages that they put in their HO gauge engines into an S gauge product, they will sell a lot of product. It will be especially nice if they can make modestly sized locomotives with those features as they will fit better on the small layouts that most of us have.

Lionel, instead, tries to “smush” their O gauge sound, smoke and control packages into S by making huge articulated engines, and locos with unattached pilots, or relies on a seuthe type smoke generator that burns out easily in their Mikados and Pacifics. A modest sized layout can only run so many articulated locos. One can sell a lot more $300-$500 locomotives in the current economic climate than they can sell $1000.00 Locomotives.

Little Tommy