While lionel trains have always been considered "toys" . The current staff at Lionel is more "toy makers", than "model train makers".
The website, the trains. It's more about the latest whizz bang tech thing as opposed to more solid and reliable.
Nearly every product release has some issue that didn't exist in previous runs, i.e. wrong paint, bad gearbox, faulty audio board , the list goes on and on.
The blue tooth control constantly goes in and out of functionality.
These are toy people at Lionel, not train people.
Having said that. I had less issues with my Fisher Price stuff as a kid.
