News from Lionel regarding the future of Weaver tooling- Notch 6 Episode 63

Comes in the 2nd half:  Lionel is discussing acquiring some Weaver tooling.  Nothing concluded yet.

Thank you for a nice podcast.

Check it out......

Gary

• Cheers from The Detroit & Mackinac Railway

It would be nice but let's see what happens first.

The price point may exceed my personal limit. Congrats if they work something out.....but I see me buying much less NEW trains in the coming years. 

Sounds interesting , but like Dave said there may be concerns about pricing. Also where would stuff be manufactured, suredly not in the good ole USA.
Mike

Myself and Linda had the privilege To sit next to Derek and for a short while with his adorable son Henery at the Lionel seminar today. Myself and Linda will gladly volunteer as stand in grand parents if you need someone to spoil him the next time your in Boston! Great job on the pod cast this week Derek! It has been a great way to wrap up the day and night of the conventions activities!  

Howard is starting to speak with some of the enthusiasm of Mike Wolf. Mike Wolf always sounds to me like he is genuinely excited about the trains and his products. Sounds like he may be rubbing off on the competition. I never really sensed this from Lionel before. Good news for everyone. Also sounds like good things coming up. 

Howard is much more genuine and enthusiastic about Lionel and way more of a people person than his predecessor! 

It would be a smart move on Lionel's part to keep Weaver production here - after all, they've been making a few cars here in the U.S. already. What would have been REALLY good would have been Lionel doing a merger and Quality Craft employees keeping their jobs.

Great podcast! But I will wait with baited breath. Lionel has great stuff but they have been and will always be pricey. The old Weaver molds recycled to Lionel standards & as a result, they will command a higher price. IMO.

 

The biggest thing I got out of this excellent podcast was Howard's enthusiasm for the company and product.  I hope that it truly is the way he feels as it does make me feel good about Lionel and it's future.

I sure hope Lionel or some other manufacture grabs the woodchip hopper tooling.

 

    Bill T.

I agree on the enthusiasm part and realize he's not about to give away any "secrets," but he sounded like pretty much any other top manager talking (regardless of industry) I've heard through the years.

 

Here's hoping words translate into deeds.

 

Rusty

 

Lots of air time, nothing specific.

For the experienced operators and modelers the show was not very beneficial.

 

How about an email and contact name of the Lionel product developer so I can provide suggestions of what is needed in O?

  

As for the Weaver tooling, it's too bad we don't have similar regulation in this country as China that prohibits tooling from leaving the country. When Lionel moves everything to China, I'm sure all the prices will increase significantly, rather than come down as one might expect, since production costs in China are supposedly so much lower there than in the USA.

 

Bill in FtL

Regardless of what you did or did not take away from the show, I'm glad Howards enthusiasm translated through. I walk away from our conversations every year feeling confident in the direction Lionel is going.

 

Not every convention has blockbuster news, but if you can read between the lines, I think you'll figure out good things are on the horizon. The take away is that there is a good chance Weaver will live on in some form and it sounds like those molds would continue to be used here in the USA. 

 

It was a good show, and the Weaver tease got me to listen to my first podcast. 

 

I'll keep an eye on future topics.

 

Regarding the Weaver tooling, I listen to it yesterday right after it went up on the net, but Howard didn't really say much.  Seems that Lionel is interested in the U.S. tooling. Unfortunately, the cars that I would like to see re-issued (primarily the troop car and the wagon-tops) I believe were made in China.

 

Jim 

And that about nets out the podcast.  For all the "Weaver tooling" teaser/hype earlier in the day, I expected much more "news".

 

Hopefully, Lionel continues to produce more product here in the US wherever feasible.  Seems importers have been burned a few times now with recent overseas manufacturing instabilities, so it's certainly in any importer's best interest to have a solid domestic alternative in their back pocket when negotiating.

 

We've been very foolish as a country when it comes to electronics manufacturing.  Those products are very likely gone from our shores for good.    And importers will need to live with that for the long haul.  The delay surrounding the Legacy 990 systems, and the "temporary" absence of 180W bricks are two great examples, albeit very minor ones in the big picture of the electronics industry overall.  

 

I thought Mike R's candid comments about the 180W bricks in an earlier podcast this week were very telling... and also sad that so much leverage has been lost when dealing with overseas factories.  It really is a case of the tail wagging the dog.

 

So if the US-based Weaver tooling can give ANY interested importer more resources to have greater flexibility when producing certain items, they'd be foolish to pass on the opportunity to acquire it.

 

David

 

Just finished listening.....Derek..great job!

 

Peter

Gee, if I bought fewer "new"? trains, I'd be in negative numbers and have to sell off.....

Guess it is wait and see if anything materializes....?

Here is a photo of Chris and Derek  at the Lionel Seminar.