I think everyone who thinks its is a great move for Lionel to abandon the CAB-2 are nuts! Not everyone has the finger dexterity to operate a full blown remote on a phone, especially if it has a smaller screen. Not everyone owns a smartphone. It is EASY to re-engineer the CAB-2 to use available electronics! Any competent engineer could do it. Chips today are done like this: Write the mathematical formula for the digital portion of the device. A computer converts your code into 1 and 0's, and a computer based programmer creates the chip. Any analog to be done is done with chips that are currently available. Transistors/FET's are transistors/FET's. Surface mount inductors, resistors, and capacitors are in adequate supply. Lionel is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes! Did you guys hear of the Arduino, or the Raspberry Pi? Highly effective microcontrollers for $20.00! They could easily implement a CAB-2! Lionel also never fixed the base charging system for 3 ni-cad batteries. An engineering student could solve that problem in a second year lab exercise!
Even though I have 2 Mohawk's and 1 UP Turbine on order, I think charging $100 plus list price for a cheap boxcar etc. is simply ridiculous! Menards gives you close to the same level of detail for $19.00 Some of Menards new boxcars come with metal trucks for $19.00! This new Lionel catalog is pricing trains off the market, and really will cause the collapse of the train market for the little guy with a couple of kids that want a decent quality train set to operate and have fun with. They will migrate to Menards. When Menards production engine hits the streets, so long Lion Chief sets (maybe). What are they $600 up in the new catalog? With all amortized tooling for the engines, tenders, and set cars.
You really have to have very deep pockets to order anything from this new catalog Not just my opinion! Yes, I will order things from the catalog, Base 3/CAB-3 or whatever it might be called. Probably an NYC Atlantic, and the newly tooled/MTH tooled switch engine, either PRR, or NYC, or both.
I still think Lionel has gone too far with all the price raises. The small steam switcher is done with tooling that was amortized by K-Line. It should list out at less than $300.00. If you guys knew the inside story on how Howard's decisions about tooling have cost Lionel a fortune, you would be sick! None of this post is a knock on Dave or Ryan, just the money bags scrooges that run the company.
It is also really cool to see Lionel using 3-D printers to mock-up several of their new pieces.
