Got an email from Jerry Calabrese, there will be an announcment about this in a few weeks.
Alex
I could be wrong, but my guess is that Lionel has other irons in the fire to deal with than to spend money for webspace or a website that does nothing to earn them any income. Maybe when Lionel emerges from bankruptcy and actually purchases the K-Line tooling. But heck, you can't even access old MPC catalogs on the current Lionel website, so I don't know why they'd put money into maintaining the old original K-Line website.
I'm sure it was an on-line convenience, but since I have all the K-Line catalogs going back to the beginning, except for maybe the last couple most recent ones, I can easily reference anything by going to those. And just from being one of those guys who was into K-Line from the very beginning, if someone mentions some K-Line product I know where it is. Recently someone asked me about a K-Line car, saying they couldn't find it in the catalog, and I knew right off the top of my head it wasn't cataloged as it was a Holiday Bonanza car. Of course, I don't focus much on the scale items K-Line made, so I'm not as in-the-know on many of them.
So I guess it's not the loss for me it might be for others. Even the original K-Line website didn't list or help much with all the variations MDK K-Line made over the years: Uncataloged items, Products made for the K-Line Super Stores, Items that were made for private owners like the numerous grocery/convenience store S-2 locos, Train sets and cars made exclusively for Boscov's (who had a very long relationship with K-Line going back to the early days), TCA premiums, KCC-member premiums, the employee-only Conrail Safety Award trains, and the list goes on. Many items didn't mention K-Line on the packaging, such as the Train Express made Pepsi Train set.
Even for someone like me, it would be a daunting task to be aware of all the variations K-Line made. The production of the KCC book was a headache for K-Line, since they had to go back and try and find many of the products that had been made over the years. The book was delayed a good many times from announced publication dates, and then to my knowledge, many of those who worked on the book were then fired because of all the delays.
brianel, Agent 027
"Praise the Lord. I may not have everything I desire, but the Lord has come through for what I need."
DaylightFan wrote:Yeah, hopefully Lionel will host all of the content from the old website.
I've gotten a few guys to email Jerry Calabrese about this, hopefully Lionel will change their mind.
"Lionel trains are the standard of the world" - Jousha Lionel Cowen
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