# What Will Happen To MTH Trains When Mike Wolf Passes?



## Texas Pete (Sep 28, 2011)

When A.C. Gilbert passed it was the end of that company and American Flyer trains. The name lives on but only as a Chinese import from a holding company.

When Richard Kuhn divested himself of Lionel it eventually wound up in the hands of Guggenheim Partners, and we have been seeing the result of that for several years; high prices, low quality, even orange fer cryin' out loud FasTrack!

Which leads me to wonder - what do y'all think will become of MTH Trains when Mike Wolf is no longer with us?

Pete


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Texas Pete said:


> When A.C. Gilbert passed it was the end of that company and American Flyer trains. The name lives on but only as a Chinese import from a holding company.
> 
> When Richard Kuhn divested himself of Lionel it eventually wound up in the hands of Guggenheim Partners, and we have been seeing the result of that for several years; high prices, low quality, even orange fer cryin' out loud FasTrack!
> 
> ...


Does he have children who could run the family business?


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## Norton (Nov 5, 2015)

I am sure VP Andy Edelman could run the company. I guess its depends on how the assets are divided up.

Pete


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## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

What a morbid subject.


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

Norton said:


> I am sure VP Andy Edelman could run the company. I guess its depends on how the assets are divided up.
> 
> Pete


Mike and 4 of his childhood buddies have been involved with electric trains since the early 80's. First at Williams Trains then eventually the start-up of MTH trains. Early 90's Andy came on board at MTH, they all have been train guys since high school and have been involved with business / working relationships with Williams, Weaver, Franks Roundhouse and Lionel. All 5 of them went to the same high school.

Bill


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## empire builder (Apr 12, 2014)

well sorry I cannot resist this pun intended reply 

why he will sue the powers from above for life infringement.

on a more serious reply I'm sure Mike Wolf already has plans in place for when he either retires and or moves on to a higher plain where all trains are perfect and no delays in manufacturing.

hopefully Mike Wolf will be around for a long time.

as they say life is short eat desert first


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## Texas Pete (Sep 28, 2011)

Spence said:


> What a morbid subject.


Not to me. I think it's a legitimate question and kind of interesting. See -

The Demise of The A.C. Gilbert Company

Pete


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## Norton (Nov 5, 2015)

Given Bill's info on MTH that would make the principals all about the same age. I would expect they would all be looking to retire within a few years of each other. Seems to me they would want to try and sell the company, hopefully not to Lionel.

Pete


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I think Lionel will be looking to sell first.  I suspect Guggenheim will soon want to be out of the model train business.


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

*Does he have children who could run the family business?
*

Mike is married, Mike and Rasamee have an adopted daughter.

Bill


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## HenryL (Nov 20, 2007)

Since he has had the skill to build this business from scratch I would expect MTH would be sold to another buyer before his demise. He has managed his business well to date, there is no reason to think there isn't a plan of succession already in place.


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## Guest (Jan 26, 2018)

I'll bet he has no exit strategy whatsoever. He's running a successful company that he built from scratch and that bears his name. Guys like that never retire. They just say that they will slow down to three days a week but still work six anyway. Unless he has kids to take over, he'll be running MTH after most of us have gone to that Big Layout in the Sky! (I've heard they run Conventional up there.)

Emile


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## captaincog (Oct 7, 2012)

Like everything else it will go out of business and our fellow "happy railroaders" will have more misery to wallow in. 

I swear even the Grim Reaper doesn't think about this.......


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## Traindiesel (Sep 8, 2015)

Nobody bought K-Line. No one bought Weaver. No one bought Right-Of-Way. Williams is a shadow of its former self under Bachman. Hmmmm....


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

Since I am fairly new to the hobby, I look these topics over from a different perspective. I had no idea what the offerings were in O Scale when I started. 

I started by making an assessment: Do I want O or HO? I did not even know there was 1:64 S or I might have gone that route. 

Anyway, LIONEL is known to just about everyone. Next up was MTH but I had no idea it meant Mike's Train House. I still don't know much about MTH but of the locos and rolling stock I have, about 40% is MTH. 

Look, running a business that makes model trains when that is your passion - is that really work? I suspect Mike and his friends and family run it as long as he is alive. 

What happens after is just a guess. Usually the next generation does not have the same passion and the business gets sold because it is at it's peak worth. It does not take much time to run down a business unless you are really dedicated and passionate.


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

The Lionel train business has had its up and downs, bankruptcies and takeovers.

Lionel Corp

General Mills

Richard Kughn

Well Spring Capitol Management

Guggenheim Capitol Management

Who will be next on the ownership list of Lionel Trains.

Bill


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

Bill
My brother once told me that Neil Young owned Lionel at one time, which I do not believe he owned Lionel but had an ownership stake in the company. 

His interest is well documented re: his son, but I wonder if someone could fill in the misinformation with the facts regarding Young's involvement with Lionel.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

In the 1980s, Young was heavily preoccupied with taking care of his son, Ben, who suffered from cerebral palsy, as did his older son, Zeke.


Young, an avid model-train collector, created a 700-foot model train track within a barn on his property—an idea he developed as a way to interact with Ben.

Young developed special controllers for the train set, allowing his son to control switching and power using a paddle system. The controls later formed the basis for a company called Liontech. In 1995, when the Lionel company was facing bankruptcy, Young put together an investment group to purchase the train company so that he might continue his research and development.


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

As GRJ stated ,Neil Young had a piece of Lionel during the first bankruptcy buyout. I was told by someone who was aware of the buyout that Neil had 10% ownership. When Guggenheim Capitol Management bought Lionel during the second bankruptcy that was the end of Neil's ownership.

Bill


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

Thanks guys for bringing me up to speed. As these things happen, they become urban myth. 

I am sorry to hear that Lionel has had 2 recent bankruptcies.


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