I can see some battery power gaining traction, but I doubt it'll be mainstream. I have a harder time with brushless motors making big inroads simply because of inertia. The brushed motors are "good enough" and are far from the most frequent failure of O-gauge trains. I can't say I wouldn't like to see brushless motors in our models, they would be nice, I just don't see it happening.
Some of these positions remind me of the discussions of Pulmor versus can motors.
C W Burfle posted:Some of these positions remind me of the discussions of Pulmor versus can motors.
I think there was a tiny bit more difference between the two technologies. 
@Putnam Division posted:This is a fascinating topic......thanks for all who have contributed.....my mind seems to recall a catalog photo, where there was a group picture of the Lionel team working on this project.....I'll try to find it.
Peter
Putnam Division - Don't know whether or not you found the 'group picture' you were going to look for, but I believe it's on the 2nd page inside Lionel's Heritage 1998 catalog.
What I found interesting was re-reading the accompanying text which - in reference to the "new Lionel Pullmor Odyssey motor" - stated in part...
"We contacted the best motor engineers that we could find and set out to develop a unique motor design specifically for our product, not the appliances in your house. What we ended up with was a breakthrough in model railroading. The new motor will be more powerful, use less power, have an extremely long life, perform incredibly smoothly at slow speeds, and will be made right in our factory in Chesterfield. It will be more expensive to make than the can motors everyone else uses, but we think that's a price worth paying for a superior product."
Funny how some things work out in life and others don't. This one obviously didn't.
