New York Central/P&LE A2a Berkshire Locomotive

@Norton posted:

Do we know if Lionel bought any Premier Steam engines? While the engine is unique I m not sure it has broad appeal. Might explain why MTH never reran it. Then again if Lionel loads it up with special steam effects, Legacy fans might scoop it up even if they have little interest in P&LE or NYC.

Pete

Hmm, yeah but as Don has told me and others at York, Central sells. While we could argue that point till the end of time, it still bears the question of what the consumer will buy. I know I would buy it in a heartbeat, but if the price is higher than what most would consider a no brainer, it of course will not sell well.

Now I don't know if this particular design was used widely with other railroads other than what has already been said, but we have seen what this leads to. How many offerings of engines have come out with "fantasy" paint schemes? Quite a few. Why? This is the easy answer(at least for road names not clown paint schemes). If they produce a number of fantasy road names, they can at least run into a buyers market.

Having said that though, this also can backfire like it did with the Acela offerings. How many fantasy paint schemes did they pitch and how many made the cut?

@RickO posted:

That's the $64,000 question. So far it's what? The c liners and the house on fire minus the water feature? Maybe a few other things I didn't pay attention too?

It will likely take several years of catalogs to find out what Lionel acquired, not unlike the KLINE acquisition. Anything "exciting" will more likely appear in volume 1 catalogs each year.

Considering Mth is still offering custom runs. I suspect they held on to more than just their Pacific's.

While the A2a would certainly add some variety to the Lionels offerings. I'd much rather see some Legacy L3 or L4 mohawks.

Well, I think that if they did, we won't find out any of these answers until they tell us in whatever catalog these would show up in and reviewed on the Ryan and Dave show. Some of us had wondered if they got a hold of the Dreyfuss, some articulated's, someone wondered about the Triplex(you can keep that one in my book) and even some of the European engines. I know I told Ryan at York once that I'd go for Mallard's and some of the British steamers I know about. We just have to sit, wait and see unfortunately.

If I were to sell my 20-3128-1 in excellent condition with PS-2, what would be a fair price?

We’re getting a little off the subject matter of the thread, but tooling is a portion of this topic, so here it goes, and hopefully the mods let me go on a technicality,..😉

this is a Legacy ESE upside down next to an older Kline stock chassis from a J1e,….anyone care to count the similarities?…granted, Lionel altered the Kline tooling to accept a motor in the firebox ( as the good lord intended it) ….the VL Hudson, and the J3a are darn near identical,…many points same as,…..the Korean built chassis looks nothing like either one of these,….

Pat

@harmonyards posted:

They did,…the VL Hudson the latest J3a , and the ESE, are all  derived from Kline tooling,…….flip either one of those Hudsons over on their backs, and do the same with a Kline Hudson ….your jaw will hit the ground,…they’re all so similar it’s kinda spooky,….😉

Pat

I wish they would have used the shell as well. I have the VL Hudson and the latest J3a also thankfully.

@Randy_B posted:

I wish they would have used the shell as well. I have the VL Hudson and the latest J3a also thankfully.

I doubt you’ll see another Hudson come out of that camp for a long time,…I could be wrong, but the likelihood isn’t high,…..if you yearn for a Legacy J1e, pick up a MTH model, and ship it to the Legacy Dr.’s Bruk or Sid,…….they have an established track record of churning out some amazing Legacy swaps, ….whistle steam & all,…..I believe Bruk just did a B&A J2 ( J1 in drag) for superwarp1 ( Gary) and he was proud to show it off,…..truth be told, If you hunt for a deal on a PS1 wanted dead or alive, even with Bruk doing the job, it may be cheaper than buying a new one ( if they were available)  ….but I’m speculating on that, you’d have to ask the Legacy doctors that question,……

Pat

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