Hi Everyone,
The WGHOT stop here in Louisville wrapped up late yesterday afternoon. There was a very good turnout for both days, though Saturday definitely had a larger crowd. Saturday, there was almost 12K thru the doors, and Sunday the estimates are about another 6-8K people. There were a ton of families at both the Lionel & MTH booths. It was good to have both Major "O" Players here, and WBB brought along a nice display of various products, though the crowds tended to pay more attention to their HO Display/ Demo/ Offerings.
LIONEL
The Lionel Demo area was packed throughout both days. J. Don was doing what he does best, and the kids loved interacting with him, and there were multiple layouts for the attendees to experiment with. .
With regard to Lionel and the 15V1 Catalog, I had several lengthy conversations with several members of Lionel's Senior Leadership and Development team, while they were here in Louisville. I asked several questions, about upcoming product as it relates to the new catalog, and the future direction of where Lionel is headed. I will not post any names, as it relates to this information, but this may answer some people's questions about whether or not to purchase product.
- 21" Passenger Cars: The direction Lionel is headed is to start production of the 21" cars, due to feedback received (and not only mainly from this forum, as they have many avenues of feedback), and b/c for all intentions and purposes, the 18" Car market is saturated by MTH. Plus production cost' for the Aluminum cars is going up very quickly. Though we do not see the reasons for why the cost of everything is going up, it is pretty self explanatory. The Unions in China are demanding more money, and though all of the Big Players have done their best to keep pricing down, you can only get "Cheap Labor" for only so long. Lionel is charging more for less so to speak, due to rising cost'. These 21" cars are not in way shape or form using the old K-Line Molds. This is indeed all new tooling. I also inquired about road-name specific details, such as using car numbers from different periods in time, and it was mentioned, that the R&D Team may try to get more prototypically accurate, as it relates to car numbers/ names in each fleet. Domes and such, are what they are. These cars will have "close coupling" capability, and will be able to run on a minimum of O-54 curves. Lionel is very much aware of the gripes and complaints about lack of people within the detailed interiors. Lionel ran a test run thru their builder with cars that had people, and the numbers came back astoundingly high as it relates to what they would pay, and how much they would in turn charge us. If ya'll are comfortable paying $200 per car for a four car set, then by all means, let them know. However, on the flip side, it was also mentioned that buyers are wanting cars without people, so that they can add their own. Additionally, it was stated that Lionel is definitely looking at the option of making the cars easier to take apart, and thus we can add people ourselves. Lastly on the window issue that many people have brought up, the green originated from a run of Amtrak cars, and for some reason the builder in China, decided to start putting those in all production runs. Lionel is aware that most passenger fleets never had "green windows", and they are exploring the possibility of returning the cars to either clear or the light yellow tint. By no means is this the Final Word, but maybe it will help some of those that are on the "Fence" about purchasing 21" Passenger Cars.
- Increase in Locomotive pricing: Again this goes back to increased labor cost' in China. Also, the prices you see on Ro/ NS/ GZ/ STH/ TW/ etc, those are dealer contract prices from 2014 and prior. Lionel has increased the price points for 2015, due to rising production and labor cost'. I agree that it is more money, but the days of $300 NIB Legacy Diesels, is ending very quickly. Lionel is trying to streamline the pricing structure, and unfortunately the Direct Dealers are going to war with each other, on who can have the lowest price. Though they are still offering the "lowest price", the rest of the dealers, that go through Distributors are charging MSRP or close to, b/c that is all the room they have to work with. Its a case of Have and Have Not's, and its a sore spot for many of the smaller fish/ dealers in the pond.
- Future Product: Though no specific details about future product were given away, when I inquired about older products being re-released, I was told to look toward future catalogs. In them you may see some re-releases of very popular locomotives such as; the Santa Fe Warbonnet F7's & PA's, the N&W Class A, maybe some Locomotives in road names that haven't been released in a very long time or not at all, such as the L&N M1 known as "Big Emma", and many more.
- Catalog Artwork: I asked about the leading off image of the F Units at Spencer. The images were not meant to be a ploy or to promote false advertising, nor to say hey we are marketing F Units. The purpose of the images, was to break away from the traditional catalog of nothing but artwork and product, and instead feature real photos/ images of real scenes within the railroad community throughout the catalog. Personally, I enjoyed the artwork. It was refreshing and definitely added subtle breaks to the catalog. Just thought I would mention this.
MTH
I had very pleasant and informative conversations with both Rich & Andy, throughout the weekend. They put on a nice double demo, that drew lots of people of all ages. On the O Gauge layout, they had a 3 Track loop setup with Standard Gauge, then Scaletrax, then Realtrax. Each of the locomotives on their respective loops drew comments from Old & Young. The older (70 something and older) were keenly interested in the Std. Gauge train. Whereas the younger crowd (Children and 20/30 Something's) were attracted to the Railking GEVO that was running, as its colorful LED light board moved back and forth, as the locomotive went round and round. On the Realtrax loop, MTH had a Railking 4-4-0 pulling a Circus train, which was a hit with mostly the little ones, but the Star of the layout was the Railking GEVO. Everybody that observed it, was very much intrigued by it, and how the LED's kept moving across the length of the locomotive. On the HO layout, they also had the GEVO with moving LED's, a Santa Fe F Unit, and an H-8 Allegheny on the outermost loop. Everything was being run with DCS, and that also intrigued those that have never seen Command Control Trains.
- Passenger Cars: MTH is definitely looking to do roads that they either have not done in a very long time or have never done. They do check the suggestion box they have, so if you have an Idea, pass it along. I suggested either the Hummingbird or Pan American in 18" length. I was born and raised around the L&N, and for some reason the L&N doesn't get much love or attention, so I made a few suggestions. Rich said he would definitely look at the options and possibilities, as he himself realized that is has been a long time since L&N made it to a catalog. I also suggested for those of us looking to do an Alaska RR train, to consider re-releasing the McKinley Explorer Vista Dome cars. He agreed it has been a long time since they have been out, and finding them on the 2nd Hand market is all but impossible. MTH is also looking at the "close coupling" feature to add to their car lineup. MTH is not jumping into the 21" market. They are letting Lionel play there. So if you want 18" cars buy MTH, if you want 21" cars buy Lionel. If you want Aluminum Cars, either buy old K-Line, or buy into Golden Gate Depot.
- Locomotives: MTH is going away from the tether. There are a few locomotives in 15V1 Catalog that do not have tethers, but most notably the ones that still do or E, F, & PA Units. It was mentioned, that in 15V2, "All" locomotives will no longer have the tether, and thus will no longer be slaved to the Powered A Unit. Additionally, due to the popularity of Whistle Steam on the Lionel Locos, MTH is beginning to implement "Whistle Smoke" on their locomotives. Though it is a feature that seems to breakdown more often, and also adds to the price of the locomotives, the ownership base is requesting it, and so they are doing what they can.
- Pricing: Though MTH has done an admirable job of trying to keep the pricing down, they also stated that their prices will be going up. There is no way around the Labor Unions in China, and so while you won't see it tomorrow, do expect to start paying more for MTH Product. Not just Engines, but Rolling Stock, Passenger Cars, Accessories, and Track too.
- Dealers: Here in the Ohio River Valley/ Midwest Region, there are not much in the way of O Gauge dealers, nor dealers that sell MTH. If you know of a dealer/ LHS that might be interested carrying MTH product, point them to Rich. He is definitely interested in talking to potential dealers.
I had a great time, and shot many photos and videos. Attached are some images from Setup Day on Friday. As I work thru Saturday & Sunday, I will share the images here as time allows. Before anyone presumes that I used creative editing in photoshop, I did not. All images are straight out of camera, except for being converted from Raw to Jpeg. :-)
So unless China starts demanding obscene's amount of money, we will probably never see complete manufacturing of toy trains on US shores.
ne person or one passenger car chassis - either way a person has to handle a separate part and do a separate step. But a 21" car will look barren unless they insert at least 20% more people than in the currently (nearly unoccuped) 18" cars. 
