MTH HO Scale SD70ace & SD70M-2 Release Date?

[RailFanRick]

Hey Everyone,, Has anyone heard anything about the release dates of the HO MTH SD70ace and the SD70M-2's?? I don't know how many more delays they plan on having but i know my pre-order has done been delayed so many times that EMD is probably already designing a new locomotive to take the place of these! Just curious if anyone heard anything cause i can't get MTH to even respond to any of my e-mails..Thanks Alot...Ricky'

 

[jbaakko]

Still waiting as well.

 

[mtrpls]

Just cancel your order and go with Athearn Genesis. You'll be glad you did.

 

[RailFanRick]

Just cancel your order and go with Athearn Genesis. You'll be glad you did.

Yep thats exactly what i'm thinking about doing, considering there being made off the T-55 molds they oughta look pretty sweet and the rate MTH is going there probably gonna be released at the same time if not sooner! lol

 

[UP2CSX]

Yep, MTH is great at producing vaporware. I think Athearn's model will probably be better anyway and you won't have to deal with MTH's weird sound system.

 

[Smoke]

Just cancel your order and go with Athearn Genesis. You'll be glad you did.

Yep, two votes for cancelling your MTH order.

 

[up dallas sub]

might help?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdbm7PbN8qA

 

[RailFanRick]

WOW, Kristin at MTH finally replied to my E-Mail after sending it over a week ago. OH Cool, another delay! Now why doesn't this surprise me? lol....Here it is as follows:

Hello. Thank you for contacting MTH Electric Trains. We appreciate
your interest in our products. The HO diesels are scheduled to begin
shipping to retailers the week of August 2nd. The first engines to
ship will be the CSX, BNSF, Union Pacific and Rio Grande SD70ACe; the
remaining road names and models will follow. More precise shipping
dates for these engines will be available soon. Additional
information and photos will be released in an upcoming HO
E-Newsletter. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Thank you,

Kirstin Martinez
MTH Electric Trains

 

[UP2CSX]

Reply sweetly to Kristin and tell her to cancel your order! If more people did this, MTH might someday develop a real production schedule.

 

[brickbuilder711]

I'd be on the same boat as fellow modelers, go with Athearn's instead, it might even cost less and it'll be more convenient. The mesh looked nice judging by the photographs that I've been provided, and a video of BNSF MTH ACes can say that the MTH M-2s appear to disappoint.

 

[fiend540]

Doesn't MTH use their own controlling system, DCS or something? I could of sworn I read a thread complaining about how they will run with DCC but not very well and you can't control all the functions. Seems rather silly to me.

 

[UP2CSX]

Yes, they are trying to push their own digital system, DCS. The sound systems work with regular DC and DCC but you have add a motor control decoder. Getting the two to work to gether is an exercise in frustration. There are lots of reasons I won't buy MTH, including some pretty shady business practices that almost killed standard DCC for the rest of of us. Their proprietary digital command system is another. The faster thay disappear from the HO scene and go back to ripping off three-railers, the better, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[fiend540]

Yes, they are trying to push their own digital system, DCS. The sound systems work with regular DC and DCC but you have add a motor control decoder. Getting the two to work to gether is an exercise in frustration. There are lots of reasons I won't buy MTH, including some pretty shady business practices that almost killed standard DCC for the rest of of us. Their proprietary digital command system is another. The faster thay disappear from the HO scene and go back to ripping off three-railers, the better, as far as I'm concerned.

LOL I joined the RPM yahoo group and there was a huge thread about this. Your posts would be considered tame compared to most of those guys thought about MTH

 

[KCSRailfan]

I'm going to go with Athearn's SD70ACe and get it. It looks greater than MTH's,and Athearn's should be cheaper.

-Damian

 

[diburning]

Yes, they are trying to push their own digital system, DCS. The sound systems work with regular DC and DCC but you have add a motor control decoder. Getting the two to work to gether is an exercise in frustration. There are lots of reasons I won't buy MTH, including some pretty shady business practices that almost killed standard DCC for the rest of of us. Their proprietary digital command system is another. The faster thay disappear from the HO scene and go back to ripping off three-railers, the better, as far as I'm concerned.

I thought that the MTH locos had a decoder that would run on DCS, but would also run with limited capability on DCC. I don't recall them ever saying that theres an 8 pin plug for a DCC decoder.

If I could simply plug in a DCC decoder, then it would be great since the MTH manual said that only 5 CVs on the DCS decoder are changable on DCC.

 

[UP2CSX]

Read the manual at http://www.ulrichmodels.com/prostores/DCC_Topics/MTH_DCS_and_DCC.pdf for a good dicussion on the pros and cons of DCS and DCC.

 

[Cjcrescent]

One thing that MTH says that makes their system superior to DCC is the 120 speed steps. Now, most of the DCC decoders can run on 14, 28, or 128 speed steps. Sounds like MTH is behind, again!

 

[RailFanRick]

Read the manual at http://www.ulrichmodels.com/prostores/DCC_Topics/MTH_DCS_and_DCC.pdf for a good dicussion on the pros and cons of DCS and DCC.

Thanks a bunch for this article UP2CSX, definitely convinced me to wait on Athearns models now. I have way to many Loco's by other manufacturers that i love and not about to put down my NCE DCC system for a few loco's and run out and buy an MTH DCS system. Unreal that they want to market there DCS system so bad that there going to hurt great looking engine sales over that fact that your limited as what you can and can't do with DCC. Damn shame, i was really looking forward to getting a few of these engines but not about to spend over 200 bucks on a loco that i need to spend more money to run it the way i want to.

 

[jbaakko]

*bump* seems the MTH units are arriving now. Initial reviews seem mixed. Not photos (that I've seen yet).

 

[BNSF dude]

The sound sucks. Nuff Said. LOL wait for Athearn to come out with theirs with a Tsunami.