I ordered.
Strasburg #89 (2000s)
Bazooka Boxcar
Lionelville milk flat car.
Interested in the SL&RG and SP moguls. The Santa Fe L1 looks weird but since it was a prototype and it's at a good price, I might have to look into one.
@amtrack5899 posted:Thanks John B, do you know if either Lionel or MTH made any 18 inch Strasburg heavy weight cars to match this single car? I only remember the wood coaches. It seems strange that they would offer a single car without the rest of the heavy weight coaches. I was also hoping for a Strasburg sound car. Maybe 2023 catalog.
Amtrack5899,
I do not know if Lionel or MTH or even Kline ever produced Strasburg 18” heavy weight passenger cars. If they did I would have to guess maybe MTH did. I don’t know if the MIH website is up and running as I seldom go on it but you used to be able to do a search of their products for specific road names so if their website is up give it a try. Maybe another forum member would know.
JohnB
"Even "New tooling" in most cases means "look what we bought from MTH".
The reality is that MTH hasn't tooled almost anything new in the better part of a decade, and Lionel has tooled a bunch of stuff. Buying tooling from MTH was a move to expand their line at relatively modest cost. Atlas did the same That's a win-win-win-win for Lionel, Atlas, MTH and customers.
I know it grieves people that MTH is a shadow of what it once was, and has an uncertain future, but I'm just grateful that there are at least two companies left issuing a catalog and they seem to be holding their own or even growing in these difficult times. When the Lionel catalogs start looking like the late 1960s we'll know we're in for lean times. Thankfully we're not there yet by a long shot given this year's planned production.
I wish there was more of an explanation of the three different detail levels of the Hybrid Challenger. At the moment I am underwhelmed with this Challenger. My Vision Line Challenger has more features, but I should reserve judgment until I have a better understanding of the detail variations.
While I am wishing, I wish all the Legacy engines in this catalog could be addressed with 4 digits, not just the Challenger. If the Base-3 is the future why is Lionel still manufacturing engines that are hamstrung with old 2 digit addresses? I have no sense of urgency to upgrade to a Base-3 because I don't know when I will have an engine that is capable of being addressed with 4 digits.
@Landsteiner posted:"Even "New tooling" in most cases means "look what we bought from MTH".
The reality is that MTH hasn't tooled almost anything new in the better part of a decade, and Lionel has tooled a bunch of stuff. Buying tooling from MTH was a move to expand their line at relatively modest cost. Atlas did the same That's a win-win-win-win for Lionel, Atlas, MTH and customers.I know it grieves people that MTH is a shadow of what it once was, and has an uncertain future, but I'm just grateful that there are at least two companies left issuing a catalog and they seem to be holding their own or even growing in these difficult times. When the Lionel catalogs start looking like the late 1960s we'll know we're in for lean times. Thankfully we're not there yet by a long shot given this year's planned production.
Currently, while it's certainly true that MTH is using its old tooling, they are issuing new releases nearly every business day, whether its diesel or steam engines, freight cars or cabooses. Some items they are releasing are stock items, while the majority are special runs. Some really good and in many cases unique stuff. Frankly, its exciting to check my email on a daily basis to see what's new. The new releases are also posted on the Recent Posts section of the Forum.
Pat
"Frankly, its exciting to check my email on a daily basis to see what's new."
I agree. I've ordered some of them. But casting shade on Lionel for using acquired MTH tooling is both short sighted and sounds like sour grapes. Time to actually study the new catalog in detail. The Billups Crossing Gate looks amusing and is new tooling not acquired from anyone else, I gather. 
@Landsteiner posted:The Billups Crossing Gate looks amusing and is new tooling not acquired from anyone else, I gather.
I like it, too, and look forward to the how-to thread where one of the forum kitbash wizards does an extraction of the gate from the Fastrack section for use with Atlas track.
@irish rifle posted:Currently, while it's certainly true that MTH is using its old tooling, they are issuing new releases nearly every business day, whether its diesel or steam engines, freight cars or cabooses. Some items they are releasing are stock items, while the majority are special runs. Some really good and in many cases unique stuff. Frankly, its exciting to check my email on a daily basis to see what's new. The new releases are also posted on the Recent Posts section of the Forum.
Pat
I haven’t been as excited to check my email and see what’s new from MTH lately. I have ordered some MTH stuff from these special announcements but not recently. Why? Because most of what seems to be coming out of the remnants of MTH is Railking stuff that I have no interest since I only buy scale. It’s disappointing far more than exciting. But the three guys who comprise MTH these days are probably pushed to the limit getting stuff out with creating truly new scale product.
Thank you Lionel for again producing a great catalog!
@Madockawando posted:Because most of what seems to be coming out of the remnants of MTH is Railking stuff that I have no interest since I only buy scale.
Just because it's Railking doesn't mean it's not scale. Since April, MTH has made 21 Product announcements and only 7 have been non-scale items. It comes and goes in waves as for a short period of time before that there was a lot of Railking stuff announced that included semi-scale items. There are plenty of Railking Scale items available and announced through out the year.
@Landsteiner posted:"Even "New tooling" in most cases means "look what we bought from MTH".
The reality is that MTH hasn't tooled almost anything new in the better part of a decade, and Lionel has tooled a bunch of stuff. Buying tooling from MTH was a move to expand their line at relatively modest cost.
For those of us who never got off the fence and installed DCS. 10 year old MTH tooling is as good as new.
There are some models like the h10 for example. That Mth nailed and Lionels is really a different loco all together.
Whether it's the KLine tooling, or selected models from Mth. We are fortunate Lionel acquired them.
Just because a certain model is 10, or only 5 years old. There's still someone who may not have had a chance to aquire it at that time for any number of reasons.
I'm concerned about some of the quality issues Lionel has been having. However, the potential to own a model previously offered only with DCS that will now operate via Legacy is exciting.
I supposed this also negates the decades long debate over the need for cross compatibility between the brands as well.
@T4TT posted:why is Lionel still manufacturing engines that are hamstrung with old 2 digit addresses?
Probably to use up the huge stockpile of 2-digit Legacy boards they're sitting on. That stuff costs money -- they're not just going to throw them away!
@Madockawando posted:I haven’t been as excited to check my email and see what’s new from MTH lately. I have ordered some MTH stuff from these special announcements but not recently. Why? Because most of what seems to be coming out of the remnants of MTH is Railking stuff that I have no interest since I only buy scale. It’s disappointing far more than exciting. But the three guys who comprise MTH these days are probably pushed to the limit getting stuff out with creating truly new scale product.
Thank you Lionel for again producing a great catalog!
I have not kept count, but I believe that most of the new stock and special run MTH engines that have been announced in the past few months have been Premier, and the majority, if not all of the rest, have been Railking Scale.
Pat
@RickO posted:For those of us who never got off the fence and installed DCS. 10 year old MTH tooling is as good as new.
There are some models like the h10 for example. That Mth nailed and Lionels is really a different loco all together.
Whether it's the KLine tooling, or selected models from Mth. We are fortunate Lionel acquired them.
Just because a certain model is 10, or only 5 years old. There's still someone who may not have had a chance to aquire it at that time for any number of reasons.
I'm concerned about some of the quality issues Lionel has been having. However, the potential to own a model previously offered only with DCS that will now operate via Legacy is exciting.
I supposed this also negates the decades long debate over the need for cross compatibility between the brands as well.
Right on Rick. Did you notice that the art work for the Strasburg Mogul has chains on the tender by the trucks? The other Mogul models with Vanderbilt tenders don't have the chains, some of the cabooses look to have what I would call Atlas detailing of brake lines by the couplers. I haven't noticed any of that before, but wonder if that is just going to be the art or will those details make it into the model? It's going to leave us guessing until we see it
For my order I only did 5. One of the L1's, Strasburg 89, one of the Pullman cars, Strasburg caboose and one of the PRR cabin cars. When I presented my list this morning via email on my phone, Chrissy asked how long my list was and I said this was it. That made her day as well as my wallets. I looked through the catalog and left nearly everything behind. While Greenbriar's are pretty good looking locomotives(more MTH tooling probably), I'm just not into them. If it were UP 844 Northern, I'd have a difficult decision to make. I'm glad it was a narrow number of things for me.
The MTH H10-44 was originally released as a Premier model. The last release by MTH was Rail King, simply because it lacked the detail of current Premier models.
@Oman posted:The MTH H10-44 was originally released as a Premier model. The last release by MTH was Rail King, simply because it lacked the detail of current Premier models.
There are a number of MTH premier models that were replaced with better tooling and the older units were renamed Railking SCALE.
I've been a little surprised that there have been so few comments about the Challenger Hybrid. That model probably at least enters the room where the holy grail of modern Lionel engines is located, yet it's almost like it's gone unnoticed. It would be interesting to know how many of these the big on-line dealers are going to order.
Interesting that the N6B cabin cars will have a diecast body and frame. If there have ever been any other diecast cabooses that Lionel has made (at least in the modern era), I don't know of them. They did a Pennsy cabin car in brass years ago, but nothing in diecast I know of. Incidentally, the description says these will have a "removable one-piece coal load." Now that will definitely be a first! Coal load for the stove? Once in a while the proof-readers miss one, although I wonder if occasionally they do them intentially for grins.
Still waiting for the Godot brothers, a LC+2 J and Daylight GS-4. And a Legacy-equipped remake of the LionMaster Hudson. They'd sell a lot more of those than at least 3/4 of the steamers shown in the new catalog.
Lionel did at least 2 die cast caboose I’m aware of, both for the NYC. Both had smoke. I will look for a picture of each.
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@Mark V. Spadaro posted:Lionel did at least 2 die cast caboose I’m aware of, both for the NYC. Both had smoke. I will look for a picture of each.
Oh, yes. Forgot about those two. Thanks for that info, Mark. Cataloged in 2001.
No. 17637
No. 17636
@breezinup posted:Still waiting for the Godot brothers, a LC+2 J and Daylight GS-4. And a Legacy-equipped remake of the LionMaster Hudson.
Well hopefully they don't use any of the Bantam tooling for the J & Daylight like they did for the S2. If I'm not mistaken, the latest "LionMaster" offerings were only LC2 not legacy.
The LionMaster Challengers were Legacy (including steam effect whistles). The Lionmaster N&W Class A had the same, as well as the LionMaster Big Boy and LionMaster Pennsy T-1 Duplex. They haven't done a LionMaster S-2, I don't think.
@breezinup When did those come out? Haven't they done those two recently with LC2?
My LHS claimed that the recent LionMaster big boys had with all of the same features as the originals but they fell a bit short without the whistle steam and LC2 sound. Or was he mistaken for calling them LionMasters.
The just-released Lionel catalog includes a FM H-15-44 with Rock Island décor. IT brought back memories from years ago when I was an active (and impatient) collector/operator of RI trains. I bought a Lionel FM H-15-44 of another RR and sent it to a custom painter for a re-do of the décor to Rock Island. I didn't have the patience to wait for Lionel to offer a FM H-15-44 with a factory paint job in RI. Photo of that project is attached -- a Christmas present from Santa to me. When I sold my RI collection via Stout Auctions, that loco was part of the auction deal. I hope the current owner cherishes it.
Although the new F-15-44 has the modern features, I'm past the point in time when adding RI trains to my remaining now rather modest mini-collection. However, this diesel has some residual "pulling power" toward my wallet.
Mike M. LCCA 12394
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@T4TT posted:IWhile I am wishing, I wish all the Legacy engines in this catalog could be addressed with 4 digits, not just the Challenger. If the Base-3 is the future why is Lionel still manufacturing engines that are hamstrung with old 2 digit addresses? I have no sense of urgency to upgrade to a Base-3 because I don't know when I will have an engine that is capable of being addressed with 4 digits.
"Hamstrung" 2-digit engines?
Exactly how many locos do you have running at one time on your layout?
@T4TT posted:If the Base-3 is the future why is Lionel still manufacturing engines that are hamstrung with old 2 digit addresses? I have no sense of urgency to upgrade to a Base-3 because I don't know when I will have an engine that is capable of being addressed with 4 digits.
Personally, I think the 4-digit addressing is much ado about nothing. It's a nice feature going forward, but I'll never be in a position where 4-digit addressing is a must have feature, I have too many existing 2-digit addressed engines. Personally, I don't see what the big deal is, it's trivial to change and address if I have a conflict running multiple engines.
I have no sense of urgency to upgrade to the BASE3 because it doesn't offer me anything significant over my Legacy command system.
It is not the number of engines I run at one time but the number I own. I admit I own way more than I "need". The PITA is saving addresses with meaningful numbers from the engine's road number to facilitate my ability to address it without referring to a cheatsheet. I simply would like to push ENG then the engines 4 digit road number and play.
@T4TT posted:I simply would like to push ENG then the engines 4 digit road number and play.
Didn't you skip over the part where you buy all new engines to have that ability? I know I spend a lot on trains, but I'm not Elon Musk, so I can't go out and buy a hundred new engines so I can save a minute in addressing them! 
@gunrunnerjohn posted:I have no sense of urgency to upgrade to the BASE3 because it doesn't offer me anything significant over my Legacy command system.
Totally agree… When the Base 3 was announced, my one question was would it allow 3-4 digit addressing of older engines (my Cab2 is pretty full!!!). Dave was kind enough to reply that it would never happen due to limitations in the old engines, so upgrading was moved way back in my needs list. In addition, I am one of those who doesn’t care for using a phone or iPad to run my trains.
@Apples55 posted:Totally agree… When the Base 3 was announced, my one question was would it allow 3-4 digit addressing of older engines (my Cab2 is pretty full!!!). Dave was kind enough to reply that it would never happen due to limitations in the old engines, so upgrading was moved way back in my needs list. In addition, I am one of those who doesn’t care for using a phone or iPad to run my trains.
What they could have done is had a translation feature that converted four digit addresses into two digit addresses. That would have been useful as you could use the whole cab number and it would map to a two digit address. If there was no translation configured, it would use the four digit address. This could have been a useful feature and might have convinced more people to give the BASE3 a look. I think there are very few people that frequently run more than 80-90 engines all the time, I have some that have been on the shelf for a long time. The chief knock on the two digit addresses is having too many similar engine numbers so you have to remember obscure engine numbers in the remote, the translate would solve that issue.
I don't care to use a phone to run my trains either.
The Base 3 Does not require that one use a smart device for control. I believe it is supposed to respond to the cab 2, The cab 1L and the universal remote as well as the Lionel app, no?
Well, since they don't make the CAB2 anymore, you need to hurry if you want one of those. The CAB1L is still in production, so that's one point in favor of Lionel, the new MTH TIU doesn't support any physical remote, just phones, etc.
@Landsteiner posted:The Base 3 Does not require that one use a smart device for control. I believe it is supposed to respond to the cab 2, The cab 1L and the universal remote as well as the Lionel app, no?
FWIW, the current Legacy Command Base responds to the CAB2 and CAB1L too. 
@Mike H Mottler posted:The just-released Lionel catalog includes a FM H-15-44 with Rock Island décor. IT brought back memories from years ago when I was an active (and impatient) collector/operator of RI trains. I bought a Lionel FM H-15-44 of another RR and sent it to a custom painter for a re-do of the décor to Rock Island. I didn't have the patience to wait for Lionel to offer a FM H-15-44 with a factory paint job in RI. Photo of that project is attached -- a Christmas present from Santa to me. When I sold my RI collection via Stout Auctions, that loco was part of the auction deal. I hope the current owner cherishes it.
Although the new F-15-44 has the modern features, I'm past the point in time when adding RI trains to my remaining now rather modest mini-collection. However, this diesel has some residual "pulling power" toward my wallet.
Mike M. LCCA 12394
That's a lovely engine. Now you have me looking at it. At this point in my life, I hesitate to put things off. You should get it. Complete the circle back to your original. It was clearly meant to be.
Concerning the new addition of Cab 3, I may be wrong but I thinking it sends out a stronger signal in our train rooms which allows our Cab 2, Cab 1L to stay connected with our engines/trains making running our trains more precise. I would be a player for the cab 3 if that’s the case. I personally like operating my layout with the Cab 2, but I know someday Lionel won’t be able to repair our remotes. Cab 1L is also a good controller and I’ll order another one. So, I will wait and see how the friends in my area buying the new Cab 3 system feel about it, if Farmerjohn,and Dr. Jack Fisher gets it and it pleases them I’ll get one. As far as the 4 digit engine ID system, it’s nice, but I’m more interested in signal strength. I-phone control is cool, but so far it’s not as dependable for me. I believe our younger generation train enthusiast, the new younger operators that are computer geeks will identify with this new system. This will keep the our hobby alive and we old timers will learn from them. Thank you Lionel for being innovative. Happy Railroading Everyone
,
@leapinlarry posted:Concerning the new addition of Cab 3, I may be wrong but I thinking it sends out a stronger signal in our train rooms which allows our Cab 2, Cab 1L to stay connected with our engines/trains making running our trains more precise.
Has that ever been stated by anyone at Lionel? I see little evidence that it would have that effect, the lack of any external antenna suggests just the opposite to me.
Personally, I've run an external hi-gain antenna to improve the Legacy base reception, that works well.
@Gunrunner John, some where in reading the reviews about the upcoming Cab 3 app system, I think Dave Olson?, hope I got the name right, mentioning the signal strength was improved. I will probably see him this next week in Nashville at the LCCA National convention and will quiz him. I’ll also go back and review my notes. Thanks for chiming in. Happy Railroading Everyone
One wonders which signal strength they were talking about. Hopefully, it's the track signal, that would minimize the need for the TMCC Buffer on large layouts. Perhaps @Dave Olson can chime in and set us both straight.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:One wonders which signal strength they were talking about. Hopefully, it's the track signal, that would minimize the need for the TMCC Buffer on large layouts.
I think he was talking about the Bluetooth range. I don't recall him mentioning the Base3 track signal.
That makes sense Marty, I know about the new BT version in the BASE3, but that's not going to do anything for communication to the CAB1L or the CAB2.
Hi John,
I have no intention of "re-purchasing" engines with updated chips capable of being addressed by 4 digits if I currently own the "older" Legacy version of that engine. I definitely don't have Elon Musk money by any means.
The point of my initial post was that since Lionel is hyping the Base-3, I wish they would have offered all new engines moving forward with the revised chip that allows for 4 digit addressing. If that feature were included on all new engines I may have pulled the trigger on Base-3. At the moment I don't perceive any advantage for me to ditch by Base-2 for a Base-3.
@T4TT posted:At the moment I don't perceive any advantage for me to ditch by Base-2 for a Base-3.
That's where I'm at. I can't imagine buying enough new engines in the next few years for 4-digit addressing to make any difference, and I'm sure not going to dump my 80-90 or so TMCC/Legacy locomotives for all new stuff. So, what does 4-digit addressing really bring to the party?
As I mentioned previously, had they added a translation feature for 4-digit to 2-digit numbers to the software, that would have been a useful option. You operate all of the engines with the 4-digit address and just assign sequential TMCC addresses to the engines. However, unless the CAB1L and CAB2 also worked that way, it wouldn't work for me as well.
