MTH Ho Trains


Wiring the motor wrong isnt just an "oops", that is really pathetic on their part. I just got my M-2 back and it has to go right back after 3 months as well to get the stuff fixed on it they broke. We came to the conclusion it was dropped due to the bad scuff marks on the conductor side and the broken ditch light. But forgetting to put the sideframe to the trucks back on or breaking the clips and sending it out like that boggles my freaking mind. They told me they will guarentee it back by 90 days. We shall see....

90 Days!!! forget that.
Just send it to an authorized service center.
You should have that back in two-three weeks tops.
 
yeahhhh about that lol. The authorized cervice center that MTH has on their hobbyshop list isnt really around anymore I came to found out. It is just a regular hobbyland now. That is where I sent the engine originally, just to get a call saying that my engine was on its way to MTH. I didnt authorize it or anything and they didnt ask if I wanted it sent there, they just sent it. And the other closest authorized center is 2 hours away. Sooo...yeah Im kind of at the mercy of MTH at this point
 
yeahhhh about that lol. The authorized cervice center that MTH has on their hobbyshop list isnt really around anymore I came to found out. It is just a regular hobbyland now. That is where I sent the engine originally, just to get a call saying that my engine was on its way to MTH. I didnt authorize it or anything and they didnt ask if I wanted it sent there, they just sent it. And the other closest authorized center is 2 hours away. Sooo...yeah Im kind of at the mercy of MTH at this point

My closest National Authorized Center is 3000 miles away.
(California----New York)
Well, maybe not the closest, but they guys there are very cool and have helped out a lot. Just call the "Nationally" Recognized guys, not the authorized ones.
I still got my loco back in less than two weeks.
Good Luck and I hope you get your loco back in pristine condition.
 
Wow, sorry to hear about MTH damaging your engine. You should have asked for a manager, and complained loudly, and that it's unacceptable what they did.

I would be tearing my eyes out.

Now for me, they still have my Ace, they've had it for 2 months. I called yesterday and they said at least another couple of weeks before they can look at it.

For those who don't know, I sold my Ace to TRAINFAN a few months ago. It was in perfect shape and ran great. It was damaged during shipping. Appeared to be binding gears that worked loose, due to USPS drop kicking it from Denver to Ohio.
 
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I sent my DCC ready ACe to my nearest MTH Authorized Service Center which was T&K Hobby out of Ohio after it shorted out and ruined 2 decoders. Chuck there was extremely helpful and went to bat for me. FWIW, he told me straight up, 'Hey I just sent it straight to MTH in Columbia,MD.' MTH proceeded to hold onto it for 3 months. Chuck at T&K was my advocate and sent me his requests from me for an update and MTH's responses. He always answered me within 1 business day.

It ended up taking MTH 12 weeks to repair and return the engine to me. It returned last week and, after a complete motor replacement, appears to be running as it should. It was not damaged in transit and I am satisfied.

On the bright side, NCE repaired my decoders free of charge and returned my check I had written them to cover the no-questions-asked replacement fee and return postage. Now that's service.

Kudos to T&K and NCE.

MTH get your *&$% together.
 
Thanks for the advice guys I will keep that in mind the next time I have a problem with one of their engines. It seemed like the worker that was repairing my engine just said well thats close enough to repaired, dropped it for giggles, then put it back in the box. Right up until my gf sent the email back to our contact person, I was still finding little things here and there. Like the lift hooks at the top of the loco were all bent or broke off on the right side and the whole right side sun/shade visor was missing. And motley that comment cracked me up since im sure thats just about what they did.
 
Okay almost 2 years later my MTH passenger Santa Fe set came in. Even though they took their time producing these I will say they are very nice. The detail is very good and they run well on my layout. I am pulling them with Athearn A/B units not MTH. The interiors and lighting are great. I will keep these. I am still waiting for my NYC Empire State passenger set but I may cancel it and sell my MTH NYC Empire Steam engine. ONly adjustment I had to make was to replace one coupler because it seem to be bent and it would uncouple no matter how I adjusted it. It all works fine now. You see they can build something that needs little work to make it run. I will try to post some pixs of the new passenger set.
 
I would be curious to compare them to the upcoming walthers super chief cars. walthers new metalic paint are really awesome.
 
I can't say much for MTH products, I only own one.

I bought the 60' flat. I was impressed with the model, cast metal sprung trucks with "rolling" bearing caps, partway modeled coupler lever, full brake rigging, additional, add on tie down chains and ratchets, and it weighs more then the Intermountain.

Plastic deck though, but that was well done. The brake wheel left a little to be desired.
 
I would be curious to compare them to the upcoming walthers super chief cars. walthers new metalic paint are really awesome.

That's not paint. It's a process called vacuum plating. You can paint cars that look close to it though, with Alclad paints. These are very big with aircraft modelers. I have sued them on locomotives. Tech information here:

http://www.alclad2.com/techinfo.html

As to how MTH cars compare with Walthers, Pretty close IMHO. I bought the first Super Chief, so I passed on the plated cars. I also passed on the El Capitan, but I have seen and touched them, and Walthers did a beautiful job on them. I haven't seen any O plated MTH cars to make a comparison, but I think they will be neck & neck from checking out their other stuff.
 
MTHs derailing mikado

I had just bought a mTH light mikado and it constantly derails in the curves. After a thourogh examination of the wheels i dicovered the problem. It is the fatass tender . If you notice the tender conecting rod is positioned to rest part of its weight onto the rear locomotive, because the tender platform is lower than the locomotives. I bent the very end of the locomotives half of the rod slightly down and the tender end slightly up , this just about levels the two so that part of the tenders weight is no longer levereged on the rear of the loco. You should examine the conection onto the tender pin as well to make sure it is in the perfect spot to get rid of any leverage onto the locos rear trailing truck by seeing that its spring is neutral and the loco perfectly level.

if your track work has any humps such as a spur off the main as it decends you may stilll derail because the slight hump creates that leverage again that is impossible to eliminate in this circumstance. you can add some lead weight rounds to the front of the loco above and beneath the pistons which will be virtualy unseen and correct that cause of derailment too.

MTH should have better tested their engines for real layout operation and reworked their engines accordingly
 
I have a Hudson and a K-4 and they both derail. Done a lot of what you said and still front pilots derail. Will be selling them or the will be expensive displays on my layout. I have no problems with my BLI or Bachmann. Mth diesels are just fine. Have 5 of those and they do not derail at all .
 
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I just finished working a friends ACE. Took me 2 weeks to repair. He had the LHS look at it and they sent it back. In the process, he bought 2 Ahtearn ACE's which ran flawlessly. When he got his other ACE back nothing had changed. It still ran in the opposite direction of it's mate. Another friend has had problems with the decoder in his challenger. If a auto manufacturer has issues with one of their products they issue a recall. Sounds like maybe model manufacturers might consider doing the same. Phil
 
Listen to my story....

I picked up an MTH veranda recently. Well last night I got it out of the box to test it. It was derailing all over the place.

I discovered both of the long truck attachments on both the front and the rear were bent downward. I spent 3 hours last night messing with it, trying to get it straightened out.

Was finally able to get it to run at full speed around the layout with no derailments. What a PITA!.

Then when it was derailing, the tender lighting wires broke off, so I had to solder them back.

Currently I have my MTH Ace at their place getting repaired because of the programming known issue where it doesn't keep the cab address.
 
I got an F3 with the new protosound 3 that is supposed to be dcc programmable, at least as far as cab number, default volume, and momentum. Not so much. It will accept that programming, but as soon as power is removed it loses all the programming. It is back at MTH for repair, and I can tell if it isn't fixed when it comes back, I am going to insist on a different, non MTH loco.
 
im done with MTH , sucks to cause they have beautiful shell ,they just need intermountian/ bli/ athearn drive train & then i would buy them again
 



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