Hey I don't know how many of you guys are aware of this neat website called ogaugewatch.com but it is worth checking out. There was a survey done and a couple of the results surprised me, although I know it's tough for any survey to be the complete accurate summation of the hobby. The stats over size of folks layouts surprised me as well as the age groups of being being in the hobby. Of course the largest was folks in it over 20 years. But the second biggest group of train modelers were folks in the hobby 0-5 years. That's pleasing to read. Check it out:
http://www.ogaugewatch.com/ogaugewatchcom/pollresults.html
And there is a new year end statement by Lionel CEO Jerry Calabrese on the Lionel website. He continues with the same thoughts expressed in the prior OGR interview. Check it out:
http://www.lionel.com/CentralStation/NewsStand/viewrelease.cfm?newsID=133
And also of interest on a related note:
http://www.ogaugewatch.com/ogaugewatchcom/2006/12/a_conversation_.html
Enjoy.
brianel, Agent 027
"Praise the Lord. I may not have everything I desire, but the Lord has come through for what I need."
Mikey filed for a rematch at the Appeals Court on Dec. 28th. If you can't beat em, sue em!
Calabrese has my vote as executive of the year!
Jim
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
Mikey needs to get a life.
Stan.
THE SOUTHERN SERVES THE SOUTH.
Bob Keller
Thanks Bob. The poll result that really grabbed my attention and surprised me was the number of people that have recently entered the hobby.... that was a surprise and very pleasing. I shouldn't have been surprised, but was to see how strong the preference for Lionel was over the others, but I not trying to start a debate on that one.
I made a prediction some years ago due to the excessive high end effort with the failure to forget their oriiginal loyal cusomters, that K-Line would be the first company to go underl The other thing on that poll that surprised me was MTH's low devotion number. Poll results can be deceiving as they are figured from only the people that participated, but that number can't be good for MTH given all the money they have into new tooling. But that's not a war shot, but an observation. Folks forget how expensive the product development and tooling is even with Chinese help, conisdering how truly small the 3-rail market is when compared to like HO.
Likewise as for Calabrese's statements, once again he has been pretty steadfast in his goal to work on promotion of the low end, while still maintaining the high-end technology advances.
Nice message from Lionel
He may not be a train guy, but I am impressed by the amount of progress Calabrese has made in advancing Lionel. His communications, via the Lionel website, say all the right things, and he really seems to be concentraing on the heritage of the Lionel name and it's value.
As for the appeal to the appeals court, from what I have read elsewhere, it seems to be an unlikely event that the appeals court would overthrow the recent appeals court decision, which is what this is.
slamming the door shut on reviewing the appeal would be a good thing for the hobby
I agree with Spank. Without knowing where the people that were polled came from, or how many were polled, the poll is not real informative. Normally you get numbers of people who voted when you have polls. Heck...did anyone here even VOTE in it???? I think the term "collect" also might be confusing. It implies that people who are voting are "collectors" as opposed to operators. I think "own" would be a better term.
"a Senior Vice President for Playboy"
Dep
Virginian Railroad
Deputy and Spank, I agree with you guys and tried to say as much above. No poll is truly conclusive but only representative of who participated. If you took a poll on OGR as to which is more popular, scale or tradtional, I think you can guess what the answer would be.
Just as when the train companies go to YORK and listen to their customers... granted YORK is a big well attended event, but there are many who cannot afford to take the trip to YORK two times per year. So what the companies hear at YORK is not really representative of all customers, but of the customers who have the financial ability to frequent YORK. Sure, these are important customers, but so aren't all customers.
If Lionel announced all scale products were being dropped as of tomorrow, many would be unhappy, but Lionel would survive. If Lionel announced all traditional, non-scale 027 products were being dropped as of tomorrow, Lionel wouldn't survive past this year.
The hobby is more diverse than ever before. But given the small sum total of 3-rail industry sales, I'd say the companies need every single solitary customer, regardless of that customer's preferences.
Brian: I meant no criticism of your post of the poll. It WAS quite interesting. As you probably already know (hehe), I have a basic disagreement with you as far as what the future of toy trains is. I see the merging/blurring of Premium and RailKing by MTH as a GOOD thing for toy train buyers. I think the major gripes of buyers with MTH is their prices and not their quality. If Lionel announced the dropping of all scale products, I think a LOT of Lionel fans would be disappointed...more than what you would think no matter what numbers Lionel posts about how many people buy what. Would Lionel survive? Perhaps...like Marx survived. What people seem to forget is Lionel's big push and sales come at Christmas. After that, the tree gets taken down, the train tracks get taken up, and for all intents and purposes, the 027 crowd doesn't think about toy trains until NEXT Christmas. A company can't survive on JUST Christmas sales...unless they are staggering sales. And from what I am hearing about Lionel's trainsets sold during Christmas at Target and other places...they didn't exactly fly off the shelves. Lionel and MTH have to have year-round sales to stay afloat. MTH can do that because they cater to train buyers that tend to have permanent sets. So they are buying all year round. What I would like to see at Lionel is the same thing that MTH is doing...an increased "merging" of scale and non-scale. Less 027 and more scale and semi-scale offerings at prices that are affordable. If they could do that, they would be in good shape ALL YEAR ROUND. If you look at the postwar sets, there was more of a blurring of O-gauge and 027. Take the S2 turbines (my favorite). The 2020, 671, 671RR, 681, and 682 are all the same size. Minor details differentiate them. That is what I would like to see more of from Lionel.
DJSpanky wrote: Ya know what I would like to see? Calabrese sit down with Wolf and bring this lawsuit BS to an end. It hurts the industry for it to continue, no matter who wins in the end.
Ya know what I would like to see? Calabrese sit down with Wolf and bring this lawsuit BS to an end. It hurts the industry for it to continue, no matter who wins in the end.
I agree, sit down, face to face and reach a gentleman's agreement, shake hands, and be done with it. There is enough $$ out there for both to make without making the lawyers richer.
Dave
It's a TOY, A child's PLAYTHING!!! (Woody from Toy Story)
I'm thinking a sit-down with Lionel and MTH has about as much chance of happening as a sit down with the US and Iran, North Korea, Cuba, etc., etc., etc. Not even sure it's a good idea for that matter. Every time the US sits down with someone, we end up getting the poopy end of the stick. Wouldn't really like either maker to end up in that position. Best I would hope for is an "agree to disagree" situation.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month