Thor, Brianel,
You guys are right on. Rome wasn't built in a day, and smaller pieces in a nice catalog can make a person's day. Now if Lionel can keep traditional-sized things in mind for a respectable segment of the hobby--I think they'll like the results(financially). K-line, Industrial Rail, RMT--there's a market here.
They need to remember that not many kids (including big ones) have room for much more than a 4x8 ply layout... AND that trains look really great under a Christmas tree, but space is an issue there, too.
Dan, I have to say I agree with you. And though I wish Lionel would put a little more money into the K-Lionel products via some new roadnames, I think back to just over a year ago. There were threads here, where many of us wondered what Lionel would do with the K-Line product line? Would they bury it? Would it be high end? Jerry Calabrese said it would be mid-range, but at the time we had little to go on with his word. And after the very first few K-Line introductory products showed up in the Lionel catalog, there was quite a backlash over the increased prices and the dumb paint schemes.
And now we can see that Lionel has done far more with the K-Lionel line up than I think many of us thought they would. What a change over those first few products in the Lionel catalog.
From what I have read, Lionel has a two-year agreement with SK to market and distribute the K-Line products under the Lionel umbrella. So who knows what the future will hold. But to me, these last two K-Lionel catalogs look better than the previous past few years of original K-Line catalogs did. As a long time K-Line supporter and buyer, Lionel can take that as a big compliment.
Not only are the catalogs visually attractive, but I like the overall balance of product selection: there's a few high end items, but not at the sake of having hardly any starter end products. Truth is, K-Line forgot about the orignal customers that got them started and supported them until it was too late.
brianel, Agent 027
"Praise the Lord. I may not have everything I desire, but the Lord has come through for what I need."
Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.
I think there are a lot of great items offered in the latest K-Line catalog. Same goes for Lionel's.
Jim
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
Well I just went through my K-Line Volume 2. I’m not going to say it is a hit however I did find something of interest. That PRR A5 Switcher with TMCC is one hot looking locomotive.
If k-line sticks to O-27 /traditional sized products--they've got a hit. No ridiculously expensive locos in small runs, etc. I'm liking what I see. Could lionel be pulling an Atlas by beginning to separate produts by size into two different brands? If so, sign me up for K-line. Box cars under thirty dollars. Hooray.
Dan
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