what would you like to see on future engines?

Standards on top of rail to bottom of floor height, set at what a Kadee coupler would require.

Kadee mounting pads on ALL equipment.

Better gear reduction on engines.  The Williams brass "J" I have has a 42:1 gear ratio and excellent slow speed.  Coupled with DCS it can't be beat.

More accurate models for southeastern RRs.  We have enough Dreyfus Hudsons and GG1s to last a lifetime.

Ability to choose individual sounds instead of a package of sounds to create a unique sound file for YOUR engine.

Battery (no power to track) control of engines and a mini-converter (if needed) so existing systems (DCS, TMCC, Legacy) could be used.  Eliminate the need for track power and cleaning of the track.

Eliminate rubber traction tires (hint to manufacturers, this may increase sales due to people needing more than 1 engine to climb the grades on their RRs).

Proper lighting on diesel cab units, which would include dual head lights, signal and mars lights in the same headlight housing, etc.  Many railroads used these sometime after the very late 1940's. 

Lionel came very close once, but they needed to insert the FED's in a reflector and change the headlight lens to a clear, flat lens.

A command control, scale N&W S1a or Z1a/b

Gilly

For steam locomotive models:

1) The ability to EASILY close couple the tender to the cab, for those with larger diameter curves.

2) Working valve gear, i.e. it goes into "forward" when the model moves forward, and goes into "reverse" when the model reverses.

3) Cab to tender deck apron.

4) More CORRECT exhaust sounds on compound articled models.

5) Correct prototypical whistle sounds, i.e. all the "quilling features" don't count if the model has the WRONG WHISTLE SOUND to begin with.

6) Correct size wheels in the engine/pilot truck.

7) Small switch/switches in order to turn off/on rear marker lights, front class lights, and cab interior lights.

    I would like to see an alternate draw bar from locomotive to tender. The gap between the two is often over twelve scale feet. Include two draw bars one for O-27 and one for O-54. They would be easy to interchange.

    I would also like a realistic coal load in the tender that looks like some of the fuel has been consumed, not like the engine just left the coal tower.

   It would also be nice to have some late model 4-4-0 Americans and some 2-6-2 praries. Both of these were common until the end of the steam era. There are enough Dreyus Hudsons,Norfolk Js and GG1s.

Douglas

Another idea...ALL LED lighting, no more bulbs!

Lionel announced recently that all new engines, passenger, and cabooses would be LED. 

Animated figures - engineer moves and signals, pulls the throttle.  fireman moves, etc.  

How about a steam leak scenario with cab / crew talk. Similar to the B unit break down scenario but with a whole near the smoke box side or a fire box stay bolt...

That would be interesting...

Take it a big step further; how about simulated crown sheet failure?  The boiler shell just pops apart like the postwar exploding boxcar, and re-assembled after the catastrophe.

But then you would need new crew members, as they all would have been killed. However, the up-side would be,,,,,,,,,,NO MORE CREW TALK!!!

I can get behind this one all the way.

Boiler explosion - true, no more of that silly talk, but will there be little corpses in the

fields next to the track?

Next step: Zombie Crews! (I have got to quit watching The Walking Dead).

A note on the box of each freight car as to whether and for what period the paint job is prototypical, and whether it is prototypical for that particular car or another, similar one (i.e. a paint scheme on a PS-1 boxcar that is correct, but only for an earlier AAR car). I have nothing against fantasy paint schemes if people want to buy them, but I'd like to know in advance what is what. Nobody can be familiar with every railroad's freight decoration schemes. 

Also, for each car to be marked as to what the prototype actually is. For example, MTH's generic 40' steel boxcar is actually a PS-1, but it's not identified as such on the box. 

Swinging pilots attached to the frame, not the trucks... the look of a fixed pilot and the functionality.  As for steamers, the adjustable drawbar distance is key, including an automatic adjustment where it extends on curves.  I'd like to see this passenger cars, as well.

oh, and I second the coupler mounting pads / holes on all "scale" items.

Thinner cross section wheels.

Downloadable / adjustable / customizable sounds.

Thanks,

- Mario.

 Improve quality!!  Get rid of traction tires, fix the big gap between locomotive and tender, get better steam chuff sounds, especially at high speed. I know these have been mentioned before, just trying to let the manufactures know its more than one person. Improve quality!!

Clem

Improve quality!!!

Couplers on engines and tenders which, when operated remotely, will GRAB and hold the car to which we are trying to couple them, rather than our having to operate the engine at ram-speed to jam the couplers together and hope for the best (no derailment.)

Just a thought.

FrankM.

Next to problems I've had with smoke units, traction tires and work involved in replacement is #1. 110% behind this.

Holographic crew members!

On steam locomotives ooperating front coupler.Or a space were a coupler can be installed.Mor southeastern road names like seaboard air line.The southern and acl have been well covered.Sheeese!!You,d think there only railroads in the south!!

• One command control system for all brands of command capable O gauge trains.
• No more plastic wheels and dead axles on diesels. I'm tired of buying $800 diesel sets that drive like a crab down the rails. Weaver did the E8's almost right with flanged wheels at the ends of the trucks. MTH simply screwed this up by moving the blind wheels from the middle to the end of the truck.

One Command system?! Now your really dreaming...

It called DCC.

MTH's PS3 includes it.  Lionel had the capability to include it O as it's already in the American Flyer Legacy SD70's and ES44's.

Rusty

YES to the END of blind wheels on truck ends!!!!!!!!!!

NO MORE RUBBER TIRES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No more idiotic crew talk!!!!!!!!!

No more connections between units.

Sound in ALL powered units! (Take out smoke?)

No more smoke units in diesels! (How many really want to oil up the paint?)

Group has more but this is a start

Now your talking.

I agree entirely.

they work with no problems out of the box.

I note that lionel hasn't yet PRODUCED a LEGACY dreyfuss. The more the merrier. And you may call me crazy but I want MORE crewtalk and towercom that I can record and customize myself.

My wish list runs towards the other end of the spectrum, I guess.

- Cheap, feature-free dummies, especially for cab units. Please stop bundling Railking F-units into ABA sets. Maybe some of us will buy an A this year and save up for the B?

- Undecorated engines, both diesel and steam.

- If that's too expensive to build and distribute, perhaps just some undecorated diesel bodies/tender shells available from the factory? The old argument against this - that it would hurt the values of "antiques" and "limited editions" - seems moot. Aren't we past the era when counterfeit postwar engines were seen as a problem?

With advances in digital printing, the local hobby shop could customize, say, 0-8-0s or GP9s for a regional line in small lots, without really competing against the latest BTO/Legacy/PS99.9 Super Turbo Cyber Big Boy of the Century.

An engine that would work right out of the box. (Better QC)

Not just the engines, but the 75.00+++ cars offered with couplers that need adjustments to properly work.

Some more time invested in seeing what each railroad had for a diesel engine. This note is to Bachmann/Williams about their diesel engines, no more one size GP model fits all railroads; example-Reading Lines never had a GP-38 but Williams and/or Bachmann sold them in Reading Lines. Reading Lines did have GP-39-2's and GP-40's(not sure of the model on the GP-40). Another bad egg by Bachmann/Williams is the SD-90ACe heritage diesels for the Norfolk Southern, Norfolk Southern only did the heritage diesels in SD-70ACe.

I would buy more, and I am sure others would as well, diesel engines in the appropriate models if the companies got it correct from the start.

Lee Fritz

Another item that might sell more steam engines is the front coupler feature. I have held off on buying a few steam engines because of having no front coupler on them, most steam engines had a front coupler. Without a front coupler it is almost impossible to use an engine for switching in the yard area.

How about operating couplers on both ends of a diesel engine? Some older diesel engines sold by at least two companies had dummy couplers on the rear of the diesel engine.

Details might be fine for others but let's get some basics included while we are at it.

Lee Fritz

As standardized wiring system so that you would have one board for each type (Steam, Electric, Diesel) of engine so that boards could be plug and play and that you could upgrade by changing out boards. Also the ability to more easily upgrade the firm ware.

Customizable sounds for trains would be my main item.

A 1-year "bumper to bumper" warrenty replacement.

Made in USA

Probable the best idea yet.