Lionels Shipping Schedule

Anything specific that you're referring to?  Sometimes items are shipped in "partial" shipments, such as the UP 4-12-2 #9000 steamer earlier this year.  And now there's another shipment of that locomotive due in Nov/Dec 2012.  So YOUR hobby store may have one from the earlier shipment, but more are supposedly being shipped later this year.  Little nuances like that are difficult to ascertain by simply looking at the schedule.

 

David

Balto,

 

That column marked "Ship Date" can be either be the actual ship month/year or an estimate. I assume the items marked JAN '13 or FEB '13 are estimates.

 

But, agree, that it's not always the most elegant presentation of information. 

Whats even more confusing is some items that were shipped just a few weeks ago don't show up period. 29649 Smoke Pellets mint car arrived in stores early October yet its no longer listed in the shipping schedule. Same thing with the 29324 Walking Zombie brakeman car.

The motor city express set shows a shipping date of Jan.2012.

The James engine is marked shipped Feb 2013.....

And it probably will be shipped in February of next year, showing up in stores in early March, I expect.

 

I always seem to have a few items on order (right now it's four) so I have watcedh the shipping schedules pretty carefully for the last several years.  I have noticed that they are fairly dependable - clearly Lionel is trying to keep its customers up to date on expected dates, but:

• there is vritually no chance something ships early.
• if there is a partial shipment and you pre-ordered, you will probably get yours.  If you did not pre-order but decided to wait and snap one up when they first hit the stores, you will probably wait until the remainder of the shipment.
• the farther into the future the projected shipping date, the more likely it will slip.  the Rio Grande shifters scheduled for Nov or Dec will almost certainly ship this year.  The GS2s and the Js in the most recent catalog are listed as February I think, and likely they will ship in that month or early march.  Something listed for next July, however, I would expect in September. 
• Stuff with wide appearl does not get canceled, but "strange stuff may get cancelled.  I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that James will never be cancelled.  Too popular.  On the other hand, a limited run of EMD FA units with the special desert sand intake filters in the Mogadishu and Pretoria Scenic Tour Lines livery stands a good chance of never making it to market.