T. C. A. NO LIONEL O GAUGE CONVENTION CAR OFFERED WHY?

First, you must mean NO Lionel car is offered as your Headline states.  Second Lionel insists on about 300-500 cars be made of each type submitted.  They never sell out.  We have quite a back log of older convention cars now.  Other importers have more flexible numbers and price.

Paul Edgar

Past Museum Chairman

Past National President

Once Lionscale is up and running Lionel will be able to do smaller runs of cars for train clubs.  Probably won't be lower than 100 cars. 

Neal Jeter

For TCA members that wanted a Lionel car to commemorate the Pittsburgh Convention, now you have your chance.

Stu

I heard,,,,aka rumor,that since lionel and the lcca joined clubs,,,they wouldn't do any cars for the tca or other clubs,,,,,dont know how true that is

Stu,

I just ordered the Tuscan car. Can't wait for the Convention, and York.

Thanks,

NOT LionelLLC posted:

For TCA members that wanted a Lionel car to commemorate the Pittsburgh Convention, now you have your chance.

Stu

 

 

 Stu,

In order to sell more cars, you might consider starting a thread with a more descriptive thread title, and a link to the ordering site.

Best,

Terry

There is no truth to that RUMOR' 

They make cars for all the clubs if ORDERED

SAL GAMBINO

DIRECTOR/LCCA

thanks sam for your insight !!!

The way that convention car planning has been done starts with looking at graphics that are local to the convention location, yet have national appeal.  Then the committee needs to secure the rights to use those graphics.  Simultaneously, the committee is looking at what cars have already been produced in a particular graphic or road name, when they were produced, by what manufacturer, and what car type.  This process is iterative and there is consensus built on what the basic designs will be.  From there the committee then looks at what the manufacturers are offering in recent catalogs and approaches them about interest and unit cost. 

For 2017 planning done last year just about this time, there was not an offering for a Lionel O gauge product that worked well with the cars that were selected.  The TOFC cars have been popular over the years and typically sell the most units.  Lionel's club price was unfortunately high enough to push the resale cost of the car to the membership at over $100.00.  We did not feel that would be palatable when the MTH offering is substantially less.  From a detail standpoint, the Lionel car is outstanding, so there is no intentional slight there.  

The main issue comes down to minimum numbers of units.  Lionel requires 500 units minimum for a traditional style car, while MTH is a little above half that.  Lionel and MTH are about the same minimum for O scale cars at approximately 300 units.  American flyer is 300 units as well.  Clubs that offer Lionel 027 cars have more time to sell the 500 units as they don't run as many cars and can afford to keep them in inventory for a few years.  TCA National is onto the next year's cars after all the arrangements have been made with the manufacturers.  There is no place to store inventory.

The Lionel offering as Stu is showing, is the Made in USA boxcar.  It is 100 units minimum.  It is being offered now as it is overwhelming enough to have so many offerings at once. 

There was discussion regarding not having a Lionel offering for the 2017 convention suite, and the committee decision for that year was that a Lionel O product did not fit into the suite of cars being offered.  This is in no way any criticism of Lionel as 2018 planning is in the works and Lionel products get equal consideration with the other manufacturers who do club cars. 

The Lionscale line will bring tremendous opportunities to clubs when that line is up and running.

Does anyone know if the 2017 TOFC Convention cars have shipped, or when they are expected?