M.T.H. 2021 Transition Plans Revealed

May 18, 2021 - One year after announcing M.T.H. owner Mike Wolf's 2021 retirement plans, the company's evolution is coming into focus with the move from the current Columbia, Maryland facility at the end of May to a smaller location in nearby Elkridge, Maryland. The new location will house two of three smaller spin-offs from M.T.H. Electric Trains including MTH Parts & Sales, LLC. The parts company will feature an all-new parts website with a new on-line ordering platform slated to go live this Summer. M.T.H. Electric Trains' R&D Division will continue developing DCS and other electronic products on its own in the satellite location it has occupied in Western Michigan for the past 24 years.

The third spin-off, to be managed by a few long-time M.T.H. employees will be operating alonside the parts company in the smaller Elkridge, Maryland facility. The train company will continue to operate as M.T.H. Electric Trains - marketing and producing new model train products - after many discussions with various companies to purchase the entire portfolio of M.T.H. tooling were unsuccessful. The new products will include select RailKing and Premier O gauge models and occasional production of RailKing One Gauge G Scale models.

Although the entire tooling portfolio wasn't sold to a single buyer, this past Winter several tooling sales did occur, including the sale of the HO and S Gauge tooling assets to Scale Trains in January 2021, followed by the March purchase of select O gauge tools by Atlas. At this point, approximately 20% of the O Gauge tooling portfolio, including the Atlas purchases, have been sold to date. The as-of-now unnamed buyers of the other O Gauge tooling will be revealed later this Summer.

The final 2020 cataloged items have or are about to exit production and will be arriving over the course of the next two months. In addition, subscribers to our E-newsletters as well as visitors to the M.T.H. website have learned of many new product announcements over the course of the past few months. These products, slated for delivery in the second half of 2021, represent the first of the items to be marketed and sold by the smaller "new" M.T.H. Electric Trains. You can identify these items by visiting the M.T.H. website and selecting the "2021 All Scales Catalog" at mthtrains.com/product_locator.

Subscribers to our newsletters have also received near-daily announcements of many custom-run products exclusively offered through specific M.T.H. Authorized Retailers. Because our new, smaller location offers no room for inventory of trains, all new items announced for 2021 and beyond are being built-to-order.  Customers are encouraged to contact their M.T.H. Authorized Retailer early in the promotional process to get any desired item(s) on order and avoid the disappointment of missing out on these unique releases.

All M.T.H. items will continue to carry a limited warranty, though defective items delivered after June 1, 2021 may only be eligible for a refund from the M.T.H. Authorized Retailer from which it was purchased if that retailer doesn't offer in-house warranty service. Full details about the warranty policy are available HERE.

M.T.H. owner Mike Wolf is deeply indebted to all of M.T.H.'s loyal customers over the past 41 years as he embarks on retirement. He and all those who remain at M.T.H. Electric Trains are especially grateful for the hobby's support over the past 12 months and look forward to the continued interest by all M.T.H. fans as new releases are announced.