What Theme Set Would You Like To See Produced?

I like the REA set idea.  I also would like to see Lionel re-release the phantom set with legacy.  An entirely "made in the USA" set would be nice to see that is somewhat reasonably priced and not one made with worn tooling/molds.

The Amtrak 40th Anniversary train.

---PCJ

Bond, James Bond.

Themes are for BOOKS!!!

A descent economy where people can get back to work so they could spend money on Trains.

Switcher Management Service (SMS) Rail lines.  MTH went to their site to record sounds.  You'd think maybe they would make a switcher with their road name.

http://smsrail.com/

Rock N Roll Train: Give me a Grateful Dead Car along with Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Allman Bro's Band,and Little Feat. Oh yeah - and one heck of a stocked bar car.

Paul

The armored train from Dr. Zhivago, one of my favorite movies.

http://www.seanmichaelragan.co...Doctor_Zhivago.shtml

"Unstoppable" set

If we go that route, we might as well have a cocaine center flow hopper.

...with some ADD-ON Crack is Whack-logos!!!

How about a Navy Seals set? 

If someone started working on it now, it could be delivered in time for when the "Act of Valor" movie comes out on DVD, without having to pay a license fee!

Jim

The Apollo Space Set, and James Bond 007 Sets that were concept drawings during the MPC era, but never made it any further. I would like to see those

I would love a "REAL" Circus or Carnival Train, with prototypical container loads, passenger cars, wagons, vehicles etc. Not the Kline toy stuff.

Mark

"What Theme Set Would You Like To See Produced?"

I would like to see a product tie-ins celebration set, celebrating utterly absurd pairings, like Lionel trains and the Titanic.

Pete

I want an OGR Forum set.  Pulled by a powerful Webmaster 2000 locomotive that doesn't require (or accept!) lashups, it would have a representative car for each of the people participating.  Of course each car would have an option for a small picture of the owner but if it were included, it would have to be a *RECOGNIZABLE* picture of them.  

Oh yeah...  The Webmaster 2000 is only available as a Berkshire...

I think a theme set like the REA is excellent. It's about railroading and delivery of freight. Movie, cutlery, beer, music, Lone Ranger, Titanic, etc etc are not about railroading. They sell sets to people that have nothing to do with trains - the theory presented to you is that it will create a new generation of toy train hobbyists. In reality its a quick sale to those who couldn't be less interested. I remember selling a Lionel Caruso Madison car to a person who wanted it in his curio cabinet which contained Enrico Caruso items. The idea that the car was part of a set, track would be nice, and it honored Lionel's Mario Caruso eluded the person. 

Neither are the many military and space sets that Lionel did in the 50's and 60's, yet many of those sets are considered classics.  And let us not forget the many Christmas trains that have been done over the years.  Again, Christmas has nothing to do with railroading.

These sets must be profitable for Lionel, or they wouldn't continue to do them.  People seem to forget that Lionel is a business (as are all the others), and must remain profitable if we want to see them make the items we want.  As far as I'm concerned, if these sets remain profitable, they can do as many as they want, as long as they keep making the stuff I want to buy (scale steam, scale PRR, etc.).

These themed sets do not bother me in the least, and I have the feeling that if the new Titanic Centennial set were done just as a generic shipwreck recovery set, very few of the people complaining about it would have a problem with it (maybe that Celine Dion song is still rattling around in people's heads, and is triggering a negative Pavlovian response to anything Titanic related  ).

Andy

First one is the MTH RailKing set

THEME: Canadian National Expo '86 Vancouver train

An EMD SD60M diesel loco as an SD40-2W wide cabin locomotive with the other matching CN EXPO '86 boxcars in violets, blues, greens, and Flat car with the Trailer that matches the Locomotive.  

Second one can be either Lionel or MTH:

Theme: Back to the Future Part III

A big set with both the 1885 steam locomotive powered passenger train and the 1985 Alco powered freight train, plus the pop apart model of the DeLorean time machine.

Third one:

THEME: Dan Akroyd's GHOSTBUSTERS train

The diesel-electric locomotive would be appropriately streamlined.

First would be an Ectoplasmic Containment unit on a Depressed Center Flat Car.

Second would be the power generating car to power the containment unit. It could be a variation of fission, fusion, or some new subatomic power source.

Third is the Ectomobile Double-Door Box Car with a turntable and ramp to load and unload the automobile.

Fourth is the equipment coach car

Fifth is the sleeping car

Sixth is the passenger car with the open observation deck.

Andrew

Falcon Service

Me to and a Amtrak"Down Easter" set.

How about the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway?

Custom painted SD50

Ex-Gulf, Mobile & Northern (Baldwin, 1928). Third and largest survivor of Paulsen Spence collection (Louisiana Eastern 2, 4). Only two others: Wilmington & Western 4-4-0 98 and modern 4-4-0 with Walschaerts valve gear on Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad in Georgia

Departing Jim Thorpe, bound for Port Clinton

Steam and diesel doubleheader. FIRST for a 3-Rail "O" Gauge set!

Ex-Milwaukee Road Full-Dome Car

As an America built road I vote for "The Orange Blossom Special." Foreign built consist, how about "The Von Ryan Express." 148th

The Natty Boh set in 6,12 and 24 car sets . Once the cars have been emptied they will be the correct weight for an O scale car.
Coarse the wife may wonder why there's a set of Natty Boh cars in the fridge.

David

And, of course, a Reading Iron Horse Ramble

Be creative. Apply an Iron Horse Ramble paint scheme to a small Hudson

"Unstoppable".  Can you make it tilt over on the curves?  :-)

For gratuitous violence and wanton destruction, how about a Gomez Addams set with an exploding bridge and a "cornfield meet" (head-on collision) site with smoke and sound effects?

And then there could be a Scrapiron set with spreading rails; a SuperStreets escort van with a driver yelling, "STOP! You're on the ground!"; new cab chatter with an engineer-for-an-hour saying, "I didn't MEAN to!"; a wrecking crew with a "big hook" and crew asking, "Who caused THIS mess?"

Limited Collectors Edition in a special box sporting OGR Forum logos. Add a Miller Engineering sign that depicts an accusing finger pointing at the perpetrator standing trackside with the crew. Throw in a RAILFAN & RAILROAD Magazine with an article about the whole affair. THAT would be a WINNER!

Use MARX sparks!

Yes, but whose track would be most appropriate???  

We should really give Eliot a break.

How about a "Holiday Inn" style set, where each car would be decorated for a different holiday?

An Addams Family special ZW.

Springfiel Nuclear Power Plant train, with an Aquarium car with 3 eyed fish, and a Homer S bumper which goes "Dah!" when you hit it!

The SEALS set could be redone from the US Navy set of the 1990's.

How about a continuation of the Tobacco Railroad series?  Just like the originals, but different brands such as Marlboro, Kools, etc.  It will never happen, but it would be fun!

Another one would be for the Canadian band Rush.  18 studio albums over their long distinguished carreer.  A billboard boxcar for every studio album.

"We should really give Eliot a break."

Hmmm . . . He didn't actually break the train, so I agree.

Not too interested in imaginary creations for trains, but I would really like to see one of our manufacturers do a "Fast Mail" train.  Could be done in any number of RR's, because most lines had them.  A "Fast Mail" train might have had a coach or a sleeper attached as an accomodation, but basically it was made up of RPO's, Baggage Mail cars, mail storage cars, perhaps an express reefer or two.  These trains ran the same fast schedules that the railroads fast passenger trains ran, often picked up and dropped mail off on the fly, but were not designed to attract passengers.  Many of them ran overnight schedules and therefore photos are somewhat rare, but they were an important part of the road's revenue.

For an "0" gauge model of such a train, I would include two RPO's, three baggage cars, an express reefer or two, and one coach.  The cars could be of the newer streamlined type or older heavyweight cars AND they could be mixed together in a train.  For power I would like to see first generation diesels, either cab or hood type engines.  For steam, generally not the streamlined steam engines but certainly high stepping Pacifics, Hudsons, Mountains and Northerns would be appropriate.

I guess that I really have enough passenger trains but still not enough "head end" cars.  Here's where I'd be interested in a six, seven or eight car set of mostly head end cars.

Paul Fischer

Two words................ Crown Royal!

Harvey House set!

Northern Army civil war train. A General pulling a cannon car, passenger cars, horse car, all in blue US Army livery. Add some army figures, horses, tents and you have a nice little set.

A fast mail train is an excellent concept inasmuch as I am not whether a milk train was ever done as well, which also had to speed along. The North Shore Line ran ice cream trains as fast merchandise expresses from Wisconsin as the high butterfat content of it was in demand down in Chicago, so..I could see ice cream expresses as well, not being entirely non-prototypical.

Both a fast mail train and a milk train would be terrific. I know Hornby of the UK sells a mail train set, and it's a big seller.