Rumors building about Lionel going bankrupt.

[Anonymous]

well, the first tidbit came in this email from Athearn concerning their HO scale 4-6-6-4 challenger locomotives.

QUOTE: Second, we are REDUCING the retail price of these great behemoths! We have received information that another maker of Challengers is again leaving the HO marketplace, and will be liquidating their remaining Challengers. We want to make certain that our faithful dealers and consumers don't get fooled by a large price differential.

Lionel and Rivarossi are the only ones making challengers in HO, and Lionel is the only real competator to the Athearn model.

now there is someone on the Atlas HO forum stating that he has a source that says Lionel is bankrupt and going out of business, most likely due to the MTH lawsuit.

this would be pretty bad if true. has anyone heard any more information or any credible rumors on this??

[cacole]

Liquidating stock does not mean that Lionel is going bankrupt -- just that they are leaving the HO market because their Challenger may not have sold as well as they thought it would.

Lionel seems to be doing very well with their O scale products, even to the point of introducing new items, although their loss of the lawsuit to MTH may have placed them in danger of bankruptcy. I don't have Lionel O scale, but just as a matter of curiosity I checked their Web site. They have a news fla***hat a new CEO has taken over, which may be a result of the MTH lawsuit. Other than that, there's no hint from them about the possiblity of bankruptcy.

[ben10ben]

In his visit to the Train Station in New Jersey today, Lionel's new CEO said that they currently have no plans to close, and has every intention of moving forward. Lionel might file bankruptcy, but this would only be as a precaution to prevent MTH from obtaining Lionel's assets should the lawsuit go against them. This is fact, as a number of people in attendence today have confirmed. http://ogaugerr.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=63160042&f=57660482&m=6761006641