Just went to the MTH web site and can find no reference to HO or the K4. Without getting into the war again does anybody know the status of MTH and HO at this point?
I don’t know about the K4, but they recently had an ad looking for a supervisor to head their new HO division. So I don’t think they are out of the HO game.
There are a couple of mentions of their HO scale line here…
That’s surprising. I was at the World’s Greatest Hobby (WGH) show in Pittsburgh back in January. Mike Wolf (from MTH) was actually there in person, as well as the new (then) K4. Although the smoke unit on the K4 was very impressive, I wasn’t as impressed with the locomotive itself. It was decent looking but I expected more. The MTH DCS control unit is one strange looking beast.
Tom
IIRC, MR gave that loco a real good reveiw about 6-8 months ago. I’ll be curious to see what other HO offerings they come out with.
MTH chose the PRR K4 at a time when BLI offered the model and got it to market at least a year prior to the MTH offering. Even a PRR model has its sales limitations.
I have the MTH #1 scale Challenger and Daylight along with the DCS operating system for the sound. When I emailed MTH about using the DCS system I own for the new HO PRR K4, I was informed it would not work because my revision level was a DCS 2.0, and I would have to purchase a new DCS system for the HO model. Their DCS systems are not the same for all of their products.
I hope they continue to produce models for HO since more competition makes all of our products better and usually lowers the price. Their HO models would probably sell good for $200.00 or so but they have all been priced at three hundred or more.
The review by MR on the MTH K4 was good and the model would have sold very well if it was something that was in demand by the general Model Railroading world. How about a NP Northern or a NYC 20th Century Hudson??? They need to produce a model that is needed.
Cheers
I´ve a MTH K´4, tuscan, and really is a great model; the smoke device is unique, very smooth running and all the sounds are excellent (I´ve a NCE PowerCab with 28 functions). I put the model near me in the track, stop, meanwhile I do other jobs…the engineer talks to the helper and, beside, I can hear several sounds…is very funny. The only glitch is the support, I´ve posted a question 10 days ago, and have no answer up today.
Well, a month ago, MTH put out word through its dealer network that they were looking to hire someone to handle HO product development, so I rather doubt they’ve given up on the idea of continuing with HO. At least not as of several weeks ago.
If I weren’t currently on a good career track doing things I love where I am, I would’ve applied.
Hi all,
I bought two of the MTH K4’s when they came out and I’ve been very happy with them. The K4’s are still readily available. With BLI beating MTH to market I think they didn’t sell all that well because the market was already foolded with high feature K4’s.
CAZEPHYR, you don’t need to buy a new DCS system to run the K4. I also have an original set from April '02 which I use to run both my O gauge trains and my HO K4’s. All you have to do is upgrade the software in your TIU and remote to the latest version (curently 3.10 for the TIU and 3.11 for the remote). If you’re still running the original 2.0 software you really should upgrade the software just for your #1 gauge trains. They’ve corrected a lot of bugs and added several new features that make the remote a lot easier to use. These software updates are free. Here’s a link to the website with the software updates: Protosound 2.0 Most dealers that sell MTH can probably do the software updates for you.
After clicking on the link given above I found an announcement of an Erie Triplex from MTH.
Thanks for the information. I had emailed MTH and they did not mention I should update the software, they just told me it would not work with the K4. I have the 2.0 and will check on updating it.
Thanks