I think the guys and gals at Lionel do a pretty amazing job. Model trains, especially O scale is a limited specialty market, and yet Lionel offers a huge range of products, from $300 Starter Sets for kids, to $2000+ locomotives for serious hobbyists and collectors. The $300 Starter Sets largely foot the bills. Yet they still manage to come up with new "scale" and high-end offerings every year, maintain thousands of parts, and handle warranty repairs in a relatively timely fashion.
Control systems range from Lion Chief where the handheld walkaround controller comes with the train (and in a $300 set), to very sophisticated systems, that are complex and very hard to develop, source, and bring to market. Their control systems are mostly backwards-compatible, so I can run my 1929 set using a TMCC system to control power to the rails.
A few years ago we were all locked to a transformer and console.
Now that same TMCC system (though 20 or so years "out of date") controls sound, speed, momentum, smoke levels, couplers and track components as well as accessories.
And still they get criticized.
It's a LOT easier to offer 10 or 12 different custom made to order locomotives a year, at higher than Lionel prices. We have to remember- they don't build the things. They spec them, but a factory half a World away makes the product. The market does not justify manufacturing them here, where they could manage every detail. Could they? Only if they invested a few million in tooling AND built a factory.
I rank them as doing great.
