I took our little girl to FAO Schwarz yesterday - the posh toy store in NYC on 59th St, between Madison and 5th Aves - and was very pleased to see the three working Lionel layouts on display. It was a decent sized piece of floorspace, with the name nice and large on the tables, hanging from signs and reprints of classic catalog cover pictures I'd love to own.
They didnt have any seperate parts for sale, they were just selling train sets and not the high end ones either which, on reflection, I thought was pretty smart especially as the prices weren't marked up as one might expect.
If you have a lot of experience with Lionel then this display probably offers nothing but for me seeing the engines running was a tremendous boost, the best catalog pictures and descriptions don't do them justice in the flesh, so to speak. I mean seeing them run changed my mind about the desirability of the sets displayed. Thomas and his coaches look much better running and that yellow and blue diesel is a hefty unit, sharp looking too but the real winner was the 0-6-0 logging train, what a beautiful locomotive, I gotta get one.
See, the trouble with most train stores is that they don't have much running, lots behind glass but it doesnt give you the feel and more importantly it doesnt make the sale. Another thing there were quite a few very nicely dressed little boys, must be affluent parents, who else puts boys in white shirts with ties and blazers these days? Anyway, these boys and some girls were more than happy to talk about the trains with me, quite spirited they were too, one girl said "I wish they still had real ones like that!" the boys were fascinated with the changing signal lights and operating crossing, running round and round the display in circles to catch all the action. I spoke to a couple of the parents, mainly mums to my surprise, who mainly said "that's all they want" or variations on the theme.
If Lionel could spare someone to man the displays and operate the log tipping cars and answer questions, maybe do a bit of product promotion, I'd think it would be worth their while. A better arrangement with a concentration of operating accessories would also have been much more of a magnet but all in all I think that display does the job. It looked like a quality display, reminded me of such displays as a kid in London at Selfridges and Gamages.
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