I was hoping to have everything available for pre-order this am, but, ahhhhh, life got in the way as usualThe backlog of orders here has got to come 1st.
I watched the Lionel Dealer presentation ...it was 50% about the cab 3. Basically 1 controller that can operate all different Lionel products. Also can assign cab numbers up to 9999, instead of just 99. This will be good for clubs and shops with large layouts mostly.The rest of it was about whats in the catalog.....Here's a list of the typical detailed O scale sized items that i will have up on the website, Cutoff day for orders to Lionel is Feb 11th. Not much time, I;ll be ordering some items for stock, so I'll be able to take pre-orders on some items past Feb 11th.
Steam locos..
2-10-4 Texas in Santa Fe, KCS, PRR retail 1749.
2-8-4 Berkshires...B&A, B&M, CNW Santa Fe, SP, TA&G. retail 1,599.
4-4-2 Atlantics in B&M, MP, NH, NYC, SOU, WAB. Retail 899.
The above engines will have "all the bells and whistles" Whistle steam, clyinder head steam, wireless drawbar, etc
0-6-0 (MTH 0-6-0 rebuilt with Lionel electronics) ..Bethlehem steel, SLSF, NYC, PRR, Strasburg #31, TRRA, Washington Terminal. Retail 799
0-4-0 Beth Steel, B&O, US Army, PRR, LIRR Retail 699.
The switchers will have the wired tender drawbar, and limited special effects. no whistle steam, etc.
Diesels..
SD90MAC...All the CP Veterans and heritage schemes, UP yellow with NS patch, SLRG. Retail 650 powered, $400 non powered. The non powered diesels do not have any electronics. Its just a cab on a non-powered frame
ES44AC..BNSF Aniv, BC rail heritage, EJ&E Heritage, IC Heritage, WC Heritage, CN Vets. Retail 699 powered, 399 non-powered
SD40-2...BN, Louisville and Indiana, Maersk-Sealand, Savage, UP Desert. Retail 699 powered, 399 non-powered
F40's and F40 Cabbage cars...various Amtrak schemes
Specialty sets....
BR&W excursion train...BRW SW-1 and 3 passenger cars. retail 1100.
B&LE Ore train set (F9A-B, and 12 ore cars) $1699. The engines and cars will be available separately
UP rocket booster train. UP diesel, 5 rocket booster cars (With rocket parts that will build a 30" high rocket) , 6 idler cars, Rider car (passenger car) $1899 for the full train. Cars available separately
Rolling stock...
End door 50' box cars...SF, CB&Q, Conoco, SOU, UP, WAB. retail 115. per car
1905/GLa style hopper cars...N&W PRR, Penna coal and coke, VGN, Westmoreland, West Penn Power. retail 200/ 2 pack
Coil Cars (MTH) Beth Steel, BNSF, CR, Ferromex, Reading, UP, Retail 120 per car. 130 per car with graffiti
Double stacks (Husky stacks in Lionel verbiage) BN, CRLE, CSX, TTX, Pacer. retail 170 per car. 190 with graffiti.
Bobber cabooses (MTH) B&O LV, Ma&Pa, Northern Central, Strasburg, US Military. Retail $120. each
Bay window cabooses...BNSF Aniv, CSX and CN specialty schemes Retail 145.
Wood side passenger cars...these will come in 2 car sets now..Coach/combine. coach/baggage. and coach/obs. $450 per 2 car set now too, Wabash, Southern, NYC, and generic M of W. Also a single "chapel car" for $225.
Rotary bathtub gondolas are in this catalog, but these are just leftovers from the last catalog. retail is 155 for 2 pack, 309 for a 4 pack.
NOW.....Lionel has been very good to me, so I dont want to bad mouth them...but a lot of the pricing is obviously at the high end of whats available in O gauge these days. And i didnt even include Vision Line, which is just too over the top for me. To be fair, i didnt include the Standard O, either, which is O scale dimensions, but not very detailed. Those cars retail in the 50-60 $ range per car. I dont carry the standard O cars, cause they are basically 1970's tooling, and the detail is far below what my average customer is looking for. I already have more here than i can handle, so gotta draw the line somewhere.
My opinion is that the sweet spot these days, is highly detailed cars in the $65 to $100 a car range. Diesels at $ 475-550. Steam $700 to 1500. I'll buy some of the more reasonably priced stuff (IMHO) for stock, the rest will be pre-orders only.
Obviously, both Lionel and Atlas are trying to "fill the gap" from MTH pulling back, and trying to make back some of the $$ they invested in MTH tooling, and have "new" stuff in their catalogs. Personally Im concerned about some of the pricing. I guess we'll just see how this all plays out.
And of course I still have to get all this up on the web. Thanks for reading. Have fun. www.Lionel.com if u wanna take a look..
beth
