Lionel's Mike Reagan Introduces 2014 Cab Forward & Heavy Mikado (Video)

Thank you Al for posting. The Cabforward is going to be a great engine along with the heavy Mikado.

Not sure I agree with the BTO process but will see what happens. I fear there will be a lot of customers with empty hands and also engines that need part replacements that again will not be available.

Cannot wait to hear the sounds on the new Heavy Mikado.

I heard Mike R say that Lionel is trying to standardize parts going forward, which will address one of your concerns.  This approach is both good and bad.  For example, I didn't buy any of the light Mikados made to date because I don't like the adopted K-Line architecture of a small motor canted forward in the boiler.  (To my way of thinking, the motor belongs firebox!)  In the video, Mike stated that the heavy Mikado will share the light Mike chassis.  If this means the same motor with the same placement I'm going to pass on the heavy Mikado as well.

 

I believe Lionel's long term strategy will be to preserve demand and collector value through limited production of certain key parts (such as boiler shells, cabs, etc.) Like MTH, they will probably replace these only through trade-in of damaged parts.   Meanwhile, the mechanical pieces subject to ordinary wear will be stocked in larger numbers.

 

I think it's a good strategy, I just wish they would have chosen the Lima Berk chassis with its larger motor as the basis for the heavy Mikado.  If my inferences are correct, Lionel is asking $1250 for a new loco fundamentally similar to one that can be bought for $699 in the secondary market.

The K line berks, and the much acclaimed K Line hudson also had the small motor mounted forward.

 

Lionel changed the design putting a large motor in the firebox when they used the  berkshire tooling. I see no reason why they wouldn't do the same for the heavy Mikado. I believe the chassis is the same on both since the A1 berkshire is really a "Mike" on steriods.

 

Lionel has adopted the K line gearbox in most if not all recent offerings i.e Mowhawk, N&W J etc and has simply reversed the motor.

 

Having said that, the " new sounds" sounds promising, as Lionel has been rehashing chuffs and whistles lately.

 

But that plastic boiler!!.........

But that plastic boiler!!.........

 

Lets hope that this plastic boiler is a stereothography part... used as a engineering prototype!

J Daddy,

 

The plastic boiler made with a 3D printer is only to give you an idea of what it will look like. The model will be diecast just like all scale locomotives. 

 

Interesting video thanks for sharing. So the Heavy Mikado will return in the next catalog with new road names... Wish I could find out if they will plan on making an EJ&E version because right now I have another road name ordered that I was planning on re-lettering.....

While it seems the EJ&E were allocated 5 USRA heavy Mike's, they never took delivery and instead they went to the Western Pacific.

 

But then, Lionel's offering it in C&IM and they never had any USRA heavy Mike's, only lights.

 

Rusty

Well I'm confused I have been told numerous times that the EJ&E is a heavy mikado.

Nice sunglasses Mike

I think the most important thing I learned watching the video was of what products Lionel would be interested in making and which ones they wouldn't, at least for the regular Legacy line - engines that can be made in a variety of roadnames easily.

 

This is probably the reason they won't do ones that were almost exclusive to a specific railroad like say Strasburg #90, D&MIR Yellowstone, and C&O Greenbrier unless they have a sufficient amount of requests, like the Milwaukee Road Northern and UP FEF-3.

It'll be interesting to see which Daylight color-scheme will be used on the cab-forward:  traditional or Shasta Daylight.  I'm inclined to think the former, but I also recall Lionel's blog alluded to "upcoming cab-forwards" many months ago when they were featuring E8/E9's and the most recent matching passenger cars (which were done in Shasta Daylight).  The blog was subsequently edited to remove the cab-forward reference... in other words, somebody got their wrist slapped for talking about an unannounced product ahead of time.  So at this point, I suspect it's anybody's guess. 

 

Has anyone inquired to Lionel about this?  I just hope their response isn't, "Thank you for your  inquiry.  Unfortunately, we won't know those specific details until we receive a factory prototype."  

 

David

I thought it was established that those Shasta Daylight colors Lionel used were wrong, that those shades of orange were never used by the Espee. Is Lionel going to perpetuate the error? I would think they'd use the correct colors, the ones they used for the other steamers, the GS-2 and GS-4.

Of course, noone knows.

I'm the last person on the forum to claim Espee expertise.    I just know that all the importers seem to have used different shades of Daylight colors at one time or another.  For example, I don't think K-Line ever issued SP cars (in freight or passenger) that matched Lionel's original (what I'll call "traditional") Daylight paint scheme -- the one used on their steamers like the GS-2 and GS-4.  K-Line rolling stock always had a deeper reddish tint than Lionel's brilliant orange (aside from the Shasta Daylight, that is).  I've never seen Lionel's newest (2013) SP E9 diesels in person, but the illustrations in the catalog and website look very much like the Shasta Daylight colors.  Hence my concern for the upcoming cab-forward's paint scheme.  But perhaps it's much ado about nothing, and all will be OK.   Would have been nice if the York cab-forward demo unit was the Daylight model, but instead it was the pilot model. 

 

I do hope Lionel matches their earlier steamers when they produce the Daylight Cab-Forward.  If not, then at least have plans to issue a set of passenger cars that match the upcoming cab-forward, since the more recent Daylight passenger cars (bright orange in 2005 and darker orange/red in 2010) have been tough to find as a complete set for quite some time.

 

I guess we'll know which color scheme was used in a month or so.

 

David

My bad!    It seems I missed the fact that Lionel customer service has already received a production sample of the Daylight cab-forward and posted a video on Youtube.  Seems to be the original/traditional, brighter Daylight color scheme!  

 

David

Ironic to me that the fantasy paint scheme is lettered in pre 1945 scheme but good news for those who have or would like to have the cars made in 2005 which are also lettered in the early scheme.

The two versions which Lionel still has no images for will continue to be a mystery despite assurances from Lionel back in April that images would be posted on their website.

 

Pete