Lionel Milk Cars - Stateside?

I sent an inquiry to Lionel a couple of weeks ago about the Central Vermont, when it would be available? Their reply was "they didn't know".

Just checked the shipping schedule and all of the milk reefers previously on the schedule for July 2016 shipping are gone, however, they were in the latest catalogue. Does anyone know the scoop?

Mike

Arthur posted:

I sent an inquiry to Lionel a couple of weeks ago about the Central Vermont, when it would be available? Their reply was "they didn't know".

  

I also asked Lionel and got the same answer.   These were the first cars made in Romania if I recall correctly.

ezmike posted:

Just checked the shipping schedule and all of the milk reefers previously on the schedule for July 2016 shipping are gone, however, they were in the latest catalogue. Does anyone know the scoop?

Mike

usually when something was on the shipping schedule and then goes away they have shipped.

check some dealers sites

Arthur posted:

I sent an inquiry to Lionel a couple of weeks ago about the Central Vermont, when it would be available? Their reply was "they didn't know".

Sadly, that sounds about par for the course.    Lionel folks here in the States tend to not know anything definitive until containers are unloaded in North Carolina.  You'd think SOMEBODY would know SOMETHING.  But if they do, they can't seem to communicate accurate info to others who actually man the front lines talking to consumers.

As to nuances of the shipping schedule... There still is no rhyme-or-reason to it.  Some stuff like the 21" passenger cars have never appeared.  So what does that imply?  Perhaps Lionel is still searching for a factory to produce them?    Then other items like the E8 AA sets and the Heislers are still listed even though they have shipped.  

Word on the street is the beautiful Daylight GS-4's have arrived in NC, and the shipping schedule shows they're due to ship in September 2016.  So let's see how long they stay on the schedule.  

BTW, Charlie Ro's website shows a couple of Milk Cars in that group (2015Vol2 Catl'g) with an ETA of 9/10/2016.  His site will usually say "in stock" if they've received them.

David

bigdodgetrain posted:

...

check some dealers sites

Some days, I think that's what the folks in North Carolina do when they see these questions come in.  

David

Rocky Mountaineer posted:

bigdodgetrain posted:

...

check some dealers sites

Some days, I think that's what the folks in North Carolina do when they see these questions come in.  

David

I should be hearing from my dealer when they arrive as I have deposits down for two milk cars.  And to date nothing.  In fact my dealer knows as much as Lionel does where these cars are.

I've checked a few sites and they are still listed and either on back order or a due date.

Mike

If they are coming from Romania on a ship, better check to see if the crew survived. Suspicious coffin-like box found empty in the hold...

Hi all,

The Milk Cars will likely not ship until mid 2017. We are having some difficulties with the tools, some are Stateside and need to move to Asia. Sorry for the delay, but that is where we stand currently on these cars. Hence we added some new deco schemes in the 2016 C2 catalog to keep the anticipation building.

Thanks,

Mike

Thanks for chiming in with "the real scoop", Mike.  Good information is always appreciated.

David

Thank you Mike, appreciate the information.

Mike

Mikado posted:

Hi all,

The Milk Cars will likely not ship until mid 2017. We are having some difficulties with the tools, some are Stateside and need to move to Asia. Sorry for the delay, but that is where we stand currently on these cars. Hence we added some new deco schemes in the 2016 C2 catalog to keep the anticipation building.

 

Thanks,

Mike

Well that sucks but it is what it is.  Wallet safe on these anyway for another year.

Mike,

I'm pretty sure I heard the Romania story from some Lionel rep at my last York.  Was it ever true?  I see you stated tooling to Asia.

Dave Warburton posted:

If they are coming from Romania on a ship, better check to see if the crew survived. Suspicious coffin-like box found empty in the hold...

I never drink-----milk.

It is what it is

Well, here it is late April 2018, and still no Lionel 6-82508. It was last listed in the 2016 catalog. Yet another Lionel lesson learned.

It’s total chaos at this factory in Romania Lionel picked to do these cars.  I forget what is/was, paint or how the cars are coming out of the molds.  Anyway this factory won’t send back the tooling until the production run is complete.  When that is who knows.  Lionel keeps rejecting the samples for defects. So thy won’t be using this factory again.  May never see a milk car again if Lionel can’t get the tooling back.  Another reason to produce in the good old USA.

info is from last January 

Dave & Arthur: I thought the same thing when I saw "Romania".

Last estimate I saw was July 2018 release date from Charles Ro, and others.

Can’t wait to see how these turnout! If you put them behind a stuttering Mogul you may end up with butter!

I commend Lionel for waiting for quality toys rather than putting junk on the market.  If the dies stay out of the USA, so be it.  There are certainly enough milk cars on shelves, under layouts, and on sidings to satisfy the market.  The livery may not be in vogue but that can be changed with paint and decals, dry transfers or hand painting.  John 

Yup, bought and fixed quite a bit of their undertested/underengineered products in the past. Have never seen a culvert loader/unloader that worked correctly two times in a row. That includes postwar and present. Always something that needs adjusted. The kid in me would rather play than fix.

rattler21 posted: There are certainly enough milk cars on shelves, under layouts, and on sidings to satisfy the market.  The livery may not be in vogue but that can be changed with paint and decals, dry transfers or hand painting.  John 

Previous Lionel scale milk cars are some of their best rolling stock.

It will be interesting to see if/ when these new ones do appear whether or not they end up with cheapened plastic trucks like everything else has.

The catalog illustration shows the ugly thumbtacks.

RickO posted:

rattler21 posted: There are certainly enough milk cars on shelves, under layouts, and on sidings to satisfy the market.  The livery may not be in vogue but that can be changed with paint and decals, dry transfers or hand painting.  John 

Previous Lionel scale milk cars are some of their best rolling stock.

It will be interesting to see if/ when these new ones do appear whether or not they end up with cheapened plastic trucks like everything else has.

The catalog illustration shows the ugly thumbtacks.

My suspicion is that Lionel will not use their former industry leading die-cast sprung trucks and couplers with the hidden uncoupling tabs, but will use their new vastly inferior and cheap trucks and thumb tack couplers, the same as they are installing on all their new scale freight and passenger cars. Best to buy old new stock until Lionel comes to their senses and reverses course. I think that is inevitable, as all of the top Lionel dealers I spoke to at York indicated that their sales of the new cars are plummeting.

Went back and looked at the Lionel ad for the 6-82508. The trucks are listed as sprung trucks (and pictured) plus I did not notice a thumbtack coupler. So I think I'll just wait this one out.

Finally received the last milk car add on today. Now have all nine brand new in the box. Gonna have to wait till "July" for the last one. I'm thinking Santa Claus will drop it off, if I know Lionel right.

The truck issue has me concerned,  if they come with that darn thumb tac I’ll convert to kadee ASAP 

I have the Rutland and Hoods Milk cars on order with Muffin. I had forgotten all about them until I saw this post.

And now we may never see these cars ????

 Thanks, 

Richard

superwarp1 posted:

The truck issue has me concerned,  if they come with that darn thumb tac I’ll convert to kadee ASAP 

The truck featured on the scale Pfaudler milk car is unique to that piece, so I'm not sure I understand the point of retooling a one-off truck for a small market of Kadee users.  

Having said that, I had the opportunity to see one of the new standard freight car trucks a few months back. I'm definitely biased, but can say I was highly disappointed in the step backwards with the "thumback" truck.

TRW

PaperTRW posted:

superwarp1 posted:

The truck issue has me concerned,  if they come with that darn thumb tac I’ll convert to kadee ASAP 

The truck featured on the scale Pfaudler milk car is unique to that piece, so I'm not sure I understand the point of retooling a one-off truck for a small market of Kadee users.  

Having said that, I had the opportunity to see one of the new standard freight car trucks a few months back. I'm definitely biased, but can say I was highly disappointed in the step backwards with the "thumback" truck.

TRW

I should of mention I have not converted any of my eight milk cars to kadee to date.   I really didn't want to mess with them since some are collectable.  

Lionel will fulfill these milk cars.   Just a matter of when and I hope to see more in the future.

For what it’s worth, I have operating sessions on my layout a few times a year. I’ve had a few operators over who I operate an HO layout with. Guess what coupler they like for operations even more than their Kadees? If you guessed the tack, you win a prize. They kept derailing cars with the hidden tab trying to find them. Especially when Atlas’s tabs are on the opposite side. We use wooden skewers to uncouple on the HO and half thme the 0-5-0 gets called on. I don’t mind the tack so much but I hate the nonarticulation and the fact the new trucks are another step in cheapness. The kadees do look nice on scale cars though!

Just gonna "wait and see".  It's a shame that in the name of making an extra buck, the Lionel Corp. is willing to loose so many loyal customers.

The trucks haven't been changed over the last run. Tabs in the catalog images are a mistake.

Dave Olson posted:

The trucks haven't been changed over the last run. Tabs in the catalog images are a mistake.

Dave,

Just when do you expect that we will have the Milk Cars in our hands ?

Thank you. 

I do not see thumbtack couplers in the photo listing on the Lionel site. Please tell me that the item will be delivered as pictured. If not, my money will be better spent elsewhere.

The people who do the graphics for catalogs are likely not train people, but graphics people. Mistakes happen, it isn't the end of the world.

But when you have a 100+ page catalog with several hundred items in it, it would be pretty easy to overlook an extra thumbtack. Plus, what's the big deal? The actual product is how people want it so why should anyone care if the picture is wrong? The folks at Lionel just can't win. They take fire for using thumbtacks, then when they don't you still chew them out for it. I don't see why anyone would want to make trains if that's the attitude of the hobby.

What it comes down to, is it was a simple mistake. If you've never made a mistake in your job, then go ahead and judge them, but they didn't intentionally show the wrong thing. It was just an honest mistake. I think we've all made a million of them. You can cut them some slack.

Tabs or no tabs in the catalog ?

That's of little or no consequence; when will we actually have these cars in our hands ?