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Lionel Catalog night

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Posted by Brutus on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 10:15 PM
yup = same trucks.  I'll be sure to only buy ones with all metal trucks from now on.  Maybe lack of sales will drive out the inferior trucks - oh well!  Still, great catalog with lots of cool stuff!

RIP Chewy - best dog I ever had.

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Posted by njalb1 on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 9:53 PM
 Jim Fortner wrote:

I've got a huge list of stuff I want from these two catalogs, that's for sure!  Anybody notice the lack of metal trucks in many of the car descriptions in the Lionel catalog?  I recently bought a car on ebay from a breakdown I think of a Target or other store set from this past year.  Anyway, the trucks are plastic and very light, even if the couplers apparently work (need to test them!).  I much prefer the heavier metal trucks.  I'll watch for that in the future.  I'll add some weight to the cargo load on my car I bought, but I would probably not buy another like it.  It's a blue flat car with high ends and holes for stakes, although they didn't include the stakes with the car.  They weren't in the pic or description, so can't complain though. 

 

Anyway, you might want to watch out for this on some of the new cars - since they don't say all metal trucks, I wouldn't assume. 

 

Jim I agree. They charge enough for these items! New people are buying starter sets at a price which should include a better transformer and metal trucks! My 2 cents [2c] IMO if they are not careful thier product will get a bad name. I also noticed a lot of items in the catalog now have plastic trucks. Here are some pics from the Nascar set of the trucks. They are made to break or wear out quickly. Very cheaply made Sad [:(]

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Posted by underworld on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 9:33 PM

Too much lag last night....haven't seen it yet.

 

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Posted by Brutus on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 9:00 PM

I've got a huge list of stuff I want from these two catalogs, that's for sure!  Anybody notice the lack of metal trucks in many of the car descriptions in the Lionel catalog?  I recently bought a car on ebay from a breakdown I think of a Target or other store set from this past year.  Anyway, the trucks are plastic and very light, even if the couplers apparently work (need to test them!).  I much prefer the heavier metal trucks.  I'll watch for that in the future.  I'll add some weight to the cargo load on my car I bought, but I would probably not buy another like it.  It's a blue flat car with high ends and holes for stakes, although they didn't include the stakes with the car.  They weren't in the pic or description, so can't complain though. 

 

Anyway, you might want to watch out for this on some of the new cars - since they don't say all metal trucks, I wouldn't assume. 

RIP Chewy - best dog I ever had.

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Posted by Andrew Falconer on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 8:15 PM

What is shocking is that the AREA 51 3-Dome Tank Car has an MSRP of $59.99.

Are they anticipating a blow out price of $30-$35 for the 3-Dome Tank Car?

Ouch.

Andrew

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 7:00 PM
Being that I have to be in work at 4am, I didnt get to stay up to see the catalogs as soon as they were released. I had to wait until today. I saw a lot of things that really intereted me. I really liked the Halloween set and the Area 51 stuff. Most f the other things I liked seemed out of my price range, such as the Blue Comet. I've yet to check out the K Line one, I'm about to do that now.
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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 3:39 PM

I love the AT&SF E6 Atlantic with TMCCII ....but not for it's body, for it's brains.  Might do a switcheroo with my old PRR Atlantic body if I can find a new E6 on the shelves this year.  Also like the NYC lightening stripe GP7.  Seems like a decent price for a loco with TMCCII.

No Superstreets Corvairs! Sad [:(]  Oh well (sigh)

Bruce Webster

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Posted by mickey4479 on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 3:36 PM

Lots of eye candy!  I run PRR steam on my layout.  But that ABA set of O scale Santa Fe F7s looks great.  Just can't justify the purchase now.  I would have to invest another $900 in the aluminum streamlined passenger cars and build a bigger layout to store all of it.  I guess that is why people build shelves!

I liked the offerings in both catalogs and was pleased that Lionel did a good job of keeping K-Line product alive for the K-Line fans while also adding some new things for Lionel.  I will agree with some of the posts that some of the rolling stock is getting pricey.  On the otherhand, I am about maxed out for me on rolling stock.  I have about 50 freight cars and 10 passenger cars on my layout and that's it for me.  Still waiting for the Lionel O scale PRR decapod but I am blessed with what I have.

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Posted by Buckeye Riveter on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 3:17 PM

There is one thing that I haven't heard mentioned with K-Line; the Superstores.   Will the retailers just pick up where they left off with K-Line? 

One of the things that the Superstores did that I thought was great, was their displays and selections.  The two Superstores in Ohio always had great items on display and of course I couldn't resist the temptations presented.

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Posted by dwiemer on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 3:02 PM

 cnw1995 wrote:
Finally saw the boxcabs in the K-Line catalog - PRR and NH. I like them. They can join the 520.

I have to laugh in that they use New York City as an example of the use of boxcabs, but did not offer a NYC version.  Still, they are nice and I can see my layout needing one.

As for the C&O $2600.00 set, I think that Neil Young comes and does a concert in your backyard if you purchase one.  Just kidding.  I like a number of things in the catalogs, and I am sure I will be making my list soon.  They do have a number of items for less than I expected.  I would like to see them put sets to go with the Porters and Plymouth's as Western Depot had for K-Line.  I have some nice sets and think they would sell well with Lionel.

dennis

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 1:51 PM
 lionroar88 wrote:

 Someone needs to put down the reefer up there in Michigan! 

Brent

Then send out the SuperStreets Roach Wrangler Van!

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Posted by wchrisyoung on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 12:24 PM

I was up finishing some work and decided to watch the clock move down to zero.    It was nice to see the catalogs.   I am glad the full product suite of the Superstreets is available.   I am looking forward to using the newer curves and transitions pieces.

 

Chris

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Posted by Railfan1 on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 12:21 PM

 mickey4479 wrote:
Welcome Semaphores! 

 

Sign - Ditto [#ditto]          Sign - Welcome [#welcome]

 

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Posted by tschmidt on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 12:17 PM

I am probably in the minority but I was glad to see the Area 51 Alien cars.  I've collected all of them since the first car came out actually before the Area 51 train hit the market.  I hope in the future that Lionel would add a new engine to the mix with all the bells and whistles. 

 

There are a number of items I really like that I will have to give some consideration to.  The covered loads on the flat cars looked nice.  I was just wondering what the "covering" material was.  

 

TomS 

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Posted by Frank53 on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 11:55 AM

I go for northeastern names only in post war, but I would be seriously tempted to pick up a bucketful of these in any northeastern name.

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Posted by Birds on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 11:43 AM

Why the fixation on the catalog MSRP prices?  Many of the items are the same MSRP as they were in the 2006 Vol. 1 catalog.

I think Lionel did a good job with the offerings.  There is a wide variety of options and price points offered.

Oh, and I like the K-Line offerings as well - especially the fact that the Plasticville buildings are still available.

Chris 

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 11:10 AM

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


Okie,
I didn't see one either but the wife says I'm Blindfold [X-)] so I may have missed it!

I did see the INSANELY overpriced Chesapeake Empire Builder!  $2,699.99 for a train set?  Someone needs to put down the reefer up there in Michigan!  Goodness... I did also notice they dropped the PSU Boxcar from the Collegiate Series but kept the Michigan one... wonder if that means they expect PSU to beat Michigan this year and they are trying to placate the homers up there? Smile [:)]

Brent

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Posted by Brutus on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 9:57 AM

No Harry Potter set Sad [:(]

Still, about 3 times more Halloween stuff than I can afford, so that's cool!  I'll also need that Lionel Lines Dockside Switcher and a few other odds and ends - I'm not up to 10,000 like some guys, but wow!

RIP Chewy - best dog I ever had.

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Posted by Craignor on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 9:39 AM

Folks,

 I was surprised all the K-Line locos came without cruise control.

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Posted by cnw1995 on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 9:18 AM
Finally saw the boxcabs in the K-Line catalog - PRR and NH. I like them. They can join the 520.

Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.

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Posted by Wes Whitmore on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 9:13 AM

I was looking at track pieces.  I think prices went up a little, which is fine.  I can't really justify spending $115 per switch for 72" curves, though.  Does anyone actually buy these new for these prices?  MTH seems to have them beat here.

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Posted by okiechoochoo on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 9:00 AM
Anyone notice there was no new PWC set or did I overlook it.

All Lionel all the time.

Okiechoochoo

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 8:52 AM
 SchemerBob wrote:

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!

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Posted by laz 57 on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 8:44 AM
 Frank53 wrote:

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

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Posted by laz 57 on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 8:40 AM

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

laz57

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Posted by SchemerBob on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 8:15 AM
 mackb4 wrote:

 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 2 cents [2c]

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.

Long live the BNSF .... AND its paint scheme. SchemerBob
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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 7:37 AM
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! 
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Posted by RR Redneck on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 7:13 AM
 otftch wrote:

Is there life after TRAINS ?

                        Ed

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

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Posted by mackb4 on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 7:02 AM

 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. My 2 cents [2c]

Collin ,operator of the " Eastern Kentucky & Ohio R.R."

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