A quick, very abridged thumbnail and hopefully somewhat accurate sketch of Mike Wolf. His story covers the first 50 pages of "A Toy Train Story: The Remarkable History of M.T.H. Electric Trains."
Mike Wolf originally worked for Williams as a teenager in 1973. Later he opened up a basement dealership for Williams out of his parent's house, later taking up the tooling and production for Williams standard gauge tinplate. He made connections with Samhongsa while working for Williams. Later, Mike Wolf made connections with Lionel and the O Scale Reading T1 was his first project as a Lionel subcontractor. Mike continue to subcontract with Lionel for some of their other offerings to be built by Samhongasa. Mike also worked with Weaver Models on their early Gold Edition brass, some of which were former Willaims projects when Williams wanted to get out of that portion of the business. All this time Mike was also running is mail order business for Williams and was an authorized retailer for Lionel. As the subcontracting for Lionel slowed, Mike decided to make his own line of O Scale trains. Lionel, upset with this development, pulled his dealership rights and the lawyers were unleashed. A long and bloody leagal siege existed until things were patched up with the current Lionel management. MTH makes trains in HO, O, G, Tinplate and soon S. You could say that Mike Wolf knows a little about model train manufacturing and distribution... Rich G(ajnak) --- In [email protected], "Bill Lane" <bill@...> wrote: > > I know this is the S SCALE list - I co-own it. But indulge me for a few > sentences. > > > > In another conversation I was asked to comment on a new PRR X31 boxcar so I > flipped thought the 2012 Lionel on line catalog last night. I must say I was > surprised and impressed. Take a peak for yourself. Most items still had the > "toy" look but an attempt to put antennas on the PRR units? That would have > not been Lionel 5 years ago. Someone is pushing them to step up their game. > I saw the X31. It was a rather low resolution photo but did not look awful. > > > > I don't know how much - if any - of the following is true, but I heard that > Mike Wolf worked for Lionel at 1 time. He was rather visionary and was > pushing Lionel to break out of the "nostalgia" collector box they had been > riding for many years. When it did not happen MTH was born and became the > success it is today. > > > > Nonetheless I think that much of the resurgence of new "better" 3 rail items > in the past 25 years has been in a direct result of MTH poking at and > pushing Lionel. If Lionel and MTH start "competing" to make more and better > S trains this may be more than any of us could have ever envisioned. I don't > see a ton more items coming out in brass I either want or can afford so the > new train habit has to be fed somehow. > > > > Color me cautiously optimistic.. > > > > > > > > > > Thank You, > Bill Lane > > Modeling the Mighty Pennsy & PRSL in 1957 in S Scale since 1988 > > See my finished models at: > <http://www.lanestrains.com/> http://www.lanestrains.com > Look at what has been made in PRR in S Scale! > > Custom Train Parts Design > <http://www.lanestrains.com/SolidWorks_Modeling.htm> > http://www.lanestrains.com/SolidWorks_Modeling.htm > > PRR Builders Photos Bought, Sold & Traded > (Trading is MUCH preferred) > <http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRphotos.xls> > http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRphotos.xls > > ***Join the PRR T&HS*** > The other members are not ALL like me! > <http://www.prrths.com/> http://www.prrths.com > <http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRTHS_Application.pdf> > http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRTHS_Application.pdf > > Join the Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines Historical Society > It's FREE to join! <http://www.prslhs.com/> http://www.prslhs.com > Preserving The Memory Of The PRSL > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
