Are you tired about when it comes to NEW lionel product

To be plain honest I want to see much better quality control across the board. Three Legacy engines in a row were all sent back to Lionel right out of the box for service issues. That is a 100% failure rate on my Legacy purchases.

Lionel is aware that there are a lot of engines sitting on dealers shelves with problems. My opinion they should be recalled and fixed before the consumer has to put up with problems on new equipment.

A VL DM&IR M-1 yellowstone, not a knock off champagne colored EM-1

I want scale locomotives with ALL the features and very good detail, that run extremely well conventionally on a ZW-L (as do all my recent Legacy and conventional Lionel locos).  Vision or Legacy versions of:

• Dreyfus Hudson
• Scale Santa Fe Red-Silver Warbonnet ABBA set with one speaker and smoke in each unit, and at least four motors.
• 18" Super Chief passenger set with good detail, LED lighting, full interiors, and animated figures b ehind the windows (waiterws goin up and down the aisle of the ining car, figures in seats moving near the windows, (pointing, looking).  People in the observation car bar area turning and talking - some movement inside.

I hate to say it, but the vast quantity of items in the current catalogs makes my eyes glaze over.  All I really need is one traditionally-sized, fully-equipped, steam engine every few years. 

My current fave is a Baby Mikado that I upgraded with some scale details and a ERRCruise package.

Jon 

From all manufacturers I want reliability, scale size, and features that do not detract from the appearance.

I have had problems with all but one of my Lionel locomotives out of the box. I've had motor problems, couplers on the tender unable to hold more than 5 cars, smoke unit issues, sound issues and bad paint. It has become really difficult for me to buy anything other than rolling stock from Lionel.

But on the other hand I LOVE the level of detail and quality I have been seeing on my recent rolling stock purchases.

IMO, they need to get costs and QA in order before they do anything else. 

Quality control is foremost in my mind.

I'd be happy with good old fashioned trains. no fancy electronics to go bad. Maybe release reproductions of some of the old standbys, 675, 1666 and the like. Not all of us can afford 800-1500 dollar locomotives. And get rid of those O72 tubular switches and replace them with something like the old 711's.

Jerry

Kind of an echo of what everyone else has said. I've bought 6 legacy engines, and something has been wrong with all but one of them. Its nuts to spend that kind of money and keep getting busted junk, which is probably part of the reason these things go on blowout.

I'd also love to see them update the tooling as they go... some of the tooling they're using is antiquated in the level of detail for premium models these days. The newly tooled stuff is great, but the old stuff looks... really old.

Finally, I'd love to see them do A-student level homework on the models they make. I've passed on a number of models because the model doesnt match the advertised road number, when there exists a road number which matches the model they made (for example, the UP ES44AC they made is a 3 window cab. UP has 3 window cabs, the model has a cab number for a 4 window ES44, which UP also has.... for $900, I'd expect that to be correct. Another example is the UP AC6000... they modeled a true AC6000, and then chose road numbers of AC6044 convertibles (with a single oval stack)).

If they cant get it right when its that easy, then why buy it?

Do we realy needs ANOTHER ATSF WB and Super Chief?

hello guys and gals........

I gave up on both lionel and mth due to poor quality control and switched to Sunset 3rd when it comes to buying locomotives.  I  buy rolling stock,track and Z4000 transformer from mth as their quality control is still good EXCEPT the locomotives.  The next lionel locomotive i buy will be the good postwar (1945-1969) and Williams.

the woman who loves the S.F.5011

Tiffany

Quality Control!!!!

I love the innovative products Lionel makes but it totally goes to waste to purchase a nice engine and find out it has to be sent back multiple times for the same problem. 

Is Quality Control too much to ask for? I think not!

Obviously QC is a given, product descriptions versus delivered features have been all over the place. Have the catalog match the item.

More "all new" locomotives like the S3, I think there have been enough reruns of mountains and berkshires.

 Having said that, bring back some of the locomotives that have only been made once like the niagara. 

I have one of the new CC berks. they did a GREAT job of

combining the old with the new.. I would say more of the same.

I'd like to see more of the odd duck engines... boxcab's, logging engines.

Of course more animated accessories.....

its like new cell phones new models..you cant keep up with them plus the cost keeps going up..new trains new features=new devices to new to have they to work..

Every Legacy engine I have bought have been perfect out of the box except for one that the pipe under the smoke box was broken but fixed by Lionel in less then a week. 

Updating of the tooling would be a big help along with QC even though my issues have been almost nil.

Whistle smoke would be nice also, the other stuff  like swinging bell and other smoke features is not for me.

I must say I have purchased at least 10 to 12 Lionel Legacy engines, and I only had one single issue. I've also purchased a few older TMCC units from fellow forum member's and not one issue with those either. With the one issue I had Lionel customer service took care of it and when I received my engine back it was perfect.

So I'm 100% happy with Lionel and Lionel customer service.

Alex

I'd be pleased with steam chuff, diesel rumble, and directional lights (from all manufacturers).  The more junk (crew talk) they pack into them the more you need to hold the manual in one hand while holding the remote in the other.

This also applies to "working" details that don't really enhance the overall appearance of the piece and more than likely are a cause of some of the QC problems people encounter.

They can build them to scale, keep the complicated operating parts (electronics and appurtenances) to a minimum, and thereby cut the costs.

When folks started asking for all the "Bling" is when the price started going up.

I have had good luck with most of my locomotives from all manufacturers.  I did have one "perfect storm" problem with an out of warranty Lionel CC Shark.  It cost me several hundred dollars to get fixed.  Since it was such an unusual problem, not caused by me, that I had hoped Lionel would have done a better job dealing with it.

I don't think any of the manufacturers can ever approach the reliability of the old classic trains with E units and air whistles but I strongly encourage them to try!

louie,

If Lionel is really interested in customer feedback why do they not send their big guns to the York TCA meet or other shows and TALK TO CUSTOMERS all day long. MTH does it. ATLAS does it. And other competitors do it all the time.

I can't recall the number of times a Forumite has mentioned talking to the Lionel folks at York about some problem with a specific product and they always get the standard reply, "gee that's the first time we ever heard of that".

Lionel has to improve their quality. I spend way too much time taking new things apart and fixing. I like their newer Legacy products but have little faith in the CAB-2 because of the push button failure issue. Consequently I prefer the Conventional Classics because these less complex products will probably last much longer.

In a nutshell, the QUANTITY of different products produced does not impress me as much as the QUALITY and overall reliability of products produced.

Ken

More Legacy scale steam locomotives with smoke effects.I have bought over 30 Legacy locomotives in the past year and only had to deal with two locomotives that had issues that developed after several hours of running.One was a auxiliary smoke unit short and the other was a sound board problem. 

I'd like to something as a stand alone steamer that is similar in quality and feature level to 0-6-0 dockside switcher.  I know this thread isn't about price but something from that price point to 1.5 times that price point with similar features. 

I really like having the operating coupler on the front of the docksider but the 0-8-0 that are out right now I simply don't find attractive.  If there was a way to incorpate the front coupler that was astheticaly pleasing and still include a pilot truck that would be great also.

As long as I'm foaming I'd like to have a WM K-2 pacific or a Reading Camel back that looks good without all the electronics.

I'd like ALL the manufacturers to remember that a lot of us are still (and will ALWAYS continue to be) CONVENTIONAL operators, that we can't all afford engines costing thousands of dollars, and we don't all have room for 072+ curves.

A little something often overlooked: I've heard this from every company rep at York - "We don't know what we're going to get / how it's going to look / how it's going to work, etc. UNTIL the manufacturer tells us". Sorry, guys. If YOU are the one paying the bills, YOU tell THEM how it's going to be. Stop sloughing off the responsibility for design and QC. It's YOUR name on the boxes. 

All I care about is scale and that it be stuff you actually see on the rails today.  Separately applied details and opening doors are nice, but not necessary.  Stop with the fantasy paint schemes already.

Personally, I'm excited about the new scale-proportioned American Flyer like the Challengers, U33C's, Y3's and SD70ACe's.  (The previous Mikado's and Pacific's weren't no slouches, neither...)  I'm looking forward to a new line of S Scale freight and passenger cars, along with new locomotives.

Now, if I could only get a straight answer about scale wheels...

Rusty

Some of things that I would love to see.

Better quality in the products 

CC steam turbine, there has not been one in over 10 tens

more operating accessories new & some of the old ones made to work with fastrak

a continuation of the Heritage series

more Amtrak passenger type equipment

freight cars like the old K-Line style coil cars with coil loads, flat cars with new load types

more Vision line engines and cars

Being a Vermonter, I am partial to New England road-names and Atlas, in my opinion, is the only manufacturer to make an effort to throw us a bone more often than Lionel or MTH.

Going through Lionel catalogues, operating accessories are always interesting but the engine product line is not appealing.

Bill

All of the plastic Standard O Scale freight cars first made in the 1990's have to have the truck bolsters altered to accept the new O Scale/O Gauge roller bearing trucks with the swinging couplers. The older trucks with stiff couplers can cause derailments.

Lionel has to have the plastic body Three-bay, Open-Top Hoppers with Coal Load offered in Chessie System B&O, C&O, and WM, plus CSX repaints done in the 1980's with B&O,  C&O, and WM reporting marks.

Andrew

QC and more conventional classics.

Quality control is the top priority for me.  I am ready to stop buying new Lionel and MTH and go back to post war and Williams.  I am lucky enough to have 3 Lionel service stations within 15 miles of my home but that doesn't mean I like to keep going there.

Let me start with this statement that I am not try to be smart with the below statement.  I just believe that if a product is to be made or suggested to be made, you go to the head of that group or person that will make that decision.

I would like to know who in the production department of Lionel that looks at this thread and makes the decision to produce any items or engines.

You need to send letters or emails to the production manager or the production department to suggest to them what you would like Lionel to produce.  This is not only Lionel but any company that you would like them to manufacture.

I would think that the top person who does make the decisions would be Jerry Calabrese, President and CEO, Lionel Electric Trains.

Let’s get our suggestion to the person who is in charge and see if he wants to please the buying public.

I have talk to the people of Lionel at the York TCA meet in April & October and I haven’t seen any items that I had offered to them.  This is why I believe that there must be another person that must make the decisions.

Phillip

Lionel and other big wheel manufacturers.

Make the darn thing more prototypical in proportionate scale size, correct color paint schemes, markings, detailing, road names, road numbers, etc.

You charge **** more than enough for the items and for the most part they are a fantasy of your dream works department!!!!

We, are a lot more sophisticated and have to pay your exorbitant prices for the darn things, which looks like a cartoon!!!!

Ralph

Please stop printing "Built by Lionel" and Lionel's catalog number on the sides of scale rolling stock. If you must print it on the car, please place it on the underframe.

Thank you,

Bob 

CNJ 3676,

Good point!!!!!

Ralph

Lionmaster steam with legacy.

an indestructable smoke unit that actually smokes!

the first new engine I had bought in years was the MR 261.  I bought it new from a hobby shop in Chicago and after 30 minutes of running it died.  I do not live in chicago any more.  and after I talked to lionel about the repair, i was told that while it was under warranty, but I would need to cover shipping.  I have a problem with having to cover that costs.  

There is always the option to repair it locally, but I am hesitant to be the experiment for local hobby shops to figure out how to repair it with no technician on staff.  

For engines a few years old, it makes buying new old stock very risky from existing hobby stores.

First and foremost, Quality Control.  Please check the quality of the items before shipping them to the dealers and ultimately into our hands.  I have bought 7 Legacy locos in the past year and 2 of them had major problems right out of the box.  Another passenger car set had broken wires on the pick-up roller bearings and broken wheel caps.

Second, quit putting artist illustrations of the items in your catalogs.  Instead, how about placing numerous photos of actual prototypes for each item from different angles of what you are offering???  I say this mainly so that we are not caught by surprise after we order and receive the items from our favorite hobby shops.

Third, how about some more Vision Line offerings that aren't 42" long or nearing $2K.  Some VL rolling stock would be great. 

And lastly, how about offering correct tooling for parts that didn't live up to our expectations, i.e, CSX SD80MAC's shallow fuel tank.  I wouldn't mind paying a few dollars to order a scale fuel tank from Lionel to swap out with.

For the most part, I am happy with Lionel.  I just wish that they would listen to their customers and pay attention to the small details.