Mth is bringing std gauge back

You should believe it when you see it. But I hope the it happens in a meaningful way.

The sooner the better. Will be interesting to see how it is priced. And what this will do to the tinplate used market that is currently bring big money.

From what I can glean in the secondary market, anything produced under the Lionel licensing agreement which expired in 2019 with packaging and boxes showing Lionel Lines and or American Flyer is currently fetching higher sold prices than their Tinplate Traditions counterparts. This makes some degree of sense from the collectior standpoint since none of those Lionel and Flyer boxes or badges will be manufactured again unless Mike pulls a rabbit out of his hat or an available Lionel orifice.

From an operator stand point however paying more for what is essentially or exactly the same thing just because it says Lionel/Flyer rather than Tinplate Traditions on the box is a bit nutty to me.

As for the new stuff if it materializes the key will be what is produced and in what quantities. Since other threads seen on OGF have indicated that if Mike W had known the low/no inventory BTO model would succeed so well he would not have sold his tooling, it is safe to speculate that any tinplate will be offered on the same BTO basis.

The other scenario is for a few select tinplatecentric dealers to to prime the production pump with commitments for specific products in specific quantities. This would not be dissimilar to what I understand was done with the very last 400E passenger sets that MTH produced.

Where there is smoke, there's fire so something seems definitely afoot with tinplate in some way shape or form.