How many times does a collector look through old product catalogs or page through back issues of vintage magazines and see models, now long out of production, and wish they’d had the opportunity to buy them back when they were simply common everyday offerings sitting hobby shop shelves?

Right now, I find myself surveying MTH Trains’ years of production in HO scale. The company, famous for its O-gauge and other scales, entered the 1:87 model railroad market some years ago and has sold a variety of releases. In July 2020, MTH Trains founder Mike Wolf announced his retirement and the future of the hobby manufacturer’s collection of trains was up in the air.

MTH Trains is present in my collection and I’ve bought examples of many of its HO releases. Will this group of items go away? Most likely not, as history demonstrates again and again… few toolings make a single appearance in model railroading. However, packaged as MTH Trains offerings this bunch of models may now be finite group to survey and and add examples to your collection. One of the releases that struck me first was MTH’s “Little Joe” Milwaukee Road electric locomotive, which I’d debated but never added to my roster. Happily, there’s a production due in the near future from MTH and I’ve reserved one at TrainWorld. Remember to check TrainWorld’s ad in Model Railroad News magazine for a discount code to use for orders!

Now is the time to look at your collection and see how MTH is represented and give some thought to knocking out items that you might have passed on in the past, while they are still easily and economically available.

—Tony Cook, Co-Editor