2016 white tail express is on sale today
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I think Lionel should of made the gondola a action one with a hunter chasing a deer.
Appears to be last years set. Have a feeling last years set didn't sell all that well, as it was quite a departure from the previously offered holiday themes.
Or maybe because they have done a poor job in how it's listed.
I looked out of curiosity and could only find arrows with "express", nothing comes up for train, half the store for whitetail, and under their home type descriptions the closest thing is a NASCAR offering.
This is one more reason why I prefer brick and mortar shopping, online tends to be like Jeopardy; knowing the exact right question is the key to winning.
Interesting that I typed in the word "train" in the search window and the White Tail Express set was the first result to come up. Searching for the word "Lionel" gave me ten results.
Using Lionel gave me zero results too.
Id guess it that " lovely" personalized touch they've added to search engines.
I seldom can find what I'm truely looking for online since the elimination of advanced searches by quotes or + - etc..
Usually in house searches work better, but if they are too linked to Google, or Amazon engines, forget it.
Throw an Android into the mix and the chance of failure increases from all the marketing info crap being loaded and unloaded by retail sites.
I'll try again. I am curious, and didn't just give up easy.
Thank you for letting me know what worked on your end. It is appreciated.
Today I did get a drop down menu of Lionel trains , but no Whitetail set. They must have sold out?
I too get 10 items listed when searching for Lionel using Safari on my iPad. The White Tail Express is the first item.
Does this link work for you?
I type lionel in the search. Pops 10 results up. First one listed is the White Tail set....
Yes it did! Thank you. I only got 9 items, Polar Ex., G-Frosty, G-Polar Ex, and the rest was track.
An interesting look, and I'm not just talking about the graphics. It could be Photoshop, but it appears the engine shell might sit higher than normal when I look at the pilot wheels and pilot. The tender sitting high actually caught my attention first. Kinda like an "off road" vehicle, which would be an interesting twist on the normal fantasy train efforts if that is the case. The gondola crate labels; neat. Especially the tree stand being the right shape. The caboose has two couplers. As a kid, the old ones having only one, bothered me to no end. I'd seen plenty of two caboose trains and wanted to do it too. All the goodies, smoke & sound (or off), and remote.
Just to nit pick (no big deal, more like a wish), I would have liked to have seen the caboose more plain and/or in hunters orange (and maybe the cab windows) but at least they used it on the trailers flat. And are all the LC drawbars like that? Plastic? I know the strength would be OK in delrin, and I guess it would be safer; but its so big compared to what I'm used to seeing, that I thought it had a normal knuckle for a sec.. The only thing "missing" here would be a fwd vehicle and/or a four wheeler load.
In all, a neat fantasy train and a decent price. I'm glad I got to see it finally. Thank you folks for the help. MRMOE and Doberman especially. (Eyes still open for the 1:48 here 
)
Now when does the fishermans come out? Or is it some kind of a conflict of interest with Airex in mind? lol.
Just ordered the set. A great deal for 159.97 with free shipping !
cabinet Bob posted:Just ordered the set. A great deal for 159.97 with free shipping !
Good for a holiday gift at that price
I'm curious about Bass Pro Shop's connection to O gauge trains.
It's one thing for a non-hobby retailer to sell train sets in store seasonally. It's kind of is a throwback to the postwar years relative to hardware stores and other shops which sold them in November and December.
But a retailer which has a set custom-made to include its brand seems more devoted than is typical.
Anyone know more?
Using trains as an ad gimmick never went away. MPC MOPAR set comes to mind immediately, but even special cars get made for small entities like clubs if they can order enough.
The exclusive train is a draw for the more rabid collector, who may have a few extra bucks to burn there too. It's a loss leader at the worst. A kid that gets it is just as likely to member Bass Pro as Lionel their whole life too. That's just good advertising.
Even if its cheap and dies, Lionel is more likely to catch the long run blame than the seller.
I think they should have a gondola with a hunter chasing Santa Clause for robbing my bank account, I buy that.
Does anyone know what the announcements say? I am curious to know if it is Store specific or a general RR announcement .
Adriatic wrote:
It could be Photoshop, but it appears the engine shell might sit higher than normal when I look at the pilot wheels and pilot. The tender sitting high actually caught my attention first. Kinda like an "off road" vehicle, which would be an interesting twist on the normal fantasy train efforts if that is the case.
I don't think that the engine shell sits any higher, it looks to me like they used really small pilot wheels. If you compare the pilot wheels to the trailing wheels, they are considerably smaller, I think the pilot wheels should be the same size as the trailing wheels, then it would look "Right".
I am undecided on the tender, the first pic does look a bit high, but the locomotive tender set pic, not so much, I would have to actually see them in person to judge that one.
Doug
I'm not sure I would want it "right", lol.
I'm a big fan of "unique". Remember I'm the guy with a rocketship for a locomotive shell, lol.
If anything I'd want to give the same treatment to the trailing truck and raise the cars by bolster mods.
I did notice the divers and trailing truck looked fine and thought about it also possibly being an early version for ad purposes built out of an 0-4-2 (0-4-4?) with pilot wheels P-shopped in to reflect the actual build. The draw bar and mount of the pilot wheels looked odd too. All just observation and wishful thinking. It's funstuff regardless.
I checked out the White Tail set at the Bass Pro in OKC Bricktown on Sunday, while shopping. It is an all plastic low end set, and my first LC set to check out. The store price was $219.99 and had several interested onlookers checking it out. However, the display layout could have been set up much better. The track straights have kinks where they connect, the scenic gravel is all over the track (with resulting problems), track power is very erratic with surges in some portions, almost full stop in others. This is all with the problem of the pilot wheels continuously jumping track, even on clear curved trackage. Overall it is very light weight, including the 2-4-2 engine, even lighter than the PW Scout plastic engines. Sounds are Lionel generic announcements about clear track ahead, etc. Does have a decent sounding bell, the whistle is subtle, not too bad for a low end set, I suppose. The cars also had a tendency to derail often, all due to being so light and poor track conditions. Overall, it drew many lookers, but the poor display set up discouraged many, no doubt. I did like the LC remote control, first time to try it. My wife did not like it, she stated it is not worthy of being with my other engines in collection. Not too bad for a starter set, I suppose, but it all needs more weight, heft, to be a good runner. Just my observations.......
Oh yeah, I did check out a Big Boy they had in stock. Made by Henry Rifles, lever action in .45 caliber, and cheaper than a Legacy Big Boy. My wonderful spouse did like this one, saying it could be a surprise for me, even if for my birthday in March...........
Jesse TCA 12-68275
I ordered one online, and used their 6-pay plan to get it, since I'm also getting Christmas presents for family and friends. This would be a little present to me!
The shipping was incredibly fast (only took a couple days to get to me) and being my first LionChief set (everything else I run is conventional), I love it! The sounds are very good, the loco is nicely made, and it's a good fun set to run! The camo scheme doesn't look as bad to me in person, and the main reason I was buying it was to try out and have one of the Bass sets.
It's a nice little basic starter set, but I'm thinking of getting the dark green Pullman expander pack Lionel did to go with the engine, too! Those will match perfectly!
Beyond that, the loco has a number for the year I was born!
I like the set, and don't mind the look or features in it at all. It's a nice set.
Mine too just came in from ordering Sat. morning, with free freight. Very nice starter set, with a nice die cast engine and good looking rolling stock. for 159.98 you really can't go wrong for being a Lion Chief set.. Bob
The cars look cool, I'd like a set just for them!
Well, a lot of people complain about Menards couplers that don't work, but this new,Lionel set, 2 couplers don't work and also the remote doesn't work.Not my first Lion Chief set ,
obut very dissatisfied. Hope customer service will help out ???
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cabinet Bob posted:Well, a lot of people complain about Menards couplers that don't work, but this new,Lionel set, 2 couplers don't work and also the remote doesn't work.Not my first Lion Chief set ,
obut very dissatisfied. Hope customer service will help out ???
Sorry you're having issues with yours. Mine was right straight out of the box: couplers fine, remote works perfectly (and I was running it for a few hours while home sick at the end of last week!)
But get in touch with their Customer Service. I had called to ask about the 6 payment option, if it was accepted for the order, and the people could not be friendlier!
Bad FT trackwork says it all. Even good locos would throw fits in my experience. I'm just not a fan, my worst tubular experiences equal daily operations on it. (Mileage may vary, lol)
All plastic? I thought the add said die cast loco. Does it have a plastic loco frame like the 9053? Plastic car wheelsets?
The car wheels can likely be replaced with metal sets greatly improving performance. I find metal wheels and a metal plate, fishing sinkers or load for weight creates a car equal to most others.
If the pilot hangs free without a down force spring you might be able to add one, or rivet a weight onto the pilot. All realities of a starter set since mpc IMO. But still fun at good price including mods to meet higher expectations.
The 9053 frame had a weak plastic gear carrier "leg" that can break easily if pushed along. If its a plastic carrier today, Id order an extra ($2-3) And the motor could get hot enough to melt the frame under heavy load, even though it pulled the loads well.
But if it was only doing the work it was designed for seemed OK for hours of running. I pushed mine too hard by using baby Madison passenger cars. My 9053 cast shell now sits on a better motor from a mpc plastic shell four driver loco. The wheel base was a tiny bit longer, but it worked. Fit by adding a brass plate to the cab floor via cast frame bosses for frame slot lock, drilling a hole up front between stack and dome and then glued three washers to the frame spacer block to get it level.
Oh,..Does it appear to sit high anywhere?
Texas Train, Your TCA, Why not call and let management know they aren't helping perception with poorly done track work? This reflects on the hobby as much as it does the train. "I'm not sure why, but the track isn't helping for sure". This time of year they can spare a holiday hire for a little "play time" in the a.m. I'm sure. (The manager might even do it themselves, lol)
Fingers crossed for you all, Merry Christmas.
Yes, I did mention to a store "Ranger", as my wife calls them, in that department. Then pointed out to another employee about the interests and poor set up of display... "That is another dept. responsibility, everyone is busy"... well, it was on Sunday and the store was full. It may well be a good starter set for this day and time, I haven't encountered many starter sets since the early '60s.
Jesse
Bravo Jesse. Sounds like a Pixie or Cub Scout got promoted a wee bit early.
While it may have been too busy to attend to that second, being in Detroit, seeing what I have, "Not my job" NEVER sits well with me. I would have taken over the running layout running the show loudly till the general manager arrived...."What? Somebody needed to act responsibly, and it apperantly wasn't going to be your staff".
Who was attending to derailments? Customers?
"I believe some supervision is mentioned in the manual too. Did anyone bother to review it?".
Yep, I have very low tolorance for such "(bass) professional" apathy. Turning it off and having it as static display when packed would be the right thing to do without an attendant of some type, even if its a glance over the shoulder between attending to folks. Sounds like bad business, plain and simple.
dobermann posted:2016 white tail express is on sale today
Thanks for the heads up. I handed off the tip to a friend who purchased the set for his young family! 
Adriatic,
While I was there for about an hour, I handled the derailments and showed younger ones how to not speed the train up as fast as it would go or suddenly change from forward to reverse. Tried to straighten the track, but it was affixed to the layout by some means, didn't see any screws...??? When I activated the bell, and kept it sounding, that did draw attention and bring in more interest. May have been annoying to some, but hey, it did what I expected. Still wondering why the uneven power distribution in such a small amount of track. Unfortunately, the almost dead stop occurred within the short tunnel, and even at slow speed, the derailments continued. Yes, an interesting decoration for a set, simply could use some additional weight to assist rail contact and adhesion.
Here is hope the sets received by all run great, and true, and little eyes open with surprise on Christmas morning !! Ahhh... the fond memories of many a Christmas morn when the "new" additional Lionel/Marx was under the tree and added to what my dad and I had as we ran trains around the living room, under the tree. Merry Christmas to all with best wishes and clear tracks ahead for the New Year.
Jesse TCA 12-68275
I'm surprised that the folks there didn't seem too concerned, especially given the ad push their Santa's area gets. Even the long-form ads they have says there will be elves (or is it Elvis?) there to make sure the toy trains are running on time!
From when my family had our hobby shop and doing shows as well, nothing beats a running display that doesn't have any kind of faults to it. A smooth running train on a nice loop of track was what got Cowen going in this game anyway, and it holds true today! Jeez, I remember us selling so many starter sets from people just watching one run on a circle or an oval of track.
Beyond that, I'm glad I lucked out on mine and it's been running quite well. I'm really happy with it and it's a welcome addition to my stable!
Again, Bravo Jesse
I wasn't lying, or implying, but simply have to say you sure seemed to earn your number there.....rather humbly too.
