I rec'd a Marx 3/16 set many years ago, and expanded, slightly, within budget and availability. In early teens I became enamored with all the nifty branch line and teakettle trains in MR and got into HO. Now long back in tinplate, Bachmann makes nifty small teakettles, (no Heislers, my favorite) but others, in an oddball gauge, that have to be regauged to even On3. Converting the locos..the cars are no problem..to three rail is a pain! When Bachmann bought Williams, I thought, "Hot dern! Now we are gonna see three rail Bachmann scale size (not ten truck) Shays, etc.!" (it ain't happened) Everybody else seems bent on building 6-10-10-10-6 articulateds with as much electronics in them as possible. I ain't buyin' those!! I plan to add an On3 branch to my 3 rail high rail MODEL RAILROAD. I'd think it a giant leap forward if Bachmann also made their stuff in On3 and didn't force you to buy expensive brass. So somebody who knows the history of branchlines in the steam era needs to get into manufacturing 3 rail trains. (not much change of that in this economy)
I may be a little but I want to see stuff made that people want, NOT what the giant companies want to unload on us. Most companies focus on major railroads, and some focus only on what sells, like diesel engines in Pennsy, NYC, or Santa Fe. How about something in the slightly larger railroads that have gone under, like the Reading Railroad? How about something in the take-over railroads; Blue Mountain & Reading or Reading & Northern?
There was a lot of mining that went on in the northeast as well, so something in a mining theme would work as well. Even a set of horse drawn mining cars.
Lee F.
Lee,
I agree with you.
Ralph
Gee lee as long as its reading your for it lol. I do agree with you thou some of the smaller large fallen flags would be nice. but I do have a web site for you to check out thou.
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org it has some great pics
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
Seems like a recent phenomenon too. MTH has been the worst with a plethora of beer and sports related cars. I'd like to see more fallen flags and regional carriers in place of those.
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
I agree that more regional roadnames would be nice to see. Even though my layout is by definition a "toy train" layout, I like to have prototypical roadnames on my rolling stock. I have a preference for Upper Michigan railroads so my choices are certainly limited. I do have to give Lionel credit though, they did produce the Copper Range starter set in 2005. In addition, the NMRRC club recently offered a Weaver PS-1 boxcar decorated for the Copper Range. Atlas produced a very nice Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic boxcar a few years ago. The market for many of the other railroads I like, however, is probably too small for a manufacturer to consider, so I need to paint and letter some cars myself.
The sports, beer, candy and soft drink cars appear regularly in the catalogs, so they must be good sellers. They are not something I normally buy, but I did purchase an MTH Green Bay Packers car for my brother a few years ago. He is a Packer fan, so I figured he could display it or let his son use it on his layout.
Karl
A Lionel traditional Canadian National Reefer ,silver with black lettering.A Lionel Royal Canadian Mint Car.
HIRAIL&MARX I rec'd a Marx 3/16 set many years ago, and expanded, slightly, within budget and availability. In early teens I became enamored with all the nifty branch line and teakettle trains in MR and got into HO. Now long back in tinplate, Bachmann makes nifty small teakettles, (no Heislers, my favorite) but others, in an oddball gauge, that have to be regauged to even On3. Converting the locos..the cars are no problem..to three rail is a pain! When Bachmann bought Williams, I thought, "Hot dern! Now we are gonna see three rail Bachmann scale size (not ten truck) Shays, etc.!" (it ain't happened) Everybody else seems bent on building 6-10-10-10-6 articulateds with as much electronics in them as possible. I ain't buyin' those!! I plan to add an On3 branch to my 3 rail high rail MODEL RAILROAD. I'd think it a giant leap forward if Bachmann also made their stuff in On3 and didn't force you to buy expensive brass. So somebody who knows the history of branchlines in the steam era needs to get into manufacturing 3 rail trains. (not much change of that in this economy)
In the past I have brought up the idea here for Lionel to use Flyer steam engine chassis's and build narrow gauge engines to O scale. Nobody got too excited about it.
I'd like to see a 4-4-4-2 articulated. From Lionels parts bin they could use many of the parts they have on hand now used in their 4-4-2 starter engines.
Another car they could make is a "Stand UP Box Car". A box car that opens up into a stage and there is a standup comic inside. If it could play routines from Rodney Dangerfield I would love it. Of course you would have to stop the train and leave the engine in neutral with track power on for it to work. They could have an entire series of these box cars. There are several comics you couldn't use any of their routines,,, I'll let you all figure that out. But I think Cosby and several others could be used.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
This will appeal more to Flyer guys than it will to Lionel guys, but it would be nice to reproduce the cars from the Lionel Catalogs of the mid 50's that were unlike anything made by American Flyer in S gauge. and likewise the cars made by AF that were unlike anything made by Lionel could be reproduced in O.
Lionel did something like this already, by making a Walking Brakeman car in O like the mid 50s AF car and making the Red White and Blue Post Office car in S that looks like the O gauge car from 1957 or so.
I'm not sure what the O gaugers would like from the old AF offerings, but I bet someone would like the Seaboard Box or the CNW or BAR reefers as O gauge cars.
Likewise, I'm sure some S gaugers would like a Cities Service Tank car or a New Haven boxcar with the "checkerboard" logo.
Little Tommy
I always thought Flyer reefers were the best models ever made of that type of car. I'd love to see them enlarged just a tiny bit for O!
In fairness, Lionel has brought out some fallen flags. I recently bought their Central of Georgia GP-7. It has been a fine engine, at least so far. You don't get much more regional and fallen flag than that.
George
A CB&Q O-5a (4-8-4) with Legacy, though I'd settle for TMCC, that would run on O-54 curves.
I collect mostly WM, B&O, C&O, and Chessie System and you see some of that in just about every Lionel Catalog. You also see PRR and NYC. I understand the desire to see other fallen flags as well, but you have to realize that most people have never heard of the regional carriers so the demand is just not there.IF Lionel would produce a C&O Yellowbelly Hudson with Legacy I would be all over it. It is my favorite engine of all time, I do have an MTH conventional version and have considered upgrading it with an ERR board, but I've been holding out for a Legacy version...
I would love to see an E-6 in S Scale, or go really old school diesel and do a M-10000 or City of Denver train set in S.
Many more locomotives & operating accessories if Lionel & MTH got serious with their warranties, parts availability and authorized service centers.
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