What don't you want in the new catalogs

Oh, you mean like a New York Central Hudson, or a Pennsylvania K4s? Those haven't been done for at least a year!

It's not going to happen, but I wish we would get a vacation from "more of the same".

NASCAR/Sports Team logo trains.  Do. Not. Want.

Tethers

Well...... not everyone owns a hudson. Some of us "newbies" would like a highly detailed hudson made from "modern" tooling with the correct 4 chuffs.........at a price lower than $1600.

 

I'll second the NASCAR/ sports team stuff. I can't believe anyone buys that stuff. There are NASCAR fans, sports fans, and train fans, just because someone likes NASCAR does not mean they like trains even though they go in circles too. 

 

A racecar with a Lionel logo on it wouldn't get me any more interested in NASCAR.

they will make whatever will sell . the three you listed are popular engines, many serious collector/operater guys start with these.i know i did.-jim

Not all of us can swing a couple of grand a year for our toys, likewise not all of us want the high tech stuff that breaks down shortly after you get it. I haven't bought a new engine from either Lionel or MTH in years because of this, and I'm afraid Williams will start doing the same thing sooner or later.

Licensed items.

Anything with fantasy paint schemes. Also, reissues of reissues of reissues.

Nascar & Eastern road names.... 

Polar Express is starting get overdone now.

Agreed, when they expanded the "Polar Express Color Scheme" into everything, it lost a lot of appeal for me.

 

That, and I liked the comment "licensed sets," because it expressed more than just my distaste for NASCAR/Sports sets.  Honestly, I don't want another "Wizard of Oz" or "Peanuts" set even though I like Peanuts.

1 year warranties!  How about lifetime if there are parts still available.  Consumer pays the shipping. That's fair.

Agree on fantasy paint schemes, but I really bank on the reissues. Drives down the market price of the perfectly good TMCC versions that I'm still looking for 

Re-issues....and more Pennsylvania and New York Central steam. There are so many railroads that have been neglected for steam. Railroads such as Northern Pacific, Rock Island, Chicago & Northwestern, Chicago Great Western, Soo Line, Louisville & Nashville, Baltimore & Ohio, Monon, Great Northern, etc...

 

Before they make another New York Central locomotive ..can they at least make a Northern Pacific Northern? The NP only invented the **** steam engine! How about a Rock Island Northern? 

 

Sunset/3rd Rail already did all the Northern Pacific A Class Northerns! In fact, there is an Sunset/3rd Rail gray boiler version on the Bay right now an a VERY good price, so far.

 

Also, the Sunset/3rd Rail C&NW H Class 4-8-4 models will be shipping to the U.S. in a month or so. Sunset had on of the production models at the Chicago O Scale meet (The March Meet) just last month.

Lionel hasn't made a Lionmaster Hudson since 2004.

 

It's been almost 10 years. It's about time for a Hudson reissue for people who want something more substantial than a Hudson Jr., but able to operate on 031 curves.

Very nicely stated!  I mentioned this when the new 2013 Ready-to-Run catlg came out, and it drew a rash of criticism from the vocal minority who like this stuff.  Different strokes for different folks, I guess.  

 

The NASCAR stuff is obviously part of the Calabrese connection...  and given that working folks value their jobs so much in this economy, few if any Lionel employees are likely to tell their CEO that the NASCAR train stuff is a non-starter.  But Jerry needs SOMETHING to fill that part of the funnel in his Powerpoint slides.  

 

David

In asnwer to the question - that is the problem: what don't I want from the catalogs.  Very little. 

 

But yes, the Nascar stuff is all stuff Idon't want.  Somebody - actually a lot of somebodies in my state of NC - seems to buy this NASCAR stuff.  But Lionel's decision to go there was a real disappointment to me.  Still, it' their company and they can do what they want, just as I do what I want with my money (a lo0t omore of which they'd get it they dropped the NASCAR and made "streets tractor trailers, but anyway . . . ).  I'm just not into Nascar.  I have several dozen 1:43 formula 1 and road racing cars, etc., but just one "Nascar" thing - an super detailed '50s Mercury that is definitely not Lionel on being repaired at my moonshiner's garage.

I am not alone!!  A lot of people above are also puked out on constant repeats of the same old same old...With all those older versions trudged in and out of train shows to

not sell again, yet some want more?  Want a Hudson?  You don't have to go to York..

get on eBay...both it and York are littered with 'em.  While I later found out that the

railroad that rolled through my home town actually did own some Hudsons, I saw only

Mikados and Consolidations, with an occasional Pacific heading up the mail train when

my great aunt hung the bag up on the post.  It took FOREVER to get Mikes and Consols as opposed to odd arrangements like 2-6-4's, etc., and those were finally

Williams brass versions.  There were a very few 2-4-2's.  Were there ANY 2-6-4's?

Nobody is asking for those reissued??

Well, there are a lot of other things you can spend your money on in this hobby if the

locomotives aren't interesting...

So much negativity.

 

It not negative,  somebody started a thread for opinions, and this is the

list,   I bought a Peanuts. because I like, Charlie Brown, and the gang, C. Schultz imagination ! I still have some 60's stuff, and it is a toy !!!  IF I was going to purchase,(loco) in the near future, I would like to see, Named Railroads, with extensive detailing, and as previous mentioning,  if LIONEL. wants to lose middle class  Railroad America, keep heading North with the pricing,   I just dont see,  American CFOS, Presidents, or ? sitting in floors of basements , running Electronic rail road toys!! 

No More warbonnets 

 

Where do you stand on something like these?

 

 

Jerry

 

I love it. Why not? Apple should do it too. They've got the money.

 

Gerry

 

 

Awww  Come on Ben. Lee Willis proved that even a brick looks good in Warbonnet colors!

Only if your throwing it through a window 

My wife threw it - not through a window but out into the trash when I was at work one day. 

 

I really liked that brick - it was handsome

 

So you're saying the people at Lionel are fearful of losing their jobs if they voice a differing opinion?

 

What CEO would want an entire staff of butt kissing yes men (and Yes Women)? I know I wouldn't. The most valuable employees I ever had in my company were those who weren't afraid to offer a contrary opinion and back it up with solid facts and research. 

 

If I say "We're going to do this" I hope someone will say, "We may be better off doing this, and here's why." If he makes a good case, I'll do it his way. Show me a company surrounding its decision maker with yes men and I'll show you a company doomed to stagnation. Good leaders surround themselves with the best thinkers they can find, or afford. 

Then, if nothing else, it elevated your everyday ordinary trash to superbly extraordinary trash!

 

Rusty

Maybe you aren't such a bad guy after all...LOL!

The CEO where I work likes it that way - and he does just fine. However I do not believe this to be Lionel's problem. It's marketing people vs train people, and there's really no true train people left....

LOL! Marketing people whose job is to read the market and determine what will sell .

whose job is to read the market and determine what will sell

 

I've often wondered how they do that.

 

If they take all their past sales data, then the only answer they'll come up with is to produce more of the same.  If they take what folks tell them at York PA., then I expect their results will be heavily slanted towards northeastern RRs.

 

They need to sample all of the above, taking surveys at as many train shows and online forums as possible, including a survey in every box they sell, or at least a link to a survey on the manufacturers website (with some way to eliminate multiple inputs by individuals).

 

This is just not pointed at Lionel, but at all the manufacturers.

 

I hear folks all the time saying "They're just toys".  Are they willing to put that to the test and buy something else other than reruns of their favorite item?  If the selection was limited to southern or mid-western RRs, would they still spend their $$$ because "They're just toys"?

If I see one more conventional scale Mogule, 0-8-0, etc, I am going to vomit...

 

Next it will be a conventional scale Nascar steam engine in war bonnet colors...

 

No thanks!

I don't recall Joshua Lionel Cowan or A.C. Gilbert being "train" people...

 

Rusty

Scale engines which are offered  only Conventional.

Confusing. Who offered  "scale engines" with ONLY conventional control?

Lionel experimented with a few. The ones I remember were a Santa Fe F Unit and some USRA 0-8-0s.