Classic Toys

MTH Electric Trains, formerly Mike's Train House, is an American toy train and model railroad designer, importer, and manufacturer, based in Columbia, Maryland. It is a privately held company. more...

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MTH's founder, Mike Wolf, started assembling and selling trains at the age of 12 in 1973 for Williams Electric Trains, who had purchased vintage Lionel tooling from the original Lionel Corporation in the early 1970s. By 1980, Wolf was operating a mail order business out of his parents' home, selling Williams trains and parts out of his bedroom.

When Williams decided to end its line of Lionel Standard gauge and O gauge reproductions, Wolf bought the tooling and continued building the replicas. From 1983 to 1987, MTH marketed the trains on its own. In 1987, Lionel approached Samhongsa, MTH's subcontractor in South Korea, about manufacturing Standard Gauge trains that bore the Lionel name. Samhongsa directed Lionel to Wolf. Before the end of 1987, MTH became a Lionel subcontractor, allowing MTH's Lionel reproductions to bear the Lionel name and be marketed by Lionel itself. As part of the agreement, MTH sold Lionel trains as part of its mail-order business. By the early 1990s, MTH was the second-largest mail-order Lionel dealer in the country.

MTH had a troubled relationship with Lionel, and it ended in April 1993, when MTH decided to re-enter the market with an O scale model of the General Electric Dash 8 diesel locomotive, which Wolf had first offered to produce for Lionel. Turned down, Wolf decided to market the locomotive himself, citing reduced orders from Lionel for MTH's replicas as the reason. Then-Lionel CEO Richard Kughn, who learned of the decision from a flyer at a train show, responded by cancelling MTH's Lionel dealership. MTH in turn filed an anti-trust suit against Lionel, which was settled out of court in 1995. MTH then expanded its product line, adding the former Lionel vintage reproductions, reproductions of equipment from other manufacturers, and new original designs. By 1998, MTH was the largest manufacturer of O gauge trains, eclipsing Lionel's market share by approximately $60 million to $50 million. At its peak, MTH employed about 135 people.

MTH also produced many sets of New York City Subway cars as well as a set of Chicago El cars. The NYC Subway sets were licensed by the MTA. Lionel currently holds this license in O scale while Walthers holds the license in HO scale after acquiring Life-Like. The license transfer is in part due to MTH producing sets covered in graffiti.

MTH and Lionel developed a rivalry similar to that between Lionel and Ives in the 1930s and Lionel and American Flyer in the 1940s and 1950s. Although their train cars are the same size and can operate as part of the same train, the two companies' locomotives use their own proprietary electronic control systems. MTH uses a system called Digital Command System (DCS), which is capable of operating MTH engines as well as engines using Lionel's Trainmaster Command Control (TMCC), used by many other O gauge manufacturers, and Digital Command Control (DCC), which is an open industry standard used by most two-rail scales.

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