Lionel New Product Line Announcement

rail posted:

The President box car series was made in the US.

Don

Yes, but what I said is that "Lionel's recent U.S. production has been done by outside vendors" and the LionScale cars will be "decorated and assembled in Lionel's Concord, NC headquarters"--in other words, by Lionel itself, not a vendor--in Lionel's own facility.

Keith

Keith Levine posted:

rail posted:

The President box car series was made in the US.

Don

Yes, but what I said is that "Lionel's recent U.S. production has been done by outside vendors" and the LionScale cars will be "decorated and assembled in Lionel's Concord, NC headquarters"--in other words, by Lionel itself, not a vendor--in Lionel's own facility.

Keith

Gotcha! I hope this blossoms into more production. 

Don

Keith Levine posted:

rail posted:

The President box car series was made in the US.

Don

Yes, but what I said is that "Lionel's recent U.S. production has been done by outside vendors" and the LionScale cars will be "decorated and assembled in Lionel's Concord, NC headquarters"--in other words, by Lionel itself, not a vendor--in Lionel's own facility.

Keith

Also current US production is a combination of domestic and imported parts.  The trucks are definitely imported, probably also the brakewheels and boxcar frames.  In regards to the tank cars, probably the wire railings, metal dome ladders, platform, & caps.

Rusty Traque posted:

I doubt Lionel is quaking in their boots.

Rusty

You  seem to have missed the part where I wrote, "If they choose to do so"  To make it easier to understand,   Let's call it a slow death...  Costco, Walmart  Menards etc.) are recognized category killers.  They target a business and pick away bit by bit at the highest volume most profitable items, (in this case low cost RS, track etc.) the items the target company requires and counts on to sell in big numbers to pay the bills.   This leaves the target company with fewer sales of the important things leaving intact higher cost, lower margin items they have no interest competing with.  

Completely taking over a business is never the intention.  adding to the business bottom line wherever possible is, even if it requires destroying another.

Joe

Talking to Ryan Kunkle at the Lionel booth he said there will be separate sale trucks and couplers to fit the older Weaver cars.   This first run of cars should be available before Christmas.  Each of the different car types will come in six different road numbers for each road name.  The C&O hoppers will come in twelve road numbers for those who want to run a long consist behind their Allegheny.  The  road numbers will be different from the ones Weaver had already released.  He also said they had already picked the cars for the next release but he didn't offer which cars they would be.  

Neal Jeter 

Speaking of terminology, I have to bring this up every so often because it just makes me twinge, a bit.

The high-end MTH line is the "Premier" line, not the "Premiere" (whatever that is) line.

No "e" on the end...please. Please. It's in the catalog (or "catalogue", if one prefers).

Neal,

Thanks for the info. Hopefully, I'll run into you tomorrow. I'm taking a Weaver 3 bay load with me to see if it fits the rib and offset side hoppers.

Don

Surprised Blue Ridge in Winchester VA isn't making these...they make the other USA Lionel items.  I just surfed the web and found them..they have pics of Lionel being made all over their website.

Keith Levine posted:

Ryan Kunkle said the carbodies will be made in Pennsylvania, but did anyone notice that the dealer announcement says, "Decorated and assembled in Lionel's Concord, NC headquarters" and shows construction of the production area.

So, the carbodies will be molded in Pennsylvania, but decoration and assembly will be done by Lionel itself.  This will be the first manufacturing in the U.S. by Lionel itself since they closed their Michigan plant in 2000.  (Lionel's recent U.S. production has been done by outside vendors.)  Wow!

Keith

Didn't Lionel assemble the 2008 Case Dismissed BK Mint car in MI from parts made in China?

This looks like a great initiative:   I am in for a set of the PS2 grain hoppers and a set of the 3 Bay offset hoppers.   Nice that they will continue to be made in the USA, one aspect I admired about Weaver.

I hope they keep the express boxcars in operation!

If Lionel purchased the tooling to manufacture these cars from Weaver they most likely also purchased whatever machinery Weaver used to decorate the cars and just transferred it down south. For those of you who went to the open houses there, Weaver subcontracted out molding the bodies correct?

Mike Reagan said at the OGR Forum meeting this afternoon rather than putting these cars in a catalog they would release a flyer every two to three months with a total of five to six flyers per year with the different cars they will be offering.

Neal Jeter

Did he say how these newsletters would be released?  I signed up for the Visionline newsletters and I think I received 1. I'm not complaining,just wondering.  

As far as where they are made I believe when Lionel bought the tooling from Weaver they had made a deal with the company Weaver had molding them already.  I wouldn't doubt this is who does the Made in America cars now.

Doug

Eventually, the PS-2-CD Covered Hopper must be produced in the schemes for the B&O, C&O and EJ&E PS-2-CD 4740 3-bay covered hoppers.

Andrew

The Soo Line might have had the three-bay offset side hoppers.

Why has the Modern 50' Boxcar not been offered in B&O or C&O Chessie System by LIONEL?

Andrew

BobbyD posted:

If Lionel purchased the tooling to manufacture these cars from Weaver they most likely also purchased whatever machinery Weaver used to decorate the cars and just transferred it down south. For those of you who went to the open houses there, Weaver subcontracted out molding the bodies correct?

Lionel did purchase the manufacturing equipment including the pad printers, but Joe Hayter told me Lionel plans to use a different printing method. I spoke to Mike briefly yesterday, (Friday), and he told me the paint booth isn't ready. The new  rolling stock won't be ready until around December. Our other forum that has done Weaver club cars since 2006, will have to wait until 2018 for the double door NKP box car we had planned before the closing of Weaver Models was announced. 

Weaver did have a local company do the body molding, and Lionel will be using the last company Weaver used before closing according to my conversation with Joe a while ago.

Don

Glad someone else is doing the graphics. Weavers was undersized during the last few years.

Modern Lionel box cars – Good, hopefully that incorrect old standard O stuff will be retired for good. Bettendorf trucks mounted on ACF STD. O modern cars needs to go bye bye.

Hudson J1e posted:

........

I wonder if the rolling stock will have the famous "BLT by Lionel" on the side? I wish they would put it on the bottom. 

Not sure if this is old news at this point, but I noted they did print that info on the bottom of the flatcars with wood planks that I just picked up. (this was the first piece of Rolling stock I have received with that, I think, but I might just not have purchased too many items lately)

So it seems they are going that route for some rolling stock, but no one but Lionel knows if they would plan to do that for the new line.

-Dave

The dies used to cast the cars are unique to a particular model of injection molding machine.  Therefore it is not easy or convenient to change casters.  Makes sense that Lionel would stick with Weaver's caster for at least this first run.

Jan

It appears Lionel tooled up a standard door for the 50' boxcar. Weaver only offered a plug door design for the past 10 or so years. (IIRC the tooling for Weaver's standard door was damaged years ago)

Talking to Ryan Kunkle at the Lionel booth he said there will be separate sale trucks and couplers to fit the older Weaver cars.    

"This is good news.  I hope the die-cast trucks and couplers are available separately, I need a bunch for several Weaver cars I have."

---------------------

I, also, talked to a Lionel representative (didn't catch his name) who said that the Weaver car moldings will be untouched in the body bolster area from Weaver's original design.  Since Lionel did not acquire the Weaver diecast trucks, Lionel will be offering  O3R truck(s) of their own tooling.  They will perfectly mate to the shell moldings to give the proper car height.  The couplers will be separate.  Trucks and couplers will be available for separate sale.

THIS IS GOOD NEWS for those of us who have lamented the (temporary?) end of Weaver diecast trucks.  I have found the Weaver trucks to be the ONLY truck that mounts to the old wood/metal kits (Athearn, Menzies, All-Nation, Gloor, Quality Craft, ...et al) without significant modification of the body bolster area.  Since I have a 'rainy year' supply of these kits, I'm  at the prospects!

Atlas has already said they will offer the Allied Full Cushion diecast truck as part of their acquisition of the Weaver Troop Carrier cars, and for separate sale, too.   

OTOH, I found some Weaver Bettendorfs at the show Friday.  I'm good for a few months...until Lionel/Atlas get cranked up!!

So, say what you will.....the Lionel announcement re "LionScale?......maybe the best news of this York meet....IMHO, of course!!!

Now, I wonder whether Lionel.....the LionScale mgrs/pricing/practice....will afford those (dealers, clubs, investor-mavens, etc.) so inclined the opportunity for reasonably-priced special runs of cars, as did Weaver???   THAT would be nice, too!!

All in all.....

KD

TCA  Netvision has the Spring 2016 Museum open house videos up already.

http://tcamembers.org/netvision/

There will be 6 Road Numbers available per car. This will drive me crazy, because I was thinking they will make only 3 road numbers. Now I might end up having to get all 6 of the D&RGW Rio Grande PS-2-CD 3-bay covered hoppers to go with my other Rio Grande cars.

Andrew

They will eventually be able to make Special Run freight cars like what Weaver Models did.

Andrew

For anyone looking for specific road numbers for the RFMX hoppers due to their individualized paint patches, Nicholas Smith has preorder by road number and is the only dealer I could find offering this.

i ordered one of those and a Klemme co-op.

Okay, okay, so I'm thinking it probably won't be one-rail track, although anything is possible, if you believe strongly enough, but hmm...maybe it would be 3-dimensional catalogues? Nah, maybe not, but they could issue weathered catalogs. Hope so, because I'd have a head start...Hmm...I wonder if they'd consider making a 3-rail iron lung that has a device on it that puffs smoke at the same rate the owner breathes? I dunno, I sure like those Lionel ideas mens, but maybe the best item of all would be a life-size banker that grabs your wallet and empties it onto a 1/48 conveyor belt, sending it up to your wife before she can exclaim, "York! Yikes!"

Any news on ETA's?  Nothing on the shipping schedule.  I'm particularly interested in the PS-2 status.

I saw some place on the forum it was January. I just received my LCCA Lion Roars publication today, they showed some of the decoration and assembly process.

NJOGAUGE,

ETA is January as per information received at York via the Lionel staff.

Thank you both 

Lionel is building a pant shop in NC as we speak. Going through the Zoning process and all the red tap to have a paint booth etc. That takes time no matter where you live . Tons of rules and regulations before you can get a permit to proceed.