What K-Line products do you want to see Lionel produce?

[tschmidt]

I just hope they keep things seperate. Much of the K Line rolling stock was nicely priced with decent features.

TomS

[DCmontana]

Being a fan of the Milwaukee RR I bought several of their products in that livery.
I really like their die cast log dump car. It is a solid rugged piece and never fails to dump in a realistic fashion. The detail on the Hiawatha express box car catches my eye every time it passes around my layout. I want one of the F3/F7 ABA diesels for the Milwaukee, but have not received permission from the chairman of the board to buy one yet. I hope they don't vanish before I can make my move for more motive power. I don't think Lionel will keep making the upper level K-line stuff and that is too bad!

[jkerklo]

I was interested in Superstreets when I saw K-Line's first full page ads. First new toy train product idea to come along in a while.

I am concerned, though. I don't think K-Line ever sold more than samples and am not sure how much actually saw any shelves. There might not be any sales history for Lionel to justify re-launching a new product.

Given the lack of product when the ads first appeared, there might even have been some production problems or something that would prevent Lionel from just using the developed tooling.


John Kerklo
TCA 94-38455
www.Three-Rail.com

[FJ and G]

Brian writes: "many of us who bought K-Line products did so because they were a better price and a better value than many equal feature Lionel products."

Amen, brother. I can't see Lionel offering products at the competitive prices that K-Line did. What Lionel says is reasonable is their definition of reasonable.

Having said that, I would be pleasantly surprised if I am wrong.

I put out an order for a battery-powered O-gauge K-line set (scales out to narrow gauge). Was told there's be several weeks delay in shipping.

I hope to get that set. Also, I would hope to see more battery-powered sets. I know i'm in the minority on this, but that's just my wish.

(btw, I believe it was K-Line that was responsible for bringing down prices of high-quality die cast rolling stock)

[Anonymous]

They should continue making the K-Line operating watchman's shanty, new for '05. This is a vast improvement, in terms of realistic size and operation, over the one Lionel has been making all these years. Joe

[Anonymous]

I hope they produce some trains from the old Marx molds like the 4-6-2 (Marx 999) and the S-2.

[spankybird]

Dr John,

I have to agree with the K-line 027 switches. Seeing that I have alot of them, it would be nice to know that replacement s are out there.

tom

[Dr. John]

Brianel,

Thanks for the update from Jerry Calabrese. I had missed that. Sounds like there's hope that we will see some of the more affordable K-Line offerings.

[brianel027]

From Lionel's website, Jerry Calabrese had this to say on 2/17

"Lionel intends to make K-Line products as part of a larger plan to expand our own middle line offerings that we believe have a greater role in our catalog and overall business – offerings intended to give more people a chance to own quality Lionel products at many levels. This includes engines and rolling stock that are more manageable in size and price, but yet strong on value. Having said that, selling highly detailed, die cast, steam engines that contain state of the art electronics for not much more, or in some cases, less than they cost to make, is a devil’s bargain and not a good deal for anyone.

For those of you who are concerned that the loss of an independent and competitive K-Line will lead to higher prices and fewer options, I can only promise that Lionel takes very seriously its commitment to making a broad range of great products and selling them at fair and affordable prices."

There's been plenty of speculation on what will happen and what could get made in the future should everything work out in Lionel's favor. Given the excepts above from Mr. Calabrese's statement - the entire statement can be read here -

http://www.lionel.com/CentralStation/NewsStand/viewrelease.cfm?newsID=125)

I would not expect Lionel to be investing additional dollars into modification of tooling or even new tooling under the K-Line banner. So I expect it is highly unlikely that one will expect to see the vast continuation of new products that in some part, contributed to K-Line's downfall.

For one thing, Sandra Kan is still owed vast sums of money which need to be repaid. Hopefully Lionel can do this without raising prices to such a point where the former K-Line products become non-competitive with the Lionel products. A tough balancing act: but many of us who bought K-Line products did so because they were a better price and a better value than many equal feature Lionel products.

As with Dr. John, I hope that Lionel would continue with some of the lesser bragged about products that K-Line forgot about in their later years. And to offer a little more variety in roadnames. This was also a big mistake K-Line made: they were continually re-releasing cars and roadnames that had already been made. The NYC Pacemaker scheme showed up many times of differing box car issues. And having released the B&O Timesaver LCL as part of a Holiday Bonanza, it was issued again as a KCC membership car. I believe it may have even been issued again after that. Same goes for the BAR State of Maine red, white and blue cars.

There are plenty of popular roadnames and schemes K-Line never even covered. And ironically some they did cover were only available in uncataloged employee only Conrail sets... I almost pulled the hair out of my head when I saw the uncataloged Merger Celebration Conrail set... I would have bought every single car in that set (some in multiples) had K-Line bothered to make those cars at another point in time instead on continually making the same roads over and over again. I'd been hoping for years to see K-Line make some traditionally sized box cars in Jersey Central (coast guard scheme), Penn Central, Erie Lackawanna (several schemes), the more common Lehigh Valley and Reading schemes, nevermind CSX, Norfolk Southern, BNSF and others.

Yeah, K-Line was taking the el-cheapo road, saving a few bucks on paint masks, but they lost sales because of it. But on these uncataloged sets, here they had spent the money on the paint masks - so they were there. This is the exact and sole reason why I started doing so much repainting... otherwise I'd still to this day be waiting for some smaller products in modern roadnames. And based on the many comments I got at train shows, there are others who'd like to see the smaller K-Line locos in modern roadnames... the Alco FA looks pretty darned nice in the orange CSX MOW scheme... I've truned down multiple offers to sell that one, as well as my Norfolk Southern and Conrail custom paint jobs.

K-Line was in ownership of the MARX and Kusan tooling that their early products originated from. Whether Sandra Kan owns the dies that the newer products came from, that I don't know. It certainly sounds - should all of this go through - that Lionel will have access to everything. Unlike many others who have come up with long lists of new products they hope will be made, I would think that the only product types we will see are ones for which tooling and dies are already made.

I will second Dr. John's wi***o see things like the Alco S-2 made again. The K-Line redesigned 027 switches too. Even doing some of the better paint jobs done on the "S" gauge cars, but with 027 plastic trucks instead (the Lionel version, which is superior to the K-Line plastic truck). Despite the criticism these types of products get on some of the train forums, there is obviously a market for them.

K-Line didn't think much of their MARX origin Budd car. I'm sure if K-Line had announced at YORK that it was being made again, many would have cried out "you've got to be kidding!? That ain't scale!" Yet look at the success RMT has had with their version called "The Buddy." Roadname variety is a big part of that success as it is with the RMT "Beep." As is the reasonable list price!

These lower end products may not get the attention, the acclaim and the discussion time of the train forums, but there is obviously a need and a desire for them. The success RMT has recently had speaks better of this than do my words here.

[Dr. John]

With the news that Lionel will offer K-Line products in the near future, what would you like to see them produce?

I hope to see some of the traditional items that K-Line neglected in recent years: The S-2 switcher, the Alco FA, and their Train 19 rolling stock.
I also hope they produce K-Line's excellent O-27 turnouts, although with Fastrack and Lionel's own tubular offerings, I have my doubts.

What about you?