New Lionel 2023 HO catalog

thinking of getting a lionel Ho set just for craps and giggles

i'm eyeballing the SP daylight set a lot

Has anyone seen the HO Berkshire in person? Catalog illustration looks poor...

At our regional train show a few weeks ago, a vendor had a Lionel Challenger in the Greyhound scheme (from 2003? perhaps) and it was beautiful. I spotted one on the bay recently and was outbid by two other bidders - it went for $311 new in the box.

So I noticed the sets state they come with fastrack instead of magnelock but the seperate track pieces for sale in the catalog are magnelock. The previous catalogs state that the sets feature magnelock track but not in this one.  I'm not very familiar with HO Lionel. Does anyone know if they even make both?

Brad

Magna Lock was a great idea, but a real POS

Steve

Looks Like the steamers are Berkshire based. No new engines. I have 2 from a few years ago.

Steve

Thanks for the heads up.  Looks like a lot of novelty and toy-like items.  Sure hope they improved their rolling stock.  Haven't bought any, but reviews of it pretty much indicate the only thing maybe worth keeping (on their hoppers for example) could be the shells (the running gear is junk).  TW is selling them off now for $11.95.  Too bad.  Would be nice if L actually tried to make legitimately decent HO again (like from 20 years ago).  Meanwhile, and thankfully, lots of other companies (e.g. Scale Trains, Atlas, Athearn Tangent, Exactrail, some BLI, etc.) including newcomers (e.g. Aurora Models, PIKO USA, Class One Models, etc.) do.  Enjoy.

The cars in Lionel's current incarnation of HO are not bad.  They're the latest iteration of the Marx HO tooling from the 1950s.  They're overpriced for what you get - over $ 20 retail for cars Model Power sold for $ 9 retail and $ 5 street price.

Model Power has been out of business for how many years?  .  You would be hard pressed to find HO freight cars for a less expensive retail price these days than the prices in the Lionel line.  Inflation, you know.  Improved detailing and such true, but still consider the passage of years.

I think the rolling stock and buildings look great but I’m not sure how Lionel will be able to compete engine wise with all the terrific items already being made by others. We shall see.

Are you looking at the new HO catalog (Lionel Trains Catalog)? Lionel hasn't cataloged rolling stock from the Model Power tooling in two years, and they no longer have the license to it.

The new pieces of rolling stock in the 2023 catalog are stated to be from new tooling. As far as can be seen in the pictures, they look like a step-up from the Model Power tooling. Still, I doubt they're intended to compete with the likes of ScaleTrains, Rapido, et al. It appears that Lionel is trying to establish a presence at the entry-level part of the HO market.

A neat array of buildings for sure. It seems HO scale has better looking structures in all respects than O-gauge, although we do have Woodland Scenics, yet even their HO selection is better than their O-gauge.

I talked to Lionel a few weeks ago and was asking about their HO product line. I was expecting more assortment from their HO fastrack.  If you were starting a new layout, you couldn’t do it with the fastrack. I like the concept of a Lionchief engine in HO scale and not have to figure out running a dcc system. Those of us that don’t have the room for a good size o scale layout might buy into running a ho layout with Lionchief. They’re fazing out their magna lock system and putting in fastrack in all their new sets. The fastrack looks good but doesn’t line up with some Kato HO track pieces I have left from my previous layout. The Lionel HO track looks good but its look slightly elevated from the Kato track. So, if one wanted to stay with fastrack, Lionel has to come out with fastrack switches and variations of their track. I don’t have a clue to where Lionel is going with this product line. Maybe, we’ll see another HO catalog for a fall release that will show more track product. But, for the time being it’s a non starter for me until I see how serious Lionel is about Lionchief in HO scale.

Lionel is suppose to come out with a new ho catalog later in the year. I’m guessing a fall release with more ho products. I’m waiting hopefully to see more fastrack assortment.