But back to MTH. They made it clear with their choices in both product and marketing that they are interested in the “buy it and drive it” crowd in this hobby, no matter the kind of track.
They have made it clear that “servicing modelers” by selling individual passenger cars, or DCC ready locos that would run on 12 volts DC, is simply unimportant to them.
They have their version of the hobby in their head and they mean to save you from kit bashing locos, running mismatched passenger cars or running with DC.
Rather than do their best to imbrace everyone in the tent, they have said “this is our corner, these are the customers we want”.
Good for them, but maybe it is not working out as well as planned?
Why not? I’ve always wanted to add some BR to my collection (and run it on the club layout). The UK has a ton of good TV documentaries on their railways, and I think a Class 37 with a rake of Mark 1 carriages would look great on our club layout!
I also run both European (mostly ROCO and Piko) and US trains on my layout (although never together at the same time). I enjoy the variety. I even have a small Maerklin collection (I love their 0-6-0 Br 89 and 0-8-0 Br 81) which I run on a temporary layout (family room floor).
As far as the concern about MTH getting out of the HO market, it seems nothing new has come out lately. I like their GP-38-2 (I bought the CSX one last year) and I have several of their freight cars (coal hopper, 40 foot box car and gondola). All are really good models and come wiht Kadee couplers. I think they are owned by Bachmann and if that is the case, MTH would be directly competing with the Bachmann line.