Lionel Catalog night

[mickey4479]

I am going to go out on a limb and say that there will be a lot of folks staying up past their normal bedtime tonight to review the on line catalog.  I may have to take a nap this afternoon!  I wonder if the website will be slower with all the attention, especially because of the K-Line offerings coming out as well.  As you can tell, I am looking forward to it.

[IronHoarse]

Being near the west coast for the winter, I will not need to stay up to see the new catalog.  It will be available at 9 PM for me to read.  Maybe I do need to get a life, but I do enjoy it when the new catalogs come out. 

[Anonymous]

 I am new to the forum.

Can someone help me with how the forum runs?

[Anonymous]

I am probably going to stay up and see the catalogs.

Semaphores

"Semaphores and trains make a train person happy"

[darianj]

I won't stay up spcifically for that, but if I happen to be up (after watching 24 and Heros) I'll probably take a look.

[1688torpedo]

 Hello Semaphores &  to the forum!   What specific help do you need? You seem to be posting fine here. Take Care.

[mickey4479]

Welcome Semaphores! 

[otftch]

Is there life after TRAINS ?

                        Ed

[otftch]

Do you think Lionel is just trying to find out who or how many of us are interested in a seperate K-line line ? It seems this would be a good way to find out.

                                                                        Ed

[thor]

I'll see if I can get a look at my usual 2am bathroom trip!  I know its kinda silly but then its kinda neat too!  Like being a kid again, you have to hand it to Lionel, they are dead shrewd about the way they build up anticipation.  How many other consumer goods marketers have a product with that sort of appeal?  Lionel makes me feel about trains the way I did when I was five, the excitement, the gloating (the knowledge that I can't and won't get most of it anyway). 

[underworld]

I'll have to see how the connection is....been having a bit of lag lately.

underworld

[Andrew Falconer]

I just saw the timer go back from about 4 minutes left to 9 minutes left!

[Cheese]

Hey Y'all,

Just saw the catalogs. Lots of great Tradtional stuff. No Southern 4501, but there is a green Southern Berkshire as well as an NKP 779 and lots of great stuff. Traditional Sets are nothing special. I might get some add on packs to add some rolling stock for a good price.

I am very impressed with all of Lionel's K-line offerings. Very nice.

Cheese

[pbjwilson]

K-line is back! Like the S2's, Boxcabs, and Superstreets.

[Frank53]

Browsed through it. All the nice stuff is too long for my o42 and o31 curves.

These are the items I found appealing:

[dougdagrump]

Both catalogs had some mighty sweet looking stuff. Frank picked some of the same items that I liked, especially the GP-7's. Unfortunately my train budget is all shot to you know what for awhile, but it don't hurt to window shop.

[Andrew Falconer]

In 1995 I was wondering if anyone would ever make a jet snow blower. Finally the current staff at LIONEL have put one together.

There are more new cars than I thought possible. They really are competing with Weaver Models and Atlas O. The RailSounds versions of the Mechanical Refrigerator Cars might be more expensive than I would want to guess at.

The Grand Trunk 40' Flat Car with Covered Loads will be perfect with the Grand Trunk Western 50' A.A.R. 50' Double-Door Boxcars.

The Super-Detailed RailBox 50' Modern Boxcar looks good, but I hope the old trucks are just for the catalog. 

I like the High-Capacity Three-Bay Hoppers in the Santa Fe scheme. The Chicago & NorthWestern one is one to ponder. I wonder how heavy are the High-Capacity Three-Bay Hoppers. The 2-Bay Offset Side Hoppers are heavy compared to most O Scale Cars, how much more weight for those new Hoppers?

The O Gauge British Columbia Railway Flat Car is finally in a catalog. The British Columbia Railway Gondola was made in 1995 and the British Columbia Railway Double-Door Boxcar was made in the 1980's. It is slow going collecting the British Columbia Railway O Gauge cars like what I have seen on the GTW tracks.

Andrew

[Andrew Falconer]

Both catalogs had some mighty sweet looking stuff. Frank picked some of the same items that I liked, especially the GP-7's. Unfortunately my train budget is all shot to you know what for awhile, but it don't hurt to window shop.

You might have to wait for a sale.

[darianj]

Some nice stuff in the new catalogs.  I am a little disappointed that there is no Warner Bros. train set in the K-line catalog.  Ohh well...maybe next time.

And I missed Letterman's Top 10 list tonight too!

[njalb1]

The Macy's Boxcar

    
My favorite!!!!!!!!
    

AND FOR THE 50th ANNIVERSARY of the GIRLS SET
My Pink GG 1   Yea 
   

AMERICAN FLYER 

[dbaker48]

Just looked at both catalogs, a couple of nice pieces especially the SD70, also the Superstreets, surpised that the "Big Boy" not in it.  Can't say saw anything with first pass I can't live without.  Need to go back through to see what they are offering with Legacy.

 

Got a cold so goint to b ed, probably no work tomorrow. 

 

[chuck]

Looks like we'll finally see an correct version of the Texas Special from someone.

[mackb4]

 Well I took a look at the catalogs this morning and I must say I'm impressed and both disappointed.

 First I think Lionel has done a fair job with the K-Line product line.I thought they might have razed the prices,but I think their about right on.

 Next I must say that Lionel's product lineup is great,but,the prices for their offerings are too high on their set's and standard "O" lineup.I mean there super great looking sets.But for middle class folks like myself that would love to buy one,geeze.

 I think it's great that Lionel is offering such a broad lineup,but I hope they don't try to offer too much.Sounding a little familar ?

 And I would like to say this about the hobby,mainly the "O" scale market.

 I know that the popularity of model trains is really on the increase,and I think more than what a lot of us think.My Dad got to the trainshow in Columbus,Ohio this past Saturday,and he said that it was hard to even walk around.He said that there was a lot of younger folks and their kids looking and buying.That's great for the hobby.

 And I know the amount of people I work with on the railroad that's getting their kids into model tains is on the increase.

 So this is why the manufactors need not to "flood" the market with so many items at one offering,and take the prices down a little.I know profit is the name of the game,but the right price means whats right for the cunsumer.Look at the video game systems.I bet that  Nintendo is out doing Sony and Microsoft big time with a cheaper system.

[RR Redneck]

Is there life after TRAINS ?

                        Ed

Yes there is and I have found it................the life of an outdoorsman.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm... only $10,000 in MUST HAVE items!  That is the first time I have EVER hit that mark with the catalog!  I now need to get two extra jobs to support this habit!

A few problems though... their hopper offerings are poor, why only 3 C&O 3-Bay hoppers?  The off-set hoppers look cool, would like to have seen 2 3-packs on these and 3 2-packs on the 3-bays!

I like the B&O E7 A-A Set!  But why no Breakdown B-Unit or Powered B-Unit?  That was a miss!

Would like to see more offerings on their rolling stock, I mean why don't the do something like Atlas and release a lot of roadnames for each boxcar, reefer, gondola, hopper, flatcar, etc?

PS-4 Flatcars are off this year... again why not just a plain PS-4?  Why does it have to come with trailers, cranes, etc?

Like the covered load flatcars... those look awesome, again need more road names.

IMHO, rolling stock doesn't need to be this expensive!  Why not offer the traditional stuff under $25.00 and the Scale stuff under $35.00?  Then if they make something special like the Nestle stuff of the past, add another $5 - $10 for those items.  $70.00 for a hopper car is a bit steep! 

[SchemerBob]

 Well I took a look at the catalogs this morning and I must say I'm impressed and both disappointed.

 First I think Lionel has done a fair job with the K-Line product line.I thought they might have razed the prices,but I think their about right on.

 Next I must say that Lionel's product lineup is great,but,the prices for their offerings are too high on their set's and standard "O" lineup.I mean there super great looking sets.But for middle class folks like myself that would love to buy one,geeze.

 I think it's great that Lionel is offering such a broad lineup,but I hope they don't try to offer too much.Sounding a little familar ?

 And I would like to say this about the hobby,mainly the "O" scale market.

 So this is why the manufactors need not to "flood" the market with so many items at one offering,and take the prices down a little.I know profit is the name of the game,but the right price means whats right for the cunsumer.Look at the video game systems.I bet that  Nintendo is out doing Sony and Microsoft big time with a cheaper system.

My thoughts exactly. I'm very disappointed. I thought there would be a lot of new things in the catalog, but really it's just a bunch of repeats. They don't even have any pictures of their SD70ACe models yet, just photographs of the real engines (for pete's sake, we already know what they look like!). Amazingly (I never thought I would ever say this), I got a little more excited over the K-Line catalog!!

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of neat things in the main catalog, like the new UP SD90MAC freight train and the CSX SD40-2 stack train. But they are SO expensive! I really like Lionel, but I'm with you mackb4: they are so expensive!

Let's compare a bit. Take two "premium" train sets that are about the same, like the stack train sets. Lionel's "CSX SD40-2 Husky Stack Set" comes with an SD40-2 with RailSounds 5.0 & TMCCII Legacy equipped, and four Husky stack cars with containers. Price: $769.99. Now you take MTH's stack trains that appeared in their previous catalog. You can choose between two railroads, CSX and BNSF, and the set comes with an SD70ACe locomotive (a better choice for a stack train) with Proto-Sound 2.0, and FIVE (not four) articulated twin-stack cars with containers (one 40' and two 20' per car). Price: $699.99. That's 70 DOLLARS SAVINGS, and you actually get a little MORE than you did in the Lionel set!

Now Lionel engines do seem more reliable than MTH's. Every time I buy an MTH engine it breaks a month after I get it and I have to send it to be repaired. But once it comes back, it usually runs fine for years. I would have stuck with Lionel completely, but I can see why I went for MTH: they really have Lionel beat for more realistic & affordable trains, and they come out with more exciting stuff, sooner. No offence, but all Lionel has in their catalogs are mainly older locomotives & cars. Now I really like old trains, but that's not what I'm going to be modeling in my layout. MTH really offers a little of both: they list their steam locomotives first in their catalogs, folliwed by their old diesel engines and then the newer stuff. In just about every catalog of MTH I've seen something that was worth getting.

Lionel should price that CSX stack train set for about $479.99. That would be a little more reasonable for what you're getting, but even there they could go down a little bit. $399.99. That's better. It's amazing. They charge $170 for only TWO stack cars, and MTH's twin-stack cars are $10 less, and they charge only $90 for two non-articulated stack cars. I think Lionel's ticket to the top is to LOWER PRICES, and maybe they should have a "request board" or something and only make trains that people actually want. There was really nothing in this new catalog that made my eyes pop out.

[laz 57]

Some nice things.  But I'm glad I didn't stay up to await them.

laz57

[laz 57]

Browsed through it. All the nice stuff is too long for my o42 and o31 curves.

These are the items I found appealing:

Love the NYC snowblower car too.

laz57

[Anonymous]

Let's compare a bit. Take two "premium" train sets that are about the same, like the stack train sets. Lionel's "CSX SD40-2 Husky Stack Set" comes with an SD40-2 with RailSounds 5.0 & TMCCII Legacy equipped, and four Husky stack cars with containers. Price: $769.99. Now you take MTH's stack trains that appeared in their previous catalog. You can choose between two railroads, CSX and BNSF, and the set comes with an SD70ACe locomotive (a better choice for a stack train) with Proto-Sound 2.0, and FIVE (not four) articulated twin-stack cars with containers (one 40' and two 20' per car). Price: $699.99. That's 70 DOLLARS SAVINGS, and you actually get a little MORE than you did in the Lionel set!

Now Lionel engines do seem more reliable than MTH's. Every time I buy an MTH engine it breaks a month after I get it and I have to send it to be repaired. But once it comes back, it usually runs fine for years. I would have stuck with Lionel completely, but I can see why I went for MTH: they really have Lionel beat for more realistic & affordable trains, and they come out with more exciting stuff, sooner. No offence, but all Lionel has in their catalogs are mainly older locomotives & cars. Now I really like old trains, but that's not what I'm going to be modeling in my layout. MTH really offers a little of both: they list their steam locomotives first in their catalogs, folliwed by their old diesel engines and then the newer stuff. In just about every catalog of MTH I've seen something that was worth getting.

Lionel should price that CSX stack train set for about $479.99. That would be a little more reasonable for what you're getting, but even there they could go down a little bit. $399.99. That's better. It's amazing. They charge $170 for only TWO stack cars, and MTH's twin-stack cars are $10 less, and they charge only $90 for two non-articulated stack cars. I think Lionel's ticket to the top is to LOWER PRICES, and maybe they should have a "request board" or something and only make trains that people actually want. There was really nothing in this new catalog that made my eyes pop out.

Well MTH's set has PS2 and Lionels has TMCCII... I agree about the number of cars and the engine choice... I personally can't wait to see TMCCII in action... if the system works correctly out of the box then it sounds leaps and bounds better than PS2.  I suspect Lionel has delayed TMCCII's release because they really want it to work 100% correctly out of the box.

I'm not so sure I agree about MTH's superior tooling though.  I was the MTH B&O passenger set at the LHS and I can say 100% certainty that I am glad my wife bought me the Lionel B&O Mikado and passenger cars instead of the MTH version... the MTH version looks cheap and plasticy compared to the Lionel set... can't wait to get the cars in March!

[okiechoochoo]

Anyone notice there was no new PWC set or did I overlook it.