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I haven't been to Lionel's website for a while and went to it today to do some research.  It was glitzy, but all that glitz slowed down the ability to get to what I wanted to see.  The graphics have slowed it down quite a bit also.  I also found the navigation tabs nearly useless.  

 

Personally, I feel the web designer that reworked their site deserves an F.  It has a lot of glitz, but hard to reach the substance.

 

Going to see the new catalog was easy, the research was what frustrated me. 

 

BTW My computers all have Intel I7 processors (Both Apple and PC), so my computer speed is not the issue.

 

Is just me or have others had similar feelings?

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I've been using it and keeping an open mind.

 

Most of my Lionel site visits are to find past products I missed. The search feature works if I have the product number. Prior to 2010 catalogs were removed from the site.

 

Took me a while to find the 'parts' page. I've linked it here for those who may need it.

 

Lionel Replacement Parts Page

 

I like the old format, but times change. 

Last edited by 86TA355SR

There are many previous posts here saying how it is a huge step backwards.

BobbyD-Thanks for pointing that out.   I obviously didn't use the right words in my search to see if that was the case.  Sorry to be redundant.

 

The search feature works if I have the product number. Prior to 2010 catalogs were removed from the site.

I wasn't able to get that far, that's a shame.  Perhaps Lionel is no longer targeting the "collector", and hobbyist markets and only looking to new retail.

 

I hope Lionel wasn't foolish enough to trash that information and can come back to it if they ever decide to improve their website. 

 

 

Originally Posted by J Daddy:

Lets just say if you cannot say something nice...

 

A famous quote by Alice Roosevelt Longworth: "If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me."

 

With respect to the new website and based on consistent comments, it appears there are a lot of Forumites who are sitting together.

Originally Posted by marker:

There are many previous posts here saying how it is a huge step backwards.

I obviously didn't use the right words in my search to see if that was the case.  Sorry to be redundant.

 

The search feature works if I have the product number. Prior to 2010 catalogs were removed from the site.

I wasn't able to get that far, that's a shame.  Perhaps Lionel is no longer targeting the "collector", and hobbyist markets and only looking to new retail.

 

I hope Lionel wasn't foolish enough to trash that information and can come back to it if they ever decide to improve their website. 

 

 

Hey, if you didn't see it many others may have missed it as well. Very difficult to look up previous items. And since many local hobby shops still have new items from years past the easy to access historical look up is a must have.

This was obviously designed by some self-absorbed "web designer" to impress his friends with the glitz and compete for "design awards" for maximum cool. There's no consideration for the user who is looking for information. Taking out the pre-2010 catalogs is a disaster for those of us who used the site as a reference when considering what to buy on the secondary market. 

 

If this mess was designed in-house, the designer should be fired. If it was contracted out, whoever awarded the contract should be fired.

Works fine for me. If it's slowing down your computer due to graphics etc, might want to upgrade from that Pentium2 Compaq you got in 2003 

 

In all seriousness, though, it hasn't caused me any issues, and I'm on a MacBook Air. More powerful computers should do fine. Also, might want to use Chrome or Firefox; Internet Explorer really isn't a good browser these days.

It was new. Nothing wrong with new. I like to be taken out of my comfort zone now and then; shake things up a bit and make those brain cells do their duty. With anything new there was some learning to do. Now I find it easier to navigate than the old design. Many things such as the shipping schedule are faster to get through. The old website design there were three clicks to get to the shipping schedule; now with the new design the shipping schedule is one click away. 

This reminds of when Rich went a new direction with the OGR forum software.

 

I guess I am not seeing what is so difficult about navigating the new Lionel website.

 

Everything is where I expect it to be.     It finally looks like a website designed after 1995 with the flow and placement of things in line with today's conventions.

 

if your browser is setup properly, you don't have to lose the menu page.  I read someone saying this happens to them when looking at the catalogs.

 

I am not a shill for Lionel.  I expressed my displeasure with the old website long before this new one went live.

 

I really like the new site.

Not much. It's nervous. Reminds me of automobile web sites. Annoying. I'm not being an old f**t. 

Note - I still love their made-for-grownups parts ordering functions - unchanged and please keep it that way.

 

The rest id something of a cake that's mostly icing. Fluffy. Bit silly.

 

Still, don't change the parts department stuff - and why did they drop some older things

from the Archived Items?

Uh - isn't that what "archived" is supposed to mean? Old stuff? It failed me the other day while doing research. Please put them back.

 

Not progress.

The looks are fine, but functionality is not so good. I have not been able to locate much of anything I've tried searching for. Is there still a product search by product number? The product search for shipping dates does not always find product numbers that are actually on the list, however, you can find them by scrolling down the list. My Filemaker train database had links to the product pages for the items I have that all seem to be broken now, at least all that I have tried. MTH did the same thing with their product links on their new website at first, but they fixed the links to match the old ones within a few days.

2009 catalogs are on the new site, they are just hidden:
 
 
One thing I don't understand, with all the fanfare about Lionel's 115th Anniversary,
where is the 115th Anniversary Berkshire on their new website ?  Come to think of it, never appeared on their old website either.
 
 
 
 
 
Last edited by ed h

l like the new design. I took a class last week at my local Apple Store on iMovie / You Tube. The main trust of the seminar was to make your iMovies look better on iPhones / Smart Phones. They claim by the end of this year over 65% of visitors on the world wide web are on Smart Phones / iPhones.

     The new generation of web designers want their designs to look and operate well on Smart Phone / iPhones. I understand your frustration, just stay with it. Things are getting better.

Gary - Cheers from the Detroit and Mackinac Railway - Click artwork to enlarge.

Lionel.com New Artwork

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Call me an oddball but I very rarely go to Lionel's web site (so can't really comment).  Don't find many reasons to have to go there. When I search for items I go to one of the larger Lionel online dealers and usually find what I'm looking for, either in stock or the projected arrival date (Charles Ro usually is pretty close on those). And I always end up with several hard copies of the catalogs and use those for reference.

I e mailed Lionel telling them that at my age and I'm sure many others my age are having problems using their new web site. It is an over kill and for us older collectors we can't find what we are looking for. It may be ok for the younger crowd to get around it.

Lionel responded to me that they are aware of the concerns and are looking into it.

 

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