MartyE posted:I hope some of you end of the year gloom and doom folks budget your necessity finances better than your train purchases. ... If you don't, as much as you want to, you can't blame Lionel for your poor train budgeting.
Who's "blaming" Lionel? It's not their fault. The Chinese factory pretty much produces this stuff when they want to. 
I was just using the 21" cars as a prime example of the "disconnect" that sometimes occurs between importer's catalog cycles and manufacturer's production schedules. There's no doom-and-gloom about it. Stuff like this happens every year, and folks get whalloped in December. We should be accustomed to it by now.
Personally, I don't have a dog in this race regarding 21" passenger cars, per se. I only have the AFT pre-ordered, and most of that train should consist of 18" cars anyway -- despite what's listed on the latest shipping schedule -- since the display cars were reportedly built on baggage car dimensions. I might purchase the Penn Central 21" set if it's as colorful as depicted in the catalog, but we'll see what's actually delivered. Aside from those two sets, the 21" car-lengths are not my preference. But I do know a few folks who have 3 or 4 of these 21" sets pre-ordered, so December will be a big month for them.
David
