Does anyone have the new Lionel Polar Express 10th anniversary Legacy berkshire yet?

Just a quick added note to those who are able to get the Black Berk, i received it today and it too had the pilot wheel insert broken as previously reported in another thread. I was able to glue it for now but will call Lionel on it in the morning. Just a heads up when you do receive one, unwrap the loco carefully.  Mine was loose inside the wrapping.

-Pete

I'm trying to find the silver lining for those of us who didn't get our locomotive from this batch.  So perhaps it's a blessing in disguise and that will be corrected IF another production run is scheduled.  Ya think???

 

David

David,  i have agreed 100% on all your above thoughts about this subject.  I have to believe Lionel will make good on this........but I am wondering now, has anyone on the forum called Lionel Customer Service about this short shipment?  My intention is to ask them tomorrow when I inquire about that pilot wheel insert.  Will report back if I get an answer.

 

-Pete

Like some of us I panicked and ordered from another dealer who had it in stock. I also canceled my order with Charlie Ro. I know it's not there fault but I don't want to miss out on this engine. 

 

Did anyone receive the Observation, Combo and Coach cars yet?? Or did Lionel not ship them yet? I got the abandoned toy car and Dinner car already because I believe they were from a previous catalog. 

I guess I should expect mine to arrive broken tomorrow  what a big disappointment if it does. 

Did anyone receive the Observation, Combo and Coach cars yet?? Or did Lionel not ship them yet? I got the abandoned toy car and Dinner car already because I believe they were from a previous catalog.

 

 

We did and sent them out to our customers today. Call us or check out the web site. They still may be under the "pre-order" side right now. 

Charlie,

 

Just sent an email to you to add items to my order.

Charlie, I tried to call but no answer..guess I missed you guys. I wanted to see if you had all 3 I would just cancel my order with Charlie Ro since I just got off the phone with Charlie Ro and they are now telling me the coaches are not due in to 2/2015 

Did anyone else here about the PE Coaches 6-81945 are not due in now until 2/2015??? Charles Ro just told me that. 

Matt, I thought Charles Ro said 12/10 for the PE cars, that was on Monday. I wouldn't be surprised if it moved back. I hope we're not going to see a shortage on pre-ordered PE cars!

I spoke to Charles Ro yesterday and my PE coaches were bring shipped when I called in the afternoon. I have no idea who told you February, 2015, but I would check back with them.

I have an email stating next year on my PE coaches from Charles Ro.

WTH is going on up there?

       
       


I just called them now after reading your post. I got the same fellow because he said didn't i call yesterday..again he told me coachs are not in yet but skids are coming in today and that maybe they are on that. He did tell me yesterday that not due in till February  2015. I don't know what the heck is going on over at charlie ro..lol do you remember who you spoke too???

Charlie, Matt.

       
       



I don't think I'm going to call them again...don't want to **** them off...lol

If anyone gets there coaches and observation car from Charles Ro please let us know. Thanks!

Hey guys, Long time lurker, first post.

 

After reading this post I'm just wondering why everyone is putting the blame on Lionel? The only thing I saw was that Charles Ro sent an email to customers claiming that Lionel "short shipped" them the engines?

 

Does this not seem very strange to everyone?

 

I would bet Lionel probably made the correct amount of engines that were ordered. If anything I would expect that someone probably placed the order incorrectly and didn't check their order verification.

 

I can tell you this. I would bet my paycheck that there is not a "missing" skid of engines that will turn up and be shipped. I also know Lionel can't just make a small run of these to cover the missing engines to Ro. If anything they would have to do a full run again. So is anything I would think Lionel could ask their dealers & wholesalers if there was interest in them buying more engines and perhaps doing another run in the future. 

 

TrainGuy4014

Welcome to the Forum Trainguy4014.

 

I have dealt with Charles Ro for many years and if the say they were short shipped, I would rely of their word about this. I am sure they are scrabbling to take care of their customers that are effected.

Let me just add to PTC's comment.  I have been buying toy train from Charlie Ro since the early 1970's.  And when Charlie says he's short-shipped, then I (and many of us other long-time customers) take him at his word.  I have NEVER had Charlie not come through for me on a pre-ordered item in prior years.

 

The only thing "strange" about this situation is the fact that Charlie is one of Lionel's top dealers -- if not the #1 dealer overall.  So I'm sure his order quantities would make your eyes spin.  We're not talking about missing a shipment by 1 or 2 locomotives, so let's just leave it at that.

 

Lionel, on the other hand, has been less than impressive in the communication department recently.  And I'm not gonna repeat myself again by listing some of the screw-ups lately.  I give them kudos when they deliver something terrific... but I'm also gonna call them out when something isn't right -- especially for the $$$ we pay for these "toys".

 

One of the benefits of the BTO program is consumers should feel secure knowing that they won't NEED to scramble around phoning dealers when products are delivered in order to find something they wish to purchase -- only to find some dealers playing "pricing games" 'cause they realize the supply vs. demand issue in spades.  Guys end up being placed on multiple waiting lists, etc... and the whole process gets to be an unproductive mess for all involved.   

 

Some of us have been around toy trains for a few decades, and I can tell you "horror stories" where some dealers would be sold out at their original selling prices only to "find" extra stock a week or two later, but jack up prices closer to -- or above -- MSRP for "hot items".  This is the kinda of nonsense that this ordering blunder has the potential of causing.  Charlie Ro has never been one of those dealers.  When they're sold out at their regular selling prices, that's it unless they purchase more from Lionel during warehouse close-out time, and then they sell those items at super bargains.

 

Look... there's a lot of "face-saving" that needs to be done here on Lionel's part if they expect folks to treat their BTO program seriously going forward.  There are several things they can do to make it right.  And simply COMMUNICATING with their dealers and consumers in an authoritative, "take-charge" way is the best starting point.  I realize dealing with overseas manufacturing is becoming an ever-increasing challenge due to an industry built on shifting sands.  But being up-front and honest with dealers and consumers will go a long way.

 

David

WOW. That is an extremely closed minded opinion of the situation.

 

I have been in this hobby for over 30 years. I have seen the "games" etc. To take the opinion that one of, if not Lionel's no. 1 dealer would not try to cover themselves if they made a mistake is extremely closed minded.

 

Yes Lionel HAS made many mistakes in the past. The BTO program as you state is one of the things Lionel is doing to try and improve everyone's experience. Assuming right away that Lionel didn't build the number of units that were ordered and that a dealer couldn't have made a mistake and not ordered correctly is ridiculous.

 

I'm not knocking Charles Ro in any way, I'm just saying that perhaps it wasn't Lionel's fault.

I have none of these engines on order, but I am shocked at what is going on here. First off Lionel has yet to respond, so it's possible that they didn't ship all the ordered engines on 1 shipment, I would assume there are more to come.

 

The Polar Express has to be one of, if not the highest selling Lionel Engine. even though this is an expensive item, I would assume that Lionel would have ordered many extra of these engines... It's a 100% guaranteed seller year after year. I'm sure many distributors had to have placed an order well over what was preordered.

 

Am I wrong? This all seems very odd to me.

I never received a short ship email. Not a good sign at least for me. Just now noticed the black Polar Express isn't even listed on Charles Ro's website. 

 

I am surprised that Lionel does not put items like this on a rolling build schedule.  Build a bunch to order the first year and then release a bunch every year or so, not as much as the first year but enough to make a profit.  I have the same thought for the Big Boy and Santa Fe Warbonnet F3.  It seems that a lot of people will miss out because of how they are building things.  I could not afford the big boy and the PE in the same year.  I chose the PE.  I was second guessing my decission.  Now that I have the PE, I am very happy.

 

I also don't run a business.  Maybe they have found that this build schedule works the best.

 

I still think that Lionel and Dealers both are kicking themselves for not making/ordering more of the PE items this year.

Those of you who wanted the Gold Polar Berk, did you get one?

I guess another question would be...

 

Anyone else besides Charlie Ro not get their full allotment?  I'd be curious.  I haven't seen where Charlie Nassau was missing any.  Just wondering.

Well assuming BTO is executed on the premise it was originally intended... namely ALL dealer orders are produced and delivered... I'd be interested to know how many Gold Edition Berks were produced.  If I'm not mistaken, Lionel was only gonna produce 200 of the Gold Berks.  Then they changed it to a BTO item.  So that would have given them a good sense of market demand -- dealer "extra's" notwithstanding.

 

Now the gold P/E coaches are the real wild-card in this train, 'cause Lionel only announced one coach and one observation.  NORMALLY, one would think they might produce additional coaches for the train.  But something about this whole P/E thing isn't sitting quite right with me.  And perhaps it's a licensing issue.  Can't say for sure.  But it wouldn't surprise me one iota if Lionel used the 10th Anniversary as the year to go back to the well so to speak and negotiate a licensing arrangement for P/E items.  Now that that's been done, we may not see scale P/E stuff again for awhile.  So smart enthusiasts who liked the Gold P/E train were probably wise to order 4 or more coaches plus the observation now.  'Cause I don't think we're gonna see any more "different" gold coaches like we saw with the regular P/E color scheme coaches.  Just my sixth sense speaking here, but I don't think Lionel is at liberty to run P/E products whenever they want to. 

 

David

---

David you are correct about the Gold Edition PE passenger cars. Matt Ashba said at York that if you wanted extra coaches, this is the time to acquire them as they are not planned for future production.

 

I can't speak for other dealers, but Charles Ro received their Gold Edition passenger cars this week. Those that ordered them from Ro will see them soon.

Usually in a short ship situation the manufacturer will notify the distributors that they will only be receiving , lets say, 80% of the orders. Then everyone is kinda in the same boat proportionally and when you ordered would determine if you get that item. Lionel only direct ships to a small number of dealers and the rest are distributors so these order groups would be pretty large.

 

I'm guessing here is that Lionel assumed that they got in what they ordered from the factory and started shipping batches out. It's either that they waited to ship Charles Ro's later and/or this is so much larger in proportion there wasn't enough to go around. If it was a large shorting I would be seeing postings from others who didn't order from Ro who are in limbo. Instead, it looks like the smaller dealers here got the full allotment.

 

Either Lionel didn't account correctly when the shipments arrived or there is another batch out there right now which I think is probably the answer. I heard the weather is bad there now...maybe a truckload is literally stuck enroute? I'd expect this to clear itself up in a few days with everybody whole.

 

Peter

i got my gold polar express delivered from pat trains about 1 hours ago. real beauty. Going to get her running this weekend.

Anyone see video posted of the new gold polar express?

With the UPS guy trudging through the snow to my front door, I had that feeling only electric toy trains can bring, the feeling that takes one back to the magic days of youth. Upon opening the nice 10th anniversary box, the locomotive "is the Polar Express" with its purely black painted boiler and extended pilot. One of the axle bushings was broken, with one piece in the wrapping and one piece on the outside of the foam box. Not a big deal as I've read others have had this happen, I'll contact Lionel. But then, I unwrap the tender to discover many coal pieces in the wrappings, not a big deal, can glue them back on, but after doing a double-take head-shake, I read Pere Marquette. I received the wrong tender! Kind of hard to believe. Given today is a  Thanksgiving I have to wait until tomorrow to contact both the dealer and Lionel. I guess some Pere Marquette owner received a PE tender? If you're out there, send me an e-mail, maybe we can cut out the middle man and just exchange tenders.

Paul

 

does the box say PE or PM. Maybe you got the entirely wrong engine/set. 

Marty, it's the 10th anniversary PE box.

I think the PM loco has a white stripe down it, whereas the PE does not.

Gotcha. I didn't  know the box was special And the stripe. Wow. Must have been packed on a Friday. 

 

Any chance someone could shoot the boxes. Curious to see what they look like. 

If it was the wrong set wouldn't it have the prototypical small pilot?

 

Wow, O.K. this really is a disaster! I'm so glad I grabbed a berk back in 2010, I even got my rebate check from the rebate program offered without issue.

 

It certainly makes me second guess my preorder of the heavy Mike. This being the first offering of this loco I'm guessing odds are higher there will be problems. Not to mention what looks like the possibility I wouldn't get one anyway

 

The relocation from Ohio was supposed to make things better..........I'm not seeing it. 

 I don't recall this many issues involving one product run in the 10 years I've been involved in O guage.

I dont think Ohio has anything to do with it. Service was in Ohio. Clearly this is a production issue. 

 

I se suppose you're right about the pilot. Lots of Berks around. Hard to keep track. 

I don't think so either, it just seems "coincidentally" ever since the relocation started its been a mess.

 

My apologies to any members I may have offended by giving Lionel the "benefit of the doubt".

 

It seems even though Lionel has alot of good people on their team, theres alot more work to be done outside of chiming in on the forum and saying "its being taken care of".

 

I was under the impression the BTO program would help them to be able to "get it right", since they would only have to produce the amount ordered and not 100 or 200 extra, or whatever.

 

Now their largest retailer can't even fullfill his orders

 

 

Gotcha. I didn't  know the box was special And the stripe. Wow. Must have been packed on a Friday. 

 

Any chance someone could shoot the boxes. Curious to see what they look like.

Thanks. Nice packaging.

 

I hope Paul gets his straightened out. 

Not spreading any rumors or hearsay here, I spoke to Ro on yesterday/ Wednesday Afternoon, regarding this situation.  And what I was told from the horses mouth, is that Ro only received (5) Black Berks on the initial shipment.  I was told there are supposed to be more on the way.  As they have multiple shipments arriving every few days each week.  OTOH, they ordered a large quantity of Gold's, as they thought they would be hot sellers, so they have ample inventory of the Gold's.  

 

Also they have received the Reg. & Gold OBS Cars, and the Gold Coaches.  They have plenty of inventory for all those.  They have not received the Reg. Coaches yet.  I went ahead and cancelled my order, and asked them to apply the balance I paid towards the OBS Car, I have on order, to which they agreed to do so.  I called up the other dealer that was holding a spare PE Berk for me, and we finalized that transaction.  It shipped same day.  May have it here either sometime tomorrow/ Friday or Monday.

 

I hope some of this info helps.