I doubt Lionel will regress, but let's face it, while they have some great talent, they don't really drive the ship. The owners and board do truly. I'm sure their ears have perked up at the changes going on in the industry, and business cycles what they are, I could see them relaxing on the innovation side of things. I may be wrong - but history has proven itself time and time again that a lack of competition often leads to companies resting on the laurels.
There was/is already talk about how very little development is going into new tooling, and there is a plethora of models that could not only use improving upon, but simply don't exist. I'm hopeful Atlas will enhance and improve upon the MTH tooling they bought. Two improvements I'd like to see are on the SD40-2 model (fuel tank size and truck positioning) and putting proto 3-2 trucks on the E6/E8.
