Do you wish Lionel, MTH and Atlas posted information more often and on a regular bases on the Forum?

No. I think they do just fine, as does Sunset/3rd Rail/Golden Gate Depot.

It would be nice if they made announcements about products being shipped, like the expected schedule date that various Forum Sponsors advertise for our information.  I want to ask MTH 2 questions.

1. Why didn't they advertise the Breast Cancer awareness and Halloween ES44ACs earlier and had them ship on October 1st in time for Halloween this year?

2. Why did they wait till after the expected shipping Date to start building the Railking GE Demo ES44ACs?

No.

 

It'd quickly turn into a 'begging' thread.

Let it always be a surprise.

It would take all the mystery out of life otherwise (and give no one something to complain about). 

Yes sure, why not have Lionel, Atlas,MTH and others give updates here when needed.Knowledge is power, plus it's good PR for the companies. They would not have to post all the time. Sunset 3rd rail is a good example here.

Atlas O web pages were always busy. I thought it a shame that they closed it down. At least they kept the pages available.

 

Dick

Yes!  They should all hire an "OGR Minister of Information Czar". 

That person's only job is to be at a computer 24/7, tuned in to the OGR Forum, and provide every bit of information that comes from every corner of the industry. Even what the owners had for lunch!! ��

BREAKING NEWS: Mr. Hitchcock had a tomato sandwich today!!

No new updates on product shipments.

I do not need them posting, but there is one major player not in the Ad Banner.

     I can get to these manufactures, (see below) one touch away on my smart phone. The other guy takes more Smart Phone Chaos to get to them. Please come back.

Gary - Cheers from The Detroit and Mackinac Railway - "A Toy Train Layout"

   Click screenshot to enlarge. Guess Who.....

A big NO. They have their own websites to advertise and make announcements 

I get announcements from MTH almost daily don't need to see the same thing on a forum.

 

   Bill T.

Lionel has its own newsletter, and could easily add a news section to their site. (If they have one, I'd suggest putting a link on the banner of their home page).

I don't think they need to post their news here.

Lionel representatives do post here from time to time. IMHO they have to be careful about how much they participate, and what they write. There are those who like to twist words and read into comments.

I would like to see Swafford post some pics of his items in his collection. After all, his computer generated Graphics are neat so his collection must be just as good... If you like modern stuff.

I'm happy with the way things are currently. If they did post here that would be okay but I agree with the others who stated it isn't really needed.

No, I see no point to it.

Actually I agree with Swafford.

 

Especially since this is where I go to get my train fix, not every manufacturer's website.

I would like to get more information but the right kind of Information.

When an item is going to be delayed, they could let us know and the reason why.

In cases where only a limited number of an item was made, if they could let

us know that they only had the ability to make that amount at this time or

they guessed wrong on the number of people that would want one. 

In the case of Atlas track, I would love to hear someone from Atlas,

explain what is going on and be honest about it and give us an update

from time to time. I think we just want to know that the company knows

our concerns and still cares.

Sadly, I have to agree. It's easy to foresee that people would not leave well enough alone and there'd be supplemental questions and comments galore that you could not expect the manufacturers to keep up with. After all, they have enough direct email inquiries to deal with (or not) as it is.

 

As in many other respects Scott Mann is the exception in terms of being proactive about posting here but his market is much more specialized than MTH or Lionel and the volume of responses is therefore more limited.

 

I do look for and get something out of every post here we get from Mike Reagan but I don't expect them to appear often. I can't recall much ever appearing here from MTH.

 

Very sadly I have to disagree and strongly. I don't welcome surprises that come, for example, after I've placed a pre-order only to be told months later that there's going to be a difference between "generic" and "prototypical" in the new Lionel 21" passenger cars and what I can expect to get is the former rather than the latter. There's something not quite right about this, which could be cured by the manufacturer speaking plainly and in advance to loyal followers here. They know we're interested more than most.

No.

Wow, that would be a PR mistake in my mind.  How can a manufacturer single out one forum to use as an announcement board in deference to all of the other train forums???   OGR might be the most popular right now, but IMHO manufacturers can't afford to tick off other forum owners.  What would CTT think for instance?

 

- walt

 

I don't see how it would hurt. There aren't that many new products, anyway.

 

Is MTH even a forum sponsor?

 

Though, I get emails from Atlas, Athearn, etc with new item announcements ... that's enough for me.

You've got to be kidding, HW.    You're doing an injustice to the level of communication that Scott provides to his customers here to even think about making a statement like that.

 

You can be content with the (lack of) communication from some of the other importers here.  But please don't try to compare that to the excellent information we receive here from Scott Mann.  The other importers COMBINED can't hold a candle to the style and comprehensiveness in which Scott communicates here.  He "gets it", and has set the bar for other importers to follow if they so choose.  I suspect most won't, and that's their loss.

 

David

Scott Mann does a good job with product announcements.

Mike Reagan, Rudy,and Jon Z do a good job with support and Mike has been presenting some sneak peeks.

Andy from MTH has on occasion posted.

To add to MartyE's list above, Atlas has also added some informational posts recently, as has the Lionel website person. Personally, I like reading an occasional post directly from the 'horse's mouth' so to speak. It let's us know they are at least acknowledging our comments and listening to us. They can't always do something, but at least they are aware. I find it very refreshing hearing right from the source instead of just reading the usual rumors and speculation we see around here occasionally. Especially when there is a long product delay or other details in question that fuels the speculation. A one line post from the right person could clear up pages of speculation.

 

I realize they can't assign someone to monitor the forum 24/7 and I would not want or expect anyone to do that. Also, I don't see a need for an announcement on every little detail they have to offer, but the occasional comment from them on select things is something I look forward to and appreciate seeing. Atlas has recently posted about switch availability. There has been much speculation about this (and their track) for quite sometime, a short comment from a company spokesperson goes a long way. I realize it ruins all the speculative fun for some (myself included at times), but it sure eliminates the rumors, confusion and mis-information about some of these things.

 

The folks from Lionel have also helped out with some technical information occasionally, to clarify some things when folks are having difficulties. This is especially interesting to see, to me anyway. There was a recent thread about the new Lionel website, someone alerted Lionel to it and now they are participating in the discussion to try and make things better for all of us using the website. They have done the same with some of their products. I think this is a BIG benefit to all of us and shows they are interested in giving us things we want and trying to make quality improvements when they are needed, to the best of their ability.

 

 

Yes, especially in the help forums. I would also enjoy articles in the magazines on both DCS and Legacy control systems. These systems can be complex, and while the technical DCS and TMCC/Legacy forums are very helpful I would like to see tips and procedures in well-written articles in hard print, something that I can readily put my hands on and go back to; and then I wouldn't have to post my dumb questions and clog up the train forums, which undoubtedly annoys some people.