Motor control board DCDS and other electronic parts not available via Lionel

I'm sure others have said that they can't believe that it all went Out of stock overnight. My guess there either selling it as a batch to someone ( probably Trainz ) or there going to have it in batches at the warehouse sale in their building as just boxes of electronics with no description and a potluck grab. ERR keeps getting more expensive every time I look, Now to get sound and TMCC it is almost $300 Closer to $275 but you get my point. )  by the time you pay shipping. But what choice do you have, run an engine conventionally, run it with a Powermaster or TPC, or annie up? I have 2 TPC300 and 1 TPC400 along with my Legacy lite system. So I'm good for now anyway. I'm getting close to that 70 club at 67, 68 in Feb. I hope to make it to John's 79 but not sure, is anybody?

I'm good with what I have, and if I end up having to rely on conventional, I'm good.

The part of the hobby I enjoy most is fixing things that don't work or are damaged. I get a real sense of accomplishment when I see the item work as it should or better if upgrade options were installed.

I'm asking is don't take that away.  Give us options.

@Landsteiner posted:

We don't know that Lionel is abandoning its older parts.    Indeed, we have no idea exactly what is happening. Just lots of speculation and handwringing .

No idea? What are you talking about? You did see this https://ogrforum.com/...1#164306572036090011 right?

All of the TMCC and Legacy parts that are modular all went out of stock in one fell swoop. Even the RailSounds universal power supply boards are gone. Of all the circuit they could surely still make, and would likely have the largest supply of, the power supply boards would be it!

Surely voltage regulators aren’t obsolete!

As for MTH getting their hands on Mike Reagan, they are surely paying him well,  and offered him an equity interest, or that's what we've heard. Time will tell whether this is merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic or something wonderful for MTH fans.  No irony in that, just uncertainty as with all things in the future. Mike Reagan needs to make a living as he's a young guy.  He loses nothing even if MTH completely disappears from the face of the earth, so why not give it a go since he's done it before?

If he has an equity stake like you say, I’m pretty sure he loses something if “MTH completely disappears from the face of the Earth.”

@rplst8 posted:

Pat,

I (as many here) really appreciate all you do for the hobby and repairing/rebuilding our locomotives. So I say this with as much respect as possible. We do have the HONGZ forum for the other scales, and I like to think that other scales are welcome here, even if they swear off O-scale.

Further, I think peoples frustration here does stem somewhat from behaviors that are the complete opposite of consumer friendly. Lionel and MTH (to a lesser degree) have asked us to "trust them" over the last 20-25 years that their systems, that didn't follow industry standard, were somehow better and worth supporting with our dollars. Now, without an off-ramp Lionel is telling us "sorry, your up the so called 'creek' without a paddle". Sure, we can swim to shore, but were miles from where we'd like to be, and pretty wet. MTH at least saw it reasonable to add DCC support to their electronics (and yes, I realize that only PS3 locomotives have this benefit). Please don't misunderstand I'm not giving MTH a pass here - we can't get replacement parts from them either right now.

To sum it up - I think both Lionel and MTH are suffering because they chose to go their own way, rather than benefit from economies of scale by using industry standard parts. From a quick look at a few online retailers, DCC boards, even in light of the supply chain problems AND a much larger market (i.e. more demand), are still widely available and in-stock right now.

Lionel wants to have their proprietary system that isn't compatible with an industry standard, and not have to support their customers with older products. Essentially they want to eat their cake and have it too.

I don’t think they are suffering because they went their own way. I think the issue is not understanding  that some are still running postwar trains - some 70 plus years later. Where there was a flood of parts made available by second parties.

Lionel in particular - imho - thinks the throw away mentality will prevail. Bad news for them ! At least in my case…..not being able to get parts for a starter set engine is one thing.
A 2500.00 engine is another.

@Landsteiner posted:

Since we have no real idea what's going on, except that parts are no longer listed on the Lionel website, it seems premature to be making judgements about whether what is happening reflects badly on Lionel, whether one should adopt DCC, divorce or immigrate to the moon .  Or whether Mike Wolf is going close shop to go pre-law at University of Miami.

In that case - do, much for marketing monitoring this website! Lol

@DaveGG posted:

The part of the hobby I enjoy most is fixing things that don't work or are damaged. I get a real sense of accomplishment when I see the item work as it should or better if upgrade options were installed.

I'm asking is don't take that away.  Give us options.

Ditto - hit  the nail

on the head !

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Geez John, I didn't know you are THAT old!   It seems that you have enough accumulated locomotives, especially steamers, that you could run a different one every week for the rest of your life, right? 😉

I present a youthful appearance.

@rplst8 posted:

All of the TMCC and Legacy parts that are modular all went out of stock in one fell swoop. Even the RailSounds universal power supply boards are gone. Of all the circuit they could surely still make, and would likely have the largest supply of, the power supply boards would be it!

I'm holding onto my stash of R2LC's, Railsounds, Railsounds Power boards, they're my kid's inheritance.

@rtraincollector posted:

I'm getting close to that 70 club at 67, 68 in Feb. I hope to make it to John's 79 but not sure, is anybody?

I'm sure!

I'm not sure about 80, but 79 is in the bag!

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I present a youthful appearance.

LOL! Yes, you do. 😉

To be honest we're all probably OK, as far as Lionel electronics go. I've got 25+ year old TMCC stuff with a bunch of run time on it that still works perfectly. The electronics don't really up a fail randomly*. Most issues are caused by short circuits (pinched wires under a shell, or inadequate circuit protection). Avoid those issues you can control and your stuff will lead a long life.

*The only exception is early PS2 5V stuff.

@Lou1985 posted:

To be honest we're all probably OK, as far as Lionel electronics go. I've got 25+ year old TMCC stuff with a bunch of run time on it that still works perfectly. The electronics don't really up a fail randomly*. Most issues are caused by short circuits (pinched wires under a shell, or inadequate circuit protection). Avoid those issues you can control and your stuff will lead a long life.

*The only exception is early PS2 5V stuff.

And electrolytic capacitors leak….and blow things with age..

@shawn posted:

And electrolytic capacitors leak….and blow things with age..

So upgrade to newer electronics if/when they die. No biggie. Just because parts aren't available doesn't mean that stuff is going to instantly fail tomorrow.

@Lou1985 posted:

So upgrade to newer electronics if/when they die. No biggie. Just because parts aren't available doesn't mean that stuff is going to instantly fail tomorrow.

One never knows…..

@shawn posted:

One never knows…..

Shawn, …I thought you were “ off to another gauge” ….?……your words, not mine ….so why would you let this stuff worry you?…..let us assume all the risk and worry, ….and please don’t fret over our survival, ….we’ll be ok, ….I promise….if you’re gonna stick around in O gauge misery, you got to give up these negative waves baby!….😁

Pat

@harmonyards posted:

Shawn, …I thought you were “ off to another gauge” ….?……your words, not mine ….so why would you let this stuff worry you?…..let us assume all the risk and worry, ….and please don’t fret over our survival, ….we’ll be ok, ….I promise….if you’re gonna stick around in O gauge misery, you got to give up these negative waves baby!….😁

Pat

Lol - it’s not worrying me….I can go off and do other things….What does bother me….the CEO’s of some companies…..I’ll leave it at that…

@rtraincollector posted:

I'm sure others have said that they can't believe that it all went Out of stock overnight. My guess there either selling it as a batch to someone ( probably Trainz ) or there going to have it in batches at the warehouse sale in their building as just boxes of electronics with no description and a potluck grab. ERR keeps getting more expensive every time I look, Now to get sound and TMCC it is almost $300 Closer to $275 but you get my point. )  by the time you pay shipping. But what choice do you have, run an engine conventionally, run it with a Powermaster or TPC, or annie up? I have 2 TPC300 and 1 TPC400 along with my Legacy lite system. So I'm good for now anyway. I'm getting close to that 70 club at 67, 68 in Feb. I hope to make it to John's 79 but not sure, is anybody?

I'm good with what I have, and if I end up having to rely on conventional, I'm good.

Hopefully not trains!

@rtraincollector posted:

I'm sure others have said that they can't believe that it all went Out of stock overnight. My guess there either selling it as a batch to someone ( probably Trainz ) or there going to have it in batches at the warehouse sale in their building as just boxes of electronics with no description and a potluck grab. ERR keeps getting more expensive every time I look, Now to get sound and TMCC it is almost $300 Closer to $275 but you get my point. )  by the time you pay shipping. But what choice do you have, run an engine conventionally, run it with a Powermaster or TPC, or annie up? I have 2 TPC300 and 1 TPC400 along with my Legacy lite system. So I'm good for now anyway. I'm getting close to that 70 club at 67, 68 in Feb. I hope to make it to John's 79 but not sure, is anybody?

I'm good with what I have, and if I end up having to rely on conventional, I'm good.

Or, someone made the decision they didn’t want to sell these parts half off?