lionroar88 wrote: njalb1 wrote: Santa Fe Kent wrote:I want to know why someone would order a lavendar car?? That is weird....I want to know why you need to know ! What nerve I ordered both the add on cars for my grandaughters girls train set !Is that ok with YOU WOW! That's one Mickey Mouse Train Collection! Sorry njalb! Couldn't resist. Looks like your granddaughter has many years of fun ahead of her! Hopefully she likes it and keeps it all!
njalb1 wrote: Santa Fe Kent wrote:I want to know why someone would order a lavendar car?? That is weird....I want to know why you need to know ! What nerve I ordered both the add on cars for my grandaughters girls train set !Is that ok with YOU
Santa Fe Kent wrote:I want to know why someone would order a lavendar car?? That is weird....
I want to know why you need to know ! What nerve
I ordered both the add on cars for my grandaughters girls train set !
Is that ok with YOU
Brent thanks for the nice reply !!! Al
Well.... okay. As long as you didn't order it for yourself!
Didn't mean to get you hot, sorry! But it does strike me as odd that they actually make this stuff. Kudo's to anyone that can admit in public that they buy it! Yu Da Man!
P.S., My Lionel "Christmas Celebration 2007" catalog was in my mail box when I got home from York.
"O" gauge still has the "Polar Express" and a "North Pole Central" sets. Added this year is the Simi-Scale Mikado in red or green.
"G" gauge has again the "Holiday Traditions Express", but have added a "Polar Express" with a 2-8-2) and a General (4-4-0) powered "Snowman Express", both battery powered (9 volt) and have radio control.
Don U. TCA 73-5735
MartyE wrote:Broadway Limited...LOL
Broadway Limiteds Zephyr passengers are the best I have ever seen done in plastic. Hardly something I would laugh at. The truth is, much innovation is coming into HO and N scales from the former designers and such from O guage. It only makes since, because HO and N are the largest two scales in popularity, bar none.
All Lionel all the time.
Okiechoochoo
"The Hobby is O-Gauge trains, not the financial well being of Lionel LLC. If Lionel wants to abandon it's core business why cheer about it?"
Let's see, here's a two hundred page, give or take, catalog this year with one battery powered train. It is interesting that a tiny minority in the hobby interprets this as Lionel abandoning its core business .
Personally I think the hobby should revolve around what I want too.
rthomps wrote: "First of all I looked for the Christmas catalog and was told that they had none?" You didn't look too carefully or too far. Lionel had the Christmas catalog on display on Thursday along with their other catalogs.BTW, some nice items for around the tree in '07.
"First of all I looked for the Christmas catalog and was told that they had none?"
You didn't look too carefully or too far. Lionel had the Christmas catalog on display on Thursday along with their other catalogs.
BTW, some nice items for around the tree in '07.
Yes they had ONE for all the thosands attending
I was there all day on Thursday and they said that they forgot to bring them ????? They took a tie wrap and put ONE on display for thousands to look at I checked all day and they NEVER got them to hand out ???
Lionel is making battery powered trains that run on plastic tracks - in G scale. From what I've seen, they are pretty nice versions of the General. I might buy one for the yard.
Jim
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
They will make a huge splash in October when they show off the Legacy system.
From the Musical Annie. "The sun will come out tomorrow"
Nobody knows if Legacy will come out in October and nobody knows how big a "Splash" it will make. Rumor is Neil Young wants to do a concert at York for Legacy. Nobody knows if they will allow that.
I've heard a rumor Lionel is planning to make battery powered trains with plastic tracks. For what it's worth they might as well start making Espresso Machines. That would also be marketing to a different group. The Hobby is O-Gauge trains, not the financial well being of Lionel LLC. If Lionel wants to abandon it's core business why cheer about it?
I think you're right, Brent. They will make a huge splash in October when they show off the Legacy system. And what better place than York to show off a product like that? But on the whole, I think Lionel is now marketing to a different crowd than the typical York attendee. They seem to have come across a strong winning strategy by marketing to the seasonal and beginner train buyer.
rthomps wrote:...(BTW, look for EVERYONE from Lionel to be at York in October--but for a different reason.) ...
(BTW, look for EVERYONE from Lionel to be at York in October--but for a different reason.) ...
Legacy public unveiling.
To address the original question here: In a succinct word...NO.
The Lionel exhibit was certainly not weird.
My take is that Lionel's emphasis has, if you will, "moved beyond" the York-type show. (Others have posted about this, e.g., Neil, and I very much agree....) After the October '06 York, I posted on various forums (fora??) that Jerry C. had made a major mistake in not attending that York. Well, he wasn't present again this York. I didn't like it, but his absence fits carefully with Lionel's strategy. (BTW, look for EVERYONE from Lionel to be at York in October--but for a different reason.) MTH is spending beaucoup $$ on the York show preaching to the company's followers. Seems as if Lionel has a different (and so far successful) strategy.
Did I write that I'm still unhappy that JC wasn't present???
As for E-bay vs TCA York:
Over the years I have bid and bought on E-bay. I much prefer to look over a product before I buy. This you can do at a train show. Too often on E-bay it becomes an out of reason bidding war, also people forget to add the shipping cost which is often excessive.
A train show gives that contact with the product, you can look it over, the bigger the show the more choice you have, TCA York is the biggest. Not only that, but all who are selling are members of YOUR club who were screened when joining. TCA is the biggest TOY Train group, it has spred worldwide, it has built a Toy Train Museum, and it built up a "KIds Club" to bring in youth. Oh yes, it provides a market for the Lionel and MTH high end locomotives, sure they always come, and belong to TCA.
I drive 350 miles each way twice a year and really enjoy the show.
I don't read anyone saying York is irrelevant or should die. It's just that probably 90% of the people who buy toy trains never even go to York, so it makes no sense to argue that York is the most important marketing tool for new trains. That would be the catalogs, magazines, public displays, hobby shops, etc., before one even thinks about York as a factor.
Lionel has chosen, for whatever reasons, not to spend money on their York exhibit. Bankruptcy, distance from York, and other marketing needs taking precedence are a pretty good explanation is my guess.
The quality of the York exhibit affects short term sales exactly not at all. Long term sales, who knows? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar ;).
Trying to update my avatar since 2020
MartyE and Kodi the Husky Dog! ( 3/31/90-9/28/04 ) www.MartyE.com My O Gauge Web Page and Home of Kodiak Junction!
Quote
" Don't be so quick to pull the plug on York, unless you want to bid on-line for the same old dead grandpa trains."
Has this thread taken the position that because the Lionel display was weak the whole York show is over. Sure there's e-bay or auctions you can buy trains at. Old musty dead grandpa trains, but are manufacturers going to invest in tooling for a spot on e-bay?
I have personal experience since I manufacture accessories. I made the Steel El for O-Gauge subway sets. Later I was approached by Standard Gauge Groups who wanted it too and I set up production for that. This last York I got a visit from both Marklin 1 Gauge and LGB/Aristocraft people and I'm preparing to make it for those folks next. None of this would have happened without the feedback from York.
Forget Lionel, MTH, and Atlas, just about every third table in the Orange Hall was somebody making something for the Hobby. You've got your choice of a wide selection of switches and tracks, landscape materials, electronics, cars, boats, planes, people and structures. None of this would have happened without some central location to demonstate the goods.
Don't be so quick to pull the plug on York, unless you want to bid on-line for the same old dead grandpa trains.
Neil, very well said.
NYC Fan, it has nothing to do with "giving it a rest" or starting our own 7 building show. From years of doing train shows and having been to YORK, I can tell you truthfully I've seen more newcomers enter the hobby at a small one or two building show where there were plenty of kid-friendly operating displays than I have ever seen at YORK. And given the logistics of the trip to YORK, the increased hotel costs during the show, having to be a member of the TCA and having to make a reservation - there is a distinct advantage to the local union hall show where everyone and anyone is welcome for the simple admission at the door. Why would we want 7 buidlings when we can accomplish growth and share the hobby with newcomers in just one?
Maybe the folks who need to give it a rest are the ones who approach YORK with the same attitude of a pilgrimage. Or the ones who insistantly want the train companies to cater to their every single whim, regardless of the expense to everyone else.
In the "give it a rest" deparmtnet, maybe the next time there's some "suggestion" on the other forum for the train companies to make such-and-such a loco and then 15 guys chime in saying they want one maybe they could all chip in and split the two or three million dollar development costs between just them. That way the rest of us don't have to pay higher prices for the trains we like, where the tooling and dies have long long long been paid for. Like it or not (and I have heard it direct) the traditonal and starter train sales basically make welfare payments to the development of the high end scale trains. Which is ironic because so many scale guys are completely intolerant, elitist and snobbish towards 027 "toy" trains.
That said, YORK is a great show and a fun opportunity if one is able to attend. And I've always said every train guy should have the chance to go at least once. But YORK is not the be-all and end-all of the train world. And given the state of the hobby, I agree that it will become of less significance in the near years to come. Even the TCA itself has had to address the issues of their aging membership and the declining interest. I've noticed more and more trains in estate sales from deceased train collectors because their surviving family members don't want the stuff.
And contributing even more greatly to the potential decline in importance of YORK is the internet and eBay. The train companies all have websites and take advantage of the train forums too. So plenty of buzz can be created at little expense or aggrivation. And whereas at one time is was almost essential to go to YORK to locate hard-to-find or collectible trains, eBay has changed that completely. And with eBay alone, YORK is now and will never be the same again.
With the changing times and changing market, I wouldn't be foolish enough today to even want to start a 7-building show, when just one will do.
brianel, Agent 027
"Praise the Lord. I may not have everything I desire, but the Lord has come through for what I need."
NYC Fan wrote: "Until York opens its doors to the public to draw them in and changes from boxed collectables to operating layouts and trains youth can touch, it will slowly, but ever so surely, get smaller and smaller and become of less importance to the manufactuer. This may take a decade or so but it will eventually happen." I wish you guys would give it a rest and just start your own seven building show somewhere!!
I wish you guys would give it a rest and just start your own seven building show somewhere!!
Well said NYC FAN. Lets see what kind of show they would have? This is the best train show period.
laz57
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