Star Wars is a great idea that has already been thought of. Disney won't sell the rights for it for model trains.
Scott Smith
In the starter set department, I’d think it would be cool to have a Back to the Future III set with a DeLorean. I’m sure they would be able to pull it off if they can do The Polar Express.
brianel_k-lineguy posted:SIRT posted:Modelers have moved on past the toy cars to true detailed O along with the electronic advancements of today. No demand for non-scale anymore. You either have it all, look toward more realistic items or are just plain uninformed about all the numerous O variations.
At the last TCA presentation, Ryan Kunkle said that though it does not get nearly the attention the scale line does, it is the starter set traditional line that pays the bills and keeps Lionel in the black.
Of course, you can also repeat to yourself that the world is flat, but that won't change the fact that it's not.
Yes, there is no shortage of train products on the secondary market, much of it traditionally sized. But there have been millions of these kinds of trains made over the last 70 years between Lionel, AMT, Kusan, MARX, K-Line, Williams, Industrial Rail and RMT. The reality is that the overall size of the market has shrunk and there are just larger numbers of trains than there are buyers. Umm, there's also plenty of newer scale trains on the used market too. If some of those are harder to find, it's because their production numbers are so much smaller.
If Lionel totally dropped the scale line of trains tomorrow, it would hurt them, but not put them out of business. If Lionel dropped the traditional starter set line, there would also be no scale trains because there would be no Lionel.
Perhaps so.
I don’t buy new Lionel for re-sale unless it’s the original PS, X31, USRA or GLA series type cars. New car prices are too high along with poor quality issues as of late. New LS production cars look homemade vs. machine production. Too many variations with the new cheap trucks, paint inconsistencies rough and smooth and glue issues by making them one at a time in the US. Reason why 30 dollar cars are now 80 is because companies had to build in a warranty pre re-work cost for all the failures and returns.
So many great ideas ....
Listen Lionel. 
I'll buy SP power (regardless whether diesel or steam) + most Amtrak diesels. I'd like to see a good re-make of the Pacific Surfliner.
How about some new accessories???
Hoping for all.
brianel_k-lineguy posted:SIRT posted:Modelers have moved on past the toy cars to true detailed O along with the electronic advancements of today. No demand for non-scale anymore. You either have it all, look toward more realistic items or are just plain uninformed about all the numerous O variations.
At the last TCA presentation, Ryan Kunkle said that though it does not get nearly the attention the scale line does, it is the starter set traditional line that pays the bills and keeps Lionel in the black.
Of course, you can also repeat to yourself that the world is flat, but that won't change the fact that it's not.
Yes, there is no shortage of train products on the secondary market, much of it traditionally sized. But there have been millions of these kinds of trains made over the last 70 years between Lionel, AMT, Kusan, MARX, K-Line, Williams, Industrial Rail and RMT. The reality is that the overall size of the market has shrunk and there are just larger numbers of trains than there are buyers. Umm, there's also plenty of newer scale trains on the used market too. If some of those are harder to find, it's because their production numbers are so much smaller.
If Lionel totally dropped the scale line of trains tomorrow, it would hurt them, but not put them out of business. If Lionel dropped the traditional starter set line, there would also be no scale trains because there would be no Lionel.
With all due deference to Ryan, I question the accuracy of that statement. On the surface, it makes no sense to me, as certainly the higher profit margins would be on the more expensive scale line. If Lionel is selling significantly more starter set traditional line product than scale line product, it could be true, but it's hard to imagine that's the case. Unfortunately, there is no way to know for certain, as Lionel is not a publicly traded company, so its financials are unavailable.
SIRT posted:brianel_k-lineguy posted:SIRT posted:Modelers have moved on past the toy cars to true detailed O along with the electronic advancements of today. No demand for non-scale anymore. You either have it all, look toward more realistic items or are just plain uninformed about all the numerous O variations.
At the last TCA presentation, Ryan Kunkle said that though it does not get nearly the attention the scale line does, it is the starter set traditional line that pays the bills and keeps Lionel in the black.
Of course, you can also repeat to yourself that the world is flat, but that won't change the fact that it's not.
Yes, there is no shortage of train products on the secondary market, much of it traditionally sized. But there have been millions of these kinds of trains made over the last 70 years between Lionel, AMT, Kusan, MARX, K-Line, Williams, Industrial Rail and RMT. The reality is that the overall size of the market has shrunk and there are just larger numbers of trains than there are buyers. Umm, there's also plenty of newer scale trains on the used market too. If some of those are harder to find, it's because their production numbers are so much smaller.
If Lionel totally dropped the scale line of trains tomorrow, it would hurt them, but not put them out of business. If Lionel dropped the traditional starter set line, there would also be no scale trains because there would be no Lionel.
Perhaps so.
I don’t buy new Lionel for re-sale unless it’s the original PS, X31, USRA or GLA series type cars. New car prices are too high along with poor quality issues as of late. New LS production cars look homemade vs. machine production. Too many variations with the new cheap trucks, paint inconsistencies rough and smooth and glue issues by making them one at a time in the US. Reason why 30 dollar cars are now 80 is because companies had to build in a warranty pre re-work cost for all the failures and returns.
My sentiments exactly. Will only buy new old freight and passenger car stock with the die-cast sprung trucks and couplers with hidden uncoupling tabs, because of the cliff drop off in the quality of the new product. On the other hand, I have had good luck with Legacy diesel and steam engines, but I now buy with caution given the significant number of issues that colleagues have been experiencing.
I would like to see some rolling stock to accompany the Wisconsin Central and Wisconsin and Southern motive power.
Ben
Norfolk Southern orange M.O.W. cars
UP green M.O.W. cars
NS1975 posted:Norfolk Southern orange M.O.W. cars
UP green M.O.W. cars
Oh please Lionel!
I would be very cautious buying anything from Lionel these days. If you can get over the pricing, there are just too many unknowns to want to get into playing the guessing game with them:
- will the model be what was represented / described in the catalog?
- will the item arrive on time or close to on time?
- will the item arrive intact?
- will the item function out of the box?
- will the item have paint and/or assembly issues?
I'm sure that there are plenty of happy Lionel buyers out there - congrats! For my money though, I'd rather not gamble with them. Life is too short to be making trips to UPS to send expensive, brand new purchases back for warranty repairs. My new Lionel buying days have ended and I have sold off all of my trains. If I get back into it again, I'm eyeing the MPC-era stuff that I liked as a kid - it's much cheaper, it can be fixed and you know what you are getting.
irish rifle posted:brianel_k-lineguy posted:SIRT posted:Modelers have moved on past the toy cars to true detailed O along with the electronic advancements of today. No demand for non-scale anymore. You either have it all, look toward more realistic items or are just plain uninformed about all the numerous O variations.
At the last TCA presentation, Ryan Kunkle said that though it does not get nearly the attention the scale line does, it is the starter set traditional line that pays the bills and keeps Lionel in the black.
Of course, you can also repeat to yourself that the world is flat, but that won't change the fact that it's not.
Yes, there is no shortage of train products on the secondary market, much of it traditionally sized. But there have been millions of these kinds of trains made over the last 70 years between Lionel, AMT, Kusan, MARX, K-Line, Williams, Industrial Rail and RMT. The reality is that the overall size of the market has shrunk and there are just larger numbers of trains than there are buyers. Umm, there's also plenty of newer scale trains on the used market too. If some of those are harder to find, it's because their production numbers are so much smaller.
If Lionel totally dropped the scale line of trains tomorrow, it would hurt them, but not put them out of business. If Lionel dropped the traditional starter set line, there would also be no scale trains because there would be no Lionel.
With all due deference to Ryan, I question the accuracy of that statement. On the surface, it makes no sense to me, as certainly the higher profit margins would be on the more expensive scale line. If Lionel is selling significantly more starter set traditional line product than scale line product, it could be true, but it's hard to imagine that's the case. Unfortunately, there is no way to know for certain, as Lionel is not a publicly traded company, so its financials are unavailable.
Since Ryan Kunkle knows what Lionel’s numbers are and hobbyists don’t, I’d say Ryan’s comments at the TCA museum presentation are more believable.
The train set market has much higher profit margins than the rest of Lionel’s product line. That I know for certain.
The labor-intensive cost of producing our more upscale locomotives combined with the few number of loyal hobbyists purchasing that equipment is what makes the price so high and the margins so thin on Legacy-level stuff.
The economies of scale. Fixed expenses such as cost of tooling spread over thousands rather than hundreds of products. Simple.
How about the green LL Alco FAs with LC+ instead of conventional. No product development cost, no new tooling.
With low cost commercial 3D printers, I no longer buy the “Tooling cost" excuse anymore.
High priced tools and tool makers are no longer needed today. If you still are doing it the old way, chances are you will not survive in today’s business. When customer’s cars arrive for weathering, I see parts missing or floating around in the box. Many of these are new in the box unopened by the purchaser. Everything is dissembled for painting and I see variations with in the same cars. I have to wonder what kind of so called production is going on. As for Lionel of late, I see issues derived from possibly an inexperienced staff. Maybe they should hire back the good PS designers that were let go?
My friend called last night and told me the horror stories with the falling off L&N banner on his 500.00 21" passenger set. He had stores check their stock and all the others were the same way. This tells me no one is inspecting the finished product nor was it tested for reliability with time.
You stick with your favorite restaurant because of consistency. When that changes, you generally move on to another.
Anything Amtrak would be awesome, not even a new tooling. Another run of the Dash 8's, Superlines, Amfleets, HHP8's, ect... would likely end up on my Layout.
Hopefully they will bring the new SC-44 locomotives to the table. I personally would like to see them bring the Lionel Amtrak Amfleet End Car back, since the car was designed pretty well for conventional locomotives. But they better have ditch light on it, if they will be bringing it back. Oh and LED interior lights would also be a nice addition.
VidKidz posted:I would be very cautious buying anything from Lionel these days. If you can get over the pricing, there are just too many unknowns to want to get into playing the guessing game with them:
- will the model be what was represented / described in the catalog?
- will the item arrive on time or close to on time?
- will the item arrive intact?
- will the item function out of the box?
- will the item have paint and/or assembly issues?
I'm sure that there are plenty of happy Lionel buyers out there - congrats! For my money though, I'd rather not gamble with them. Life is too short to be making trips to UPS to send expensive, brand new purchases back for warranty repairs. My new Lionel buying days have ended and I have sold off all of my trains. If I get back into it again, I'm eyeing the MPC-era stuff that I liked as a kid - it's much cheaper, it can be fixed and you know what you are getting.
A good list for the "Big Four" of O Gauge manufacturing.
I think you probably hit them all - certainly not just Lionel.
MichaelB posted:Hopefully they will bring the new SC-44 locomotives to the table. I personally would like to see them bring the Lionel Amtrak Amfleet End Car back, since the car was designed pretty well for conventional locomotives. But they better have ditch light on it, if they will be bringing it back. Oh and LED interior lights would also be a nice addition.
Legacy in the cab cars would be nice too.
Feel free to make fun of me if this has been answered already, but when is the catalog expected to release?
The end of this month
TrainMan1225 posted:In the starter set department, I’d think it would be cool to have a Back to the Future III set with a DeLorean. I’m sure they would be able to pull it off if they can do The Polar Express.
I’d be all over this.
Nick
Not a prediction but a hope for either 73' center beam flats or Trinity 64' reefers. I'd especially like the reefers since MTH has ok center beams. O scale is long overdue for truly modern reefers. I'd buy at least one BNSF, one UP, and four or five Tropicana.
A Duluth missabe and iron range Yellowstone
20centuryhudson posted:A Duluth missabe and iron range Yellowstone
I have the sunset models DM&IR Yellowstone. It’s an absolute beast! Although I doubt Lionel would make a correct die cast Yellowstone..... maybe they could make a brass hybrid based on their 2-8-8-4 em1 frame.
It would be awesome to see a scale Yellowstone which legacy, whistle steam, & some correctly done 4 car ore car sets coupled with draw bars.
I have so much already its hard to come up with a list...
I guess an RS-3 in Nickel Plate and Northern Pacific (LC+)Also A5 switcher in these roadnames.
More logging stuff - “ P. Bunyan Logging Co.” cars would be nice to go with my Heisler loco. Maybe a P. Bunyan diesel switcher?
20centuryhudson posted:A Duluth missabe and iron range Yellowstone
I think the Yellowstone is a super cool engine but there are plenty MTH ones available so I don't see a big enough market, but I thought the same thing about the N&W K2a.
I write similar lists every time for both Lionel and MTH:
Illinois Central GP9 in orange and white
Chicago & Eastern Illinois - freight units such as GP7, GP35, or an SW
Chicago & Eastern Illinois - passenger F3 units with consist
Columbus & Greenville - some type of Geep and matching caboose
Maine Central - GP7/GP9 in green
Scale 73' centerbeam flat car, very common car on the RRs today, MTHs version is dated tooling.
scott.smith posted:Star Wars is a great idea that has already been thought of. Disney won't sell the rights for it for model trains.
Scott Smith
Well then how did this happen?
https://www.bradfordexchange.c...o1z__pkaAjmrEALw_wcB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jBM5OrEj6I
and this:
I guess some companies negotiate better with Disney than others.
Scott Smith
As a kid who got Sheriff & Outlaw and Giraffe Cars with "Lionel Lines" on them, I can tell you that what I really wanted was trains with REAL road names... not some silly licensed fantasy stuff. Star Wars trains?! Does that make any kind of sense at all?
Jon 
Some people are in this hobby to have fun....
Others count rivets and worry about shades of paint...
😀
Any day of when the new catalog comes out?
Peter Araujo posted:Any day of when the new catalog comes out?
End of the month supposedly.
KOOLjock1 posted:As a kid who got Sheriff & Outlaw and Giraffe Cars with "Lionel Lines" on them, I can tell you that what I really wanted was trains with REAL road names... not some silly licensed fantasy stuff. Star Wars trains?! Does that make any kind of sense at all?
Jon
Agree. 3R's love to burn money on silly stuff I guess.
You wont find that goofy stuff in H.O.
O will never move past its stereotype toy image.
SIRT posted:
Agree. 3R's love to burn money on silly stuff I guess.
You wont find that goofy stuff in H.O.
O will never move past its stereotype toy image.
And it never should. Produce something for every sector of model/toy railroading.
What about an”ANIMAL HOUSE” themed train set?
Imagine the possibilities
I wish Lionel would make a scale New Haven EP-5 Jet with Legacy. It has never been done. It was done by K-line with TMCC 10 years ago. Of course with the hancock air whistle..Im really surprised it had not been done yet. It can be done in New Haven and Penn Central black. Hopefully one day!!!
