MTH Electric Trains and the Atlas Model Railroad Company announced a shared asset deal that will allow each company to use select models from the other company’s O scale tools and molds.
The first of these shared assets will be passenger car tooling that can complement locomotives being produced by the other company. The program expands upon the sale of select MTH O scale tooling and molds in 2021 to Atlas and the incorporation of MTH’s onboard locomotive Proto-Sound 3 sound system into select Atlas O scale locomotive releases that began in 2022.
Products produced from the shared assets will be branded in the company packaging of whichever company is using the tooling and molds to complement that company’s products. As an example, the production of streamlined passenger cars using the Atlas tooling to complement an MTH steam or diesel locomotive by MTH will be marketed, warrantied, and sold by MTH and packaged in MTH Premier Line boxes. The production of MTH passenger cars using tooling still owned by MTH to complement Atlas locomotives will be marketed, warrantied, and sold by Atlas and packaged in Atlas Premier O boxes.
The first products announced using the shared tooling are Premier GS4 engines and matching Daylight passenger cars.
“This is a great opportunity for both MTH and Atlas to offer our customers even more variety and choice,” said Rich Foster, vice-president of sales for MTH Electric Trains. “We’re excited to see what we can create together.”
“This partnership is a win-win for both companies,” said Jarrett Haedrich, COO of Atlas Model Railroad Company. “It allows us to offer our customers more of the products they love, while also providing both firms better economies of scale throughout our production processes.”
The deal is expected to begin in early 2024 and may expand to other product classes in the future.
Will MTH or Atlas be able to create the CN Skytop train in black and white again? It was released in 2017 V1 20-65109