yep best catalog since 2004 volume 2, it's been 10 years...

Pat Would love the British Hall loco on it's own not in a set.

James

I think they've done a great job.  The variety is impressive.  An effort was made to please a wide range of interests.

As a Union Pacific steam freak, I couldn't be happier this year!  A VL BB, VL PFE reefers, standard reefers, and other stuff!  Icing on the cake for me is the Y-3s aren't going to be built to order.  Been thinking about picking one up if I can find some deal on it.  Just not on my 'must have' list.

Overall, great job!

Yes, it is excellent. 

I can hardly wait to get my hard copy as I believe that is when it can best be appreciated.

Alex

While I won't be ordering much, if anything, from the Signature catalog (I'm a PW, conventional, and tinplate guy), it is an impressive effort. Kudos to Lionel!

It has been indeed several years since we have seen a catalog this good from Lionel.

Is this a question or a statement?

This is the Best Lionel Catalog I have

seen in years?

I think it is about average.  The last three or four years have all been very  in my opinion.  I am only buying one loco out of this catalog - the fewest ever, but that is mostly because my once lengthy list of locos I want is short now because it has mostly been acquired, but I am getting a lot of rolling stock and some more passenger cars.

I thought the RTR catalog was the best one of those in years, by far.

Yep, that was definitely around the absolute peak of those crazy huge "block" catalogs from 2003-2008. There was so much brand spanking new product in those 5 years that we're still riding the wave of Legacy re-runs! 

Just browsing through, I will say I am impressed at the quantity of offerings.  Different road names on the traditional car types are welcome.  Wish they would bring back more handcars with popular figures.  Nothing new that I will purchase, but I'm sure Lionel will sell a ton of stuff if the price is right.  One problem I do see is the Lion Chief versus Plus versus conventional.  I think that Lionel should stick with one system - Plus - which takes care of all three categories.

Yes there is a lot of items, there is something for everyone. I do miss the novelty hand cars.

I 100 percent agree, fabulous catalog

Alex

Yes, the best in many years years. The R-T-R catalog is particularly impressive and I will be ordering from that one almost exclusively.

Dave, We will have the RTR stuff on line soon and at good prices.

Thanks

Pat

I believe we are very lucky to have all the great items in all the new Lionel catalogs.  As far as I am concerned, Lionel did a wonderful job.  My sincere thanks to Lionel, staff, Mike and all who made the new catalogs possible.

Steve, Lady and Tex

It'd be nice to see a command version of their 0-6-0 tank engine.

Nice catalog though, some neat stuff.

Well....to add to what everyone else has said, it is a fantastic catalog.  Now I need to take up an offering for the "adman fund"...

Alan

100% agreed!

This is by far the best selection  of Lionel Trains we have seen in years.

PAT

WWW.PATSTRAINS.COM

E-MAIL PATSTRAINS@AOL.COM

PATRICK'S TRAINS

142 29TH STREET

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There will be set break-ups, just hang in there.

Thanks

Pat

I would have to agree about this being the best catalog in years, as well.

My only complaint is that there are way too many engines that I want, and no good way to get them all.  But that is my problem.

Andy

They are excellent catalogs with a pretty good mix to me. The only thing that I would have liked to seen is something new in operating accessories.

They are excellent catalogs with a pretty good mix to me. The only thing that I would have liked to seen is something new in operating accessories.

Paul, there will be a seperate 2015 catalog featuring just that. I had the pleasure of helping out on that last year when I went down to NC.

This post prompted me to check out the catalog on line. Some petty good stuff in there.

One thing I learned early on is that always make a lot more stuff than I am able to find money to buy....

I agree it's a great catalog but on the other hand it's missing some things I was looking for.  In particular I love collecting BSA related items.  Lionel had released an Eagle & Life car and I was hoping they'd continue through all the ranks and maybe move on to other BSA badges.  Unfortunately, nary a new BSA item to be seen.  I hope something shows up in the Christmas catalog.  

Has Lionel quit making signals? They are apparently upgrading Fastrack with more curves, switches and such, but where are the signals? 

They had nice semaphore and position light signals a few years back, but they have disappeared and are hard to come by. Since MTH has cut back on their signals, I thought Lionel would bring these back.

"There will be set break-ups, just hang in there."

Thanks Pat will keep fingers crossed.

James

This is the first catalog in a while that excites me.  I am not, nor have ever been turned on by scale-sized gear.  I want my toy-trains to be toy-train sized, and somewhat matching in appearance and scale.  To me, that means a Post-War scaled-down world.  Even the largest scale layouts with sweeping wide-radius curves I've seen make the 89' Auto Racks and the PRR Centipedes look ridiculous.

So it's 6464-sized gear for me, along with engines that match.  And this catalog finally delivers with LionChief Plus... both steam and diesel with sound-equipped, cruise-equipped, coil-coupler equipped engines with chuffing fan-driven smoke units for a reasonable price.

Do I care if I need separate remotes for each engine?  Not really.  I can only run two engines at any given moment anyway.  And I only buy enough engine to move freight and passengers over my little basement system.  I don't need a 31" long engine with silly looking overhangs on curves, taking down buildings, trees and telegraph poles to do that.

All in all, I find this catalog delivering to the wide-to-middle part of the funnel very nicely on features, price, and selection.

The skinny part of the funnel with the scale stuff is interesting to glance at, in the same way I might briefly glance at a picture of a HO or N scale train.  But it doesn't interest me in the least.

Jon  

I agree with you're tastes, Jon, but as good as the RTR catalog looks on the surface, I'm left wondering if there is a cheapening of product similar to what the end of the post war and MPC eras brought. Four-wheeled freight cars with no-operating couplers? Seriously? The Polar Express now has molded-in handrails. Sound familiar baby boomers? Will it soon have a plastic loco shell? Why aren't all Lionchief sets made transformer compatible? That $2-$3 in electronics cutting into the bottom line? 

There were a lot of nice offerings in the new catalog, but there was a fair amount of stuff I wouldn't accept for free as well.

The 10th Anniversary set comes with handrails.

I think the 4-wheel cars are a throw-back to the 30's, in an attempt to suck in a younger, less dextrous demo.

Jon

I would think the Thomas-type 4-wheeled cars would be a better choice than slapping euro wheels on a North American style freight car. 

I think it's also a throwback to the short-lived, early MPC Mini-Max boxcars and to a lesser extent, the plastic Marx 2-axle cars (although Marx did make an attempt to simulate a 4-wheel truck design with the molded in trucks/fake wheels).

New Lionel Signature catalog is really exciting!  Best in years!  Congratulations to Mike Reagan and the whole Lionel team!

YOU ARE CORRECT!

Has Lionel quit making signals? They are apparently upgrading Fastrack with more curves, switches and such, but where are the signals? 

They had nice semaphore and position light signals a few years back, but they have disappeared and are hard to come by. Since MTH has cut back on their signals, I thought Lionel would bring these back.

Stay tuned.....2015 Assory. Catalog

I like being able to click on any page an it ZOOMS in

and if you click the slider at the top you get an even bigger

pic of what you are looking at. Every hobby shop that has an

on line store should use this. Sales would ZOOM (as it were)!