Other than Atlas, I don’t know of another O gauge company that supports the WGH (World’s Greatest Hobby) program. From what I understand, the smaller scales and NMRA are very supportive of it and have seen newcomers to the hobby as a result. Why isn’t the O gauge community on board as well? In my opinion, I think it’s a big PR mistake on their part.
I also credit Kalmbach for their continued support of WGH. Here’s the website: www.greatesthobby.com
Doug
I might add that I don’t see TCA supporting it in addition to the O gauge companies.
Doug
Good question. Maybe someone more knowledgable will post a comment.
Kudos to Atlas for supporting the program.
I believe the other manufacturers feel they are supporting and promoting the hobby in their own unique and special way.
And while MTH hasn’t supported the program with $$$, Mike Wolf is a “convert” and I believe that MTH has been setting up displays at WGH on Tour events.
The TCA has supported the program via placement of WGH ads in some of the TCA publications.
For Atlas to participate, is a “no brainer”. They have always had a heavy presence in the HO and N markets. Their expansion into 2 and 3 rail O is more incidental as they saw the growing popularity of hirail about 12 years ago. Atlas is one of my favorite manufacturers, and always has been, even before coming to O.
The real news to me in this topic is Bob’s comment that Mike Wolf is a “convert”. I’m not sure he’s ready to join the NMRA, but it’s a start. It’s possible that his motivation for joining the tour may be to promote HO DCS.
I went to the hockey game the other night, and that was how I found out the tour is coming to town tha last week of February. I was going to check it out anyway, but this will make it even more interesting.
Folks,
The Crescent Model Railroaders will set up and run our O-Gauge 3-Rail modular layout at the WGH show in Chantilly, Va. 2/12-12/06.
Please come out to the show and say hello, it should be fun.
Click on the ink below for details:
Lets not bring the HO world’s woes over here, please. O gauge has enough on its own.
The reason MTH has “converted” is the ability of the WGH concept to draw a large number of non-traditional (i.e. not already model railroaders) folks through the door - something like 34,000 in Houston this past weekend.
As far as I know NMRA membership doesn’t have anything to do with the WGH program. It (the program) is stand alone.
MTH was at the WGH show in Houston this weekend. So was Atlas, Bachman, Woodland Scenics, LGB and a multitude of other vendors. The MTH booth was top notch.
Jim H
NMRA has a link to WGH on their website site home page and it was also promoted at the 2005 convention in Cincy. However, I just looked at the TCA website and they also have a link to WGH, so I stand corrected on that.[:0]
The WGH site says that Lionel and MTH are participating in at least some shows this year. MTH is listed for hte next show at the Expo center here in Northern Virginia.
Enjoy
Paul