How many 'Authorized' Lionel Service Stations are out there?

@c.sam posted:

I gather from George that Lionel has withdrawn much of their support from you guys and wants customers to send everything to Concord for warranty work and may not have any more training or seminars for individual repair folk in recent years.

It's been many years since Lionel had any training sessions, I'm thinking along the lines of around fifteen years.  I know the question was asked many times of Lionel with no answer forthcoming.  Since they don't do any out of warranty work, I'm not sure how they plan on long term support for the modern product!

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

It's been many years since Lionel had any training sessions, I'm thinking along the lines of around fifteen years.  I know the question was asked many times of Lionel with no answer forthcoming.  Since they don't do any out of warranty work, I'm not sure how they plan on long term support for the modern product!

Planned obsolescence?

"Planned obsolescence?"

I'm guessing the current repair and parts situation is more likely due to very limited staffing and financial resources, in a shrinking hobby ecosystem. They may have to choose whether to support current products, or products from 10-20 years ago.  Lionel in the 1950s could support a large network of dealer service centers because the market was perhaps 100s of times larger, the variety of parts tiny by comparison and the complexity of repair likewise orders of magnitude simpler.  Not to mention that the number of dealers and dealers with repair capability is vanishingly small as time goes on.  Many if not most sales are on-line.  Amazon does not have a repair facility of any sort for example.  Neither does MTH, by the way.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

It's been many years since Lionel had any training sessions, I'm thinking along the lines of around fifteen years.  I know the question was asked many times of Lionel with no answer forthcoming.  Since they don't do any out of warranty work, I'm not sure how they plan on long term support for the modern product!

They don't which is the case for many companies. Throw it away and buy new.

Great Question, it’s so sad that Lionel, and others, are not keeping parts for their older command and legacy engines. And trying to find a repair center is getting harder and harder. You can look at the index in the OGR Magazine and find only a handful of dealers offering repairs…. Personally, if this trend continues, it will affect sales. Happy Railroading Everyone

I was reading these posts and thought of my search for parts during COVID and the phrase (sorry, Dr. Condro @Putnam Division) "Physician, heal thyself" came to mind.

In my situation, I was looking for headlight lenses for my prewar switchers. I had exhausted all the typical parts suppliers and was stuck. I don't have a 3-D printer, but luckily, a fellow OGR Forum member did and came to my rescue!  He generously provided around 20 for me. This was a great gift.

(First photo above, original part on left, "frosty" 3-D printed on on right).

(Second photo above, 3-D replacement lens, with headlight lit)

So, maybe you can draw parallels here with today's modern parts, either now, soon or in a few years. I guess not all parts can be 3-D printed, but maybe a good amount can. I was very happy with how the prewar headlight lens came out.

Otherwise, if I needed other parts, I might have also looked into casting.

Tom