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Post by harborbelt70 on Apr 25, 2020 13:48:38 GMT
I've been a little curious about the seeming lack of any news from Concord, N.C., while MTH has been streaming short updates on FaceBook - designed no doubt to avoid the likes of us thinking that they have flatlined. Of course the absence of any new musical productions or further installments of the increasingly ridiculous and irrelevant Ryan 'n Dave show has been something of a relief. I didn't tune in to the "Virtual York" broadcast that Trainworld put on recently and I haven't seen anything about it here. However, consistent with our OGF policy that we don't ban news from other places I thought I'd note a thread over on the OGR Forum that discusses Ryan K's teaser about forthcoming Strasburg scale engines. You can see it here: ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/lionel-scale-strasburg-productsStrasburg has a big following but I am not part of it. I was just interested to see that there is still a heartbeat from Lionel. My real concern is a few products from the last couple of catalogs that have been issued, on which I took my life in my hands and ordered a few - all passenger train related. A couple of these might be expected to turn up next month. I can't say I'm enthusiastic about watching any Trainworld videos of the York event but if anyone thinks that there was something in the way of product/shipment announcements please say so and I might have a look.
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Post by ptc on Apr 25, 2020 14:13:06 GMT
You can certailnly post a link to a related thread, Andy. Such information is good for the hobby and after all, that is what we all stand for. I am not drawn to Strasburg models either, but many are.
Unfortunately, there has been little in the recent Lionel catalogs that interests me either, so I am not tuned into their "channel" very often. I am not a fan of Facebook, and appears that is how they want to communicate with their customers.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2020 20:21:40 GMT
I've been getting Lionel video tips/tricks in my email. Some of them seem to be better than others. The last one I saw was Ryan in the warehouse adding carpet under Fastrack to reduce noise. That one wasn't that bad. Then there was a guy cleaning rollers so awkwardly I questioned whether he was a novice.
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Post by rthomps on Apr 26, 2020 0:29:01 GMT
I receive e-mail updates of what Lionel is doing on a regular basis.
I assume anyone else can too.
The TrainWorld Facebook "Virtual York" provided good info over a couple of days. TrainWorx, Lionel, Atlas, MTH all provided very useful information. One manufacturer (Bachmann) gave viewers, IMO, the most deadly, lengthy, and relatively useless presentation imaginable (and I LIKE Bachmann!).
The MTH guys are looking old...must be the strain of the times. ;-)
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Post by rthomps on Apr 26, 2020 0:31:01 GMT
Oh, yeah ... probably a better title for this thread would be "MTH Lives (for now)".
Just looking to the inevitable....
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Post by JDaddy on Apr 26, 2020 1:33:52 GMT
Hmm Hybrid brass 2-10-0 by Lionel, not the first time I have heard the plan. It would be a sell out. Just when is the question? Not sure when we can order the 2020 GS1 offering either?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2020 2:46:17 GMT
Paula and I watched both of the broadcasts that Trainworld did. Kenny put together two very nice shows which featured Atlas, Bachman, MTH, and Lionel, as well as smaller entities such as Mega Steam, OGR, TW Trainworks with both Roger and Mike, Derrick, and Lou Palumbo who spoke about his 40 year history of never missing an April York and how it used to be. The events were quite popular and there were over 20,000 viewers. Obviously many did as we did and signed in and out several times.
MTH introduced a few new products as did Lionel and Ryan hinted at others, promising a big announcement in the not too distant future. Derrick is working to auction some of the artwork from the estate of Richard Kughn and showed of a number of the pieces, many of which are #1 prints by Angela Trotter Thomas.
There were a number of announcements about product and shipping schedules by both MTH and Lionel.
It was a nice way to keep interest up during these difficult times and for the most part was well done.
Maybe someone who knows how to post a link better than we do will do so for those who might be interested.
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Post by kstrains on Apr 26, 2020 3:31:14 GMT
Here is the link on YouTube of night one and two...
I mainly tuned into night 2 to hear MTH presentation. I wanted to find out when they were going to put their 2020 Volume 2 catalog online. They have delayed it because Mike Wolf made some changes to it at the last minute before they were going to post it this last Friday. It is now scheduled to go online the 1st week of May. Something to look at; even though, I suspect nothing will interest me as my interests have been narrowed.
I tuned out to most of night one especially listening to Alan talk about the OGR magazine and forum which I have no interest in. The best part was listening to Jeb with JT Mega-Steam and some of his customer stories with smoke fluid.
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Post by harborbelt70 on Apr 26, 2020 12:16:53 GMT
Thanks for the head’s up on the YouTube videos. I’ll decide later what to watch as I am otherwise happily engaged part of today in actually setting up and running something.
I don’t wish any of the O gauge manufacturers ill and if any of them still show a pulse that is good news to me. 20,000 live viewers is no small showing in what is a niche hobby. I feel somewhat consoled by the numbers.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2020 2:13:00 GMT
I know that many have been unhappy with Lionel recently for various reasons that I am sure are justified but I think it would not be good at all for the three dail model train hobby if they were to close. Lionel has been the backbone of this hobby for at least a hundred years and there is no one to take its place. IMO if more of the train making were brought back to this country many of the quality control issues would be fixed. No, that would not happen instantly but management would have more control. The people that own and run Lionel are in it to make money and probably know what to do. Yes, we all know what many of the problems are and Lionel management probably does too. I am 85 and don't buy much anymore but I love trains of all types and sizes and I am hoping for the best.
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Post by Country Joe on Apr 27, 2020 4:45:55 GMT
Ken, thanks for posting the YouTube videos.
The MTH live Facebook videos are posted on YouTube the next day for those who don't have a FB account.
I watched both videos on YouTube the next day so I could skip ahead and avoid the parts that didn't interest me. I thought Ken Jr did a great job putting this together. My only gripe was that they kept calling the OGR forum the O Gauge Forum, which is us.
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Post by harborbelt70 on Apr 27, 2020 11:32:26 GMT
Another sign of life: This is slightly old news but then I don’t keep up with Lionel’s FaceBook page. Here’s an early demo (a couple of weeks ago) of the VL GS Series engines’ cylinder steam effect, which is actuated by a mechanical piston. They’ve obviously got a production sample and you can see the die cast and brass detail parts, some of the electronics and boiler speaker. The text says they are working on timing. www.facebook.com/LionelModelTrains/videos/1907134216086932/Smoke effect is not spectacular like everything on the VL Niagara but if you like this sort of thing (I do) it’s interesting to see where they have got to with the development.
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Post by rockymountaineer on Apr 27, 2020 15:36:02 GMT
For as a large a catalog as Lionel produced this year, I found very little that interested me. And for the few items that did (which I can't even remember which ones those were now), I'll wait to see what's delivered before committing to anything. That's just the way I feel about them. They've got a HUGE amount of work to do before they regain the confidence of many an enthusiast. Just being honest... and keepin' it real.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2020 3:25:43 GMT
The 30 pages of Vision Line products didn't interest you?
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Post by phil55 on Apr 28, 2020 4:31:25 GMT
Need more legacy to run on 036 with Bluetooth!
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