Catalogue Ideas

[IDM1991]

I am a very informal three-railer.  My layout consists of a 6' x 11 1/2' board painted green to simulate grass, with a double loop/inverted figure eight of tubular track.  A passing siding and two stub-ended spurs break up the monotony of an otherwise single-track main line, and are used occasionally for some basic, trailing-point switching moves.  Accessories are a combination of postwar Marx and Lionel; trains are postwar and modern Lionel, with a good helping of prewar/postwar Marx thrown in for good measure.  Power comes from a KW, and I have strung stranded copper wire to five lock-ons.  I occasionally change the track arrangement around, so nothing is permanently fastened down.

It's nothing fancy, but I still devour the images in Lionel catalogues (I'm 24, and have tried to purchase at least one annually since 2000), and I was recently musing about how the Lionel catalogues could be improved.  I am sure that many, many others have mused about this from time to time as well.  Here are my thoughts:


1) Make the catalogue a maximum of 100 pages.  Have the first 20 pages devoted to outfits, the next 20 devoted to locomotives (steam/diesel/electric/motorized units), the next 40 devoted to rolling stock (freight/passenger), 15 devoted to accessories, and 5 or so pages devoted to track, transformers, and ancillary items.  Anything more than 100 pages and it feels as though one is reading a novel by Jane Austen.


2) Every item should be shown either a) in an illustrated scene, or b) on a scenery-laden diorama.  The technology to incorporate photographs into a Robert Sherman-style painting exists, so why not use it?  Lionel did try this a little over a decade ago (see the first few pages in the 2002 Vol. 2 and 2004 Vol. 1 catalogues, for instance), and the pre-Centennial and Centennial catalogues from late 1999 and early 2000 made good use of photographs depicting trains operating across an actual layout.  Anything is better than having locomotives suspended in mid-air!


3) The motive power for starter sets ought to consist of small 4-6-2 Pacifics, 4-6-4 Hudsons, or 2-8-4 Berkshires.  Diesel locomotive power for starter sets ought to be relegated to NW2 switchers and [metal-framed] Alco RS3s, with perhaps a hi-nose RS11 or RS18 or SD24 thrown into the mix.  If Lionel must use the little 4-4-2 steamer, it should redesign it with a frame on the trailing truck and open-spoked drivers.  Methinks this would look much nicer.  (As an aside, I received a Fundimensions/Lionel set from circa 1978, for Christmas 2014 that was headed up by an 8800 steamer, with the Sound of Steam; it's the best part of the outfit, which otherwise consists of cars that are 99% plastic and much too light to compensate for the locomotive's lack of any traction tires or Magne-Traction.  I have had to couple a seven-car freight consisting of postwar and modern-era cars with die-cast trucks and wheels to slow it down to a comfortable pace).


4) At least a quarter or a third of the catalogued offerings should be aimed at the Canadian market.  While Lionel's post-2000, Canadian-themed freight cars are beautiful (I have at least four in my collection), the locomotive choices are sometimes a bit odd.  There's more to railroading in Canada than just ES44ACs decked out in contemporary CNR or CPR colours, folks!  Louis Marx got it right in the 1930s, by offering a Canadian prototype (the CPR 4-4-4 Jubilee Class) well before anyone else offered obscure Canadian pieces in their catalogues.  Lionel catalogued a CPR Shay a few years ago, but the CPR never used Shays.  They did use some quite visually-interesting, semi-streamlined PS2 Mikadoes and G3g Pacifics that could be made in toy-like, semi-scale, or scale versions.

5) What about offering scale-sized operating cars (milk cars, baggage cars, dumping cars, etc.), and/or scale-sized operating accessories?  Surely, not everyone at the hi-rail end of things would object to that.

- Ian D. McKechnie



   

  

[Firelock76]

Good thoughts on the catalog, nothing to argue with there.

And if you're looking "Canadian"  try the MTH (Mikes Train House) website.  They had a CP Royal Hudson plus passenger consists in production about a year or so ago.  some may still be available.

[thesiding]

Nice to see someone under thirty Playing with Lionel

I still go o shows etc and unless kids are with them STILL the youngest one there(and I am getting close to the Five Oh)

[Firelock76]

Roger that, Siding.  Thank God when I go to a big train show like "Greenbergs" or "Worlds Greatest Hobby On Tour" I see lots of young familys, bodes well.  When I go to a local show it looks like I'm "The Kid" at 61!

[IDM1991]

Here is a short video of the trains operating beneath this year's Christmas Tree; the layout table was trackless from about Nov. 30th 2014-Jan. 2nd 2015:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOjR8HksWYc

[Andrew Falconer]

Since LIONEL employees are now outsourcing production, they need to have a seperate Made in Canada catalog that has Canadian specific models of locomotives, passenger coaches, freight cars, and crew vans.

 

General Motors Diesel Division locomotives made in Canada for 3-Rail O Scale.

 

Canadian O Scale 3-rail/2-rail freight cars from builders such as Marine Industries, National Steel Car, Trenton Works, and any others.

 

The O scale and S scale model railroad equipment produce in Canada would be less expensive for Canadian operators and collector if produced there. These items could then be inported to the USA for operators who are into the railroads from up North that have ties to US operation.