Announced today on Notch 6 is that Lionel's scale freight car trucks will be returning to the hidden uncoupling tab design. Hear it for yourself at around the 50 minute mark here:
Bye bye thumbtacks.
Stu
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Stu,
That’s good news! Thanks for sharing.
I noticed they were missing from the catalog images. Are they returning to the original design or something similar? Either way, it has to be better and credit to Lionel for listening.
I can buy new freight cars again😁
great!
😎
Harold
NOT LionelLLC posted:Announced today on Notch 6 is that Lionel's scale freight car trucks will be returning to the hidden uncoupling tab design. Hear it for yourself at around the 50 minute mark here:
Bye bye thumbtacks.
Stu
They were clearly missing from the images in the previous catalog. Like many, stopped purchasing rolling stock because of it. Are they finally trashing their plastic 2 rail crowd truck design? Hopefully we've seen the last of the thumbtack freight car trucks.
Now all I need is a retrofit kit for the Gla hoppers I bought from the last couple of runs to match the previous ones.
Am I the only one who isn't happy about this?
I find these to be much more difficult to operate manually, because you have to find the tiny tab and push it back to uncouple. I have a hard time seeing them because they are so far back. They are a pain for switching.
This is still great news even if not brand new great news!
Elliot i agree with you!!!
SIRT posted:
😱 On the dreaded plastic truck??? 😱
Steve, hopefully we'll be able to convert the old "new" ones at least.
Excellent news. I can purchase Lionel rolling stock again.
Sheeesh, first they're doing this. Then they're doing that. Then they're doing this again. But then they change back to that.
I sure wish these manufacturers would get their couplers together and make up my mind. 
I'll go one step further in my reasoning for not liking these couplers. I have a fleet of cars that is mostly the old style where you push them down.
Now have a bunch of HO guys, who are used to Kadees, over to operate. Then explain, you have to do this one this way, and that one another way.
I guess my solution is going to be to paint the tabs different colors. Push red tabs back and yellow tabs down. That should also help people see them easier.
And no, I'm not going to convert, close to 1000 cars, to Kadees.
Big_Boy_4005 posted:I'll go one step further in my reasoning for not liking these couplers. I have a fleet of cars that is mostly the old style where you push them down.
Now have a bunch of HO guys, who are used to Kadees, over to operate. Then explain, you have to do this one this way, and that one another way.
I guess my solution is going to be to paint the tabs different colors. Push red tabs back and yellow tabs down. That should also help people see them easier.
And no, I'm not going to convert, close to 1000 cars, to Kadees.
Isn't that the reason we ended up with the plastic thumbtack truck, because of the vast amount of two railers converting to Kadees?
NOT LionelLLC posted:Announced today on Notch 6 is that Lionel's scale freight car trucks will be returning to the hidden uncoupling tab design. Hear it for yourself at around the 50 minute mark here:
Bye bye thumbtacks.
Stu
Thanks for posting the good news - now I may purchase Lionel cars again.
Great news! But will they work??!!🤪💥🔥
Big_Boy_4005 posted:I'll go one step further in my reasoning for not liking these couplers. I have a fleet of cars that is mostly the old style where you push them down.
Now have a bunch of HO guys, who are used to Kadees, over to operate. Then explain, you have to do this one this way, and that one another way.
I guess my solution is going to be to paint the tabs different colors. Push red tabs back and yellow tabs down. That should also help people see them easier.
And no, I'm not going to convert, close to 1000 cars, to Kadees.
The exact thing happened when I had some HO buddies over to operate. Not to mention Atlas has the tab on the opposite side as Lionel and MTH. Hands down they liked the tack and no one complained about how it looked. Oh, and I was very critical of Lionel when they changed until this experience.
I too can now purchase Lionel rolling stock once again. I have been buying MTH the last few years, and they are very good also.
Fortunately it appears the thumb tacks will remain on the passenger cars with the kinematic couplers. Its so much easier to close the gap on the cars now vs the older cars with the couplers attached to the trucks.
For those who don't like the thumb tacks do you actually use uncoupling tracks to do switching moves or is it just the appearance that bothers you?
If you don't use them for switching the tacks are easily removed and the cars can still be manually uncoupled with the side tab.
Pete
This is outstanding news! When I spoke to Ryan at the Amherst Train Show in January, he had indicated that Lionel was moving in this direction. For those of us who have been beating the drum for the last couple of years regarding Lionel's decision to move away from utilizing die-cast sprung trucks and couplers with hidden uncoupling tabs on their scale freight cars, it is great to see that Lionel is listening to its customers. That said, using the thumb-tack couplers was only part of the issue. Hopefully, Lionel will also return to utilizing die-cast sprung trucks, as they provide much better tracking. Like others on this thread have indicated, it will be great to be able to purchase Lionel scale freight cars again.
Finally, I noticed that on the Santa Fe Limited 18" passenger cars, the new catalog indicates that they contain "die-cast sprung six-wheel trucks." Hopefully, that bodes well regarding the utilization of sprung trucks on their scale freight cars as well. We shall see...
BobbyD posted:Big_Boy_4005 posted:I'll go one step further in my reasoning for not liking these couplers. I have a fleet of cars that is mostly the old style where you push them down.
Now have a bunch of HO guys, who are used to Kadees, over to operate. Then explain, you have to do this one this way, and that one another way.
I guess my solution is going to be to paint the tabs different colors. Push red tabs back and yellow tabs down. That should also help people see them easier.
And no, I'm not going to convert, close to 1000 cars, to Kadees.
Isn't that the reason we ended up with the plastic thumbtack truck, because of the vast amount of two railers converting to Kadees?
Not being a 2 railer, I'm not sure about that.
It was early in the MPC era that the actual thumbtack started, and was a cost saving measure. The plastic release pin had the side tab and the lower support part, and a tack was just pressure fit into a small hole. I've had some of the tacks come loose and fall out. A drop of super glue fixes that.
Big_Boy_4005 posted:
It was early in the MPC era that the actual thumbtack started, and was a cost saving measure. The plastic release pin had the side tab and the lower support part, and a tack was just pressure fit into a small hole. I've had some of the tacks come loose and fall out. A drop of super glue fixes that.
IIRC the reason claimed for this non sprung plastic truck, and Lionel's 2Rail kit for it, all the frustrated 3Railers that wanted KayDees.
irish rifle posted:This is outstanding news! When I spoke to Ryan at the Amherst Train Show in January, he had indicated that Lionel was moving in this direction. For those of us who have been beating the drum for the last couple of years regarding Lionel's decision to move away from utilizing die-cast sprung trucks and couplers with hidden uncoupling tabs on their scale freight cars, it is great to see that Lionel is listening to its customers. That said, using the thumb-tack couplers was only part of the issue. Hopefully, Lionel will also return to utilizing die-cast sprung trucks, as they provide much better tracking. Like others on this thread have indicated, it will be great to be able to purchase Lionel scale freight cars again.
Finally, I noticed that on the Santa Fe Limited 18" passenger cars, the new catalog indicates that they contain "die-cast sprung six-wheel trucks." Hopefully, that bodes well regarding the utilization of sprung trucks on their scale freight cars as well. We shall see...
From Steve's images, they are still using the unsprung new style truck, just without the thumbtack coupler hung off of it. It does not appear to be the return of the discontinued sprung metal truck.
As to the full interior Heavyweights, thankfully those still seem to have their original truck design which as you mention includes sprung metal side frames.
