Lionel gets Sloppy

In Chinese Santa Fe is spelled Pennsylvania

If what you received is what was advertised in the catalog I don't believe you can fault Lionel. Santa Fe trailers on Pennsy flats certainly is weird but if that is what they offered then it is up to the buyer to determine if they want to order a weird combination.

Bill T.

The catalog shows Santa Fe Trailers on a ATSF Flat Car! From looking through Santa Fe Heritage Volume 1 pictures (even though they are black & white) you can see that the trailers were silver. There is a pic of a truck cab hauling off a trailer. The truck cab top like Lionel has it looks white but the Trailer is Silver.

Here is Lionel's 6-11860 2 pack from 2005 with the same car number 563221. The other annoying point is the Trailer number have already been used as well. This includes the Trailer with truck coming out this spring. The Trailer numbers used so far were PMT 121,122,123,124,125,126. Now a repeat of 124, 125 & apparently 123. 

I post this so others are not fooled. Like others here I have limited train funds and can not afford to waste them. 

Also as anyone else that ordered the Santa Fe TOFC set receive a Pennsylvania trailer with them or do I have the odd set.

Just curious if this has been brought to the attention of Lionel Customer Service?  

It seems to me that when I have seen similar production mistakes posted to this site (that is the only way I am aware of any) they try to fix things like this when Lionel is properly informed. 

If you do contact Lionel, I would be curious to know the outcome. 

Regards.

I received a ICRR Berkshire inside a Santa Fe Berkshire box on Dec 25th.  Awesome - it is being addressed.

The box was factory sealed said Santa Fe, Inside box said Santa Fe, the Orange Legacy module said Santa Fe but the Boilder and Tender was wrong.

It happens - although not good when it happens to you.

Jim

You must be very adept at noticing things from comparing a car made in 2005 to a current car.  I can't tell you a single number on any of my cars.

Earl

Appears that you have a factory mis-match!  My Santa Fe unit has the correct box, flat-car and trailers... although the trailers are white as you had mentioned earlier -- not silver.

Just call the dealer and I'm sure they'd be willing to exchange your factory goof-up for the proper set.  It's a nuisance when stuff like this happens thru mail-order, 'cause you often end up paying for return shipping. 

David

Actually, it's not that uncommon when folks are "collecting" a series of car types like these to keep track of car numbers -- and in this case trailer numbers as well. 

Fortunately, there aren't THAT many Standard-O PS-4 flatcars with piggyback trailers.  And as far as I know, no "club cars" have been issued as Standard-O... so it's still relatively easy to collect this series (for now).  I don't have each and every car; however, I've been able to grab at least one of each road-name... either as individual cars or as two-packs.

David

TOO MUCH STUFF! After catalogs have had few offerings 4 years ago or so they're now packed with numerous different offerings in multiple roadnames. The chinese subcontractor can't keep up the way the old quality korean one could.

My brother has purchased  several of the new N&W and L&N hoppers, many are missing springs, lettering, etc. The N&W logo is only on one side of one hopper.

The lack of passengers in the blue comet cars from another thread is priceless as well.

In the collector's era a few decades ago, some of these anomolies could have been considered legitimate "variations".  But in today's operator culture, it's all considered junk (rightly so I might add) when we're paying good money and thinks aren't top-notch.

Sounds like the customer service folks in Ohio are in for a VERY long January, given all the stuff that rushed out the door in December.  

David

One would think that Lionel would, but they don't. Ask any Legacy Shay owner that laid out $800 to run it on 031. All Lionel did was to go back AFTER they were made aware of the fact and changed the online catalog to 036, they claim that the catalog was a misprint, guess they misprinted it the same on all the manuals also. Lionel thinks that is okay. Not with me it isn't. Or ask those that ordered $1,000.00 Berks for whistle smoke that didn't come with it. I have a lot of respect for M.R. and what he has done to get the service dept. up to speed, but it certainly doesn't carry over to the rest of Lionel.

Earl,

I have been collecting these cars since 2005 when they first announced them, and I keep my trains in a computer file for quick reference. I have a picture of a GP7 pulling 5 of these cars and I was wanting to model it. I guess I will have to live with a same numbered car.

David,

Thanks for letting me know that you did get a santa flat car in your set. I will email Charlie and see if he can replace the car sent to me. And I guess I will deal with the white Trailer's. I did order a GS-6 only after Charlie assured me if the tender graphics were not correct than I would not have to accept it. So I could not go wrong there.

Joe

That's funny!

I believe its time for Lionel and MTH to hang a large sign at the entrance to their headquaters reading "How can we make our trains better?" Maybe some of their staff will come up with some good ideas.