LIONEL 2021 V2 CATALOG IS LIVE!! (LINK)

Interesting catalog. Curious to find out what other MTH 'tooling' was acquired by Lionel. Some of the items MSRP certainly has a 'sticker shock' factor. Hard to justify $1900 locomotive when higher eduction for my son is looming on the horizon. Nice to see they finally made an NYC cylindrical hopper, which is all I'll probably get.

I'm very surprised that MTH allowed Lionel to get tooling, after the lawsuits and animosity in the past.

@hclarke posted:

Great catalog - going to be fun deciding what to order!

I'm struggling big time deciding which paint scheme of the 4-12-2 to buy. C&O would be local to me and make sense for coal hauling. But the greyhound scheme is cool. But the black UP is classic. It's a tough life!

I like the Hobo sound car.

Two things are holding me back: I wonder if Lionel ever got their couplers straight since the milk car debacle, and if they are still using the thumbtack coupler? Anyone?

@Craignor posted:

I like the Hobo sound car.

Two things are holding me back: I wonder if Lionel ever got their couplers straight since the milk car debacle, and if they are still using the thumbtack coupler? Anyone?

The thumbtacks are gone, replaced with hidden uncoupling tabs. The trucks are the same - not sprung. To me the biggest question is whether the couplers are articulated. I missed the LCCA call and posed this question earlier in this thread and nobody has answered. I will never buy a Lionel freight car that doesn't have articulated couplers. It is incredible that Lionel started selling some of their freight cars with non-articulated couplers. That has never been done by Atlas, MTH or Weaver. Ever worse, that was never disclosed by Lionel.

I got lucky, as the TOFCs with the two pup trailers I purchased from the most recent run had articulated couplers. I do not believe that the milk cars did.

Pat

It is great that they have the ALASKA, New York Central, and Union Pacific ACF Center Flow Cylindrical 3-bay hoppers in the catalog.

The illustrations though show the grey as being a medium to dark gray.

These ACF Center Flow hoppers need to be in a light gray. The black graphics will blend into a medium to dark gray.

Andrew

@SIRT posted:

Hobo sounds is a nice idea but it will never sell at 136 - 170.

Same old roads. Nothing for me.

Steve

i'm with you on this.

I have a few boxcars the I already have that were picked up as swap meets which I installed some crates and a few Arttista hobo's for a fraction for the cost.  A fun project.