Lionel Catalog: Big Gaping Hole

Jon,

 

That's why I'm a Railking fan... lots of choices, plenty of bells and whistles...

 

As a fellow O31/O36 layout guy, I'm glad that Lionel finally will offer O31 Fastrack curves.. all I have to do is figure out who will get them in fast, and order some!

 

Ed

 

ps. JOHN - yeah, but you DO have "access" to a big layout to run 'em on!

I guess don't understand what you mean.  According to the 2012 catalog, the two-trucy Legacy shays, the 0-8-0 Legacy locos, the early era TMCC inspection cars and track cars, , the Rs-11 Legacy and GP-35 Legacy all run on 0-31.  I stopped seraching with the GP-35 as it seems all short Legacy diesels do 0-31.

 

True, many of these are scale, not traditional, but I have several of them and they  are small and look good with traditional rolling stock.

 

I'm assuming that now that Lionel does 0_31 Fasttrack most shorter locos will be rated for that.

 

I'm a Lionel fan but I have to agree it looks like a catalog for big spenders with large layouts. Not even 1 LionMaster. As for RK, I'd rather stick with the company's that make compatible engines.

Edit: a lot of us already have all the GP 7/9 size engines we want.

agree jon ..... i think the only steam i can run with whistle steam effect is the blue comet.  all the other steam is 054 or larger.  what happened to lionmaster?

 

the cars to go with the blue comet are 054, i can't even buy those.

 

i did a quick scan this mornig. when i get home from work tonight i will look closer

I'm hoping some of these minimum requirements change, its seems as in the case of the recent k-4 and last batch of mikes that Lionel hangs on to whatever radius was recommended on a particular loco even though it is entirely different tooling. The k line tooling mikes and k-4 were originally o-54 because the lionel versions were 10 years ago and back then it was either 0-54 or 042. Lionel changed this some time after the catalog came out. The k line tooling berks in the new catalog are rated 0-54,same as a lionel berk, however k -line had these rated o-31. Quite a discrepancy, I'd like one of the new berks if it will negotiate o-48, it probably will, Lionel just hasn't done enough "fact checking." I did email Lionel on this, the only thing they know if the catalog says it is,it is, I suspect this may be changed. It seems Lionel tends to use "generic" item descriptions and things are often missing,incorrect or changed.

I guess what I'm really looking for is new LionMaster steam, or at the very least Post War sized stuff with CAN motors that can be quickly and easily upgraded to TMCC/Cruise/RailSounds.  The GG-1's are a good start!

 

Jon 

Back in the late 1990s, I think they had a good idea with the the TMCC and RS upgradeable engines. Many were traditional size locos.  Just a simple board swap (no more than two minutes) to make the engine TMCC or add Railsounds.

I too had noticed a good amount of 0-31 engines... The 420s too I think. NW2s. I like the RS11s. I agree it would be great to see more super detailed but small steam... Ben

Upon looking as closely as possible it seems like some diesels have fixed pilots.....and some don't.  Am I right?   Odd-d

I might be tempted by the NW-2. 

 

Jon 

I see plenty of diesels that run on O31, but I was surprised that there are no LionMaster models this year.

Jon, I also collect traditional sized locomotives, and very sad to see that Lionel does not offer any of those locomotives with TMCC/Legacy in this years catalogs.

 

-bruce