Dave and Ryan show

Well I just finished watching. They had the engineering samples of the J3 Hudsons. Look for early November delivery

Gary,

Welcome aboard and I am delighted to see you here.

Thanks for the head's up on Ryan and Dave (I name them in order of seniority/seriousness).

I am in denial about anything new Lionel so I was oblivious to this. Notwithstanding that, I'll track down the video and hope to be encouraged by it.

Did they say anything about the Acela reissue??? 

Well, I've watched this now. I don't particularly care for their brand of humor but they seem to want to convey an enjoyment of the hobby itself.

They had an HO commentator/reviewer, James Wright, with them and the HO news was possibly the most significant for Lionel's plans.

Takeaways:

1. They showed a production sample of the Lionmaster LC 2.0 Big Boy; dual engines and TMCC operation. Not the same sound set as Legacy (no quilling) but a step up from previous versions. There is also a dual motor LC 2.0 Lionmaster GG1 in the works.

2.  Two production samples of the J3A were shown with two different tenders. They have ported the water scoop feature from the VL Niagara to the centipede tender. These models are in production and expected to arrive Oct./Nov.

3. The 611 is also in production but no ship date yet or not as far as I heard. New crew talk added to this.

4. They also had a production sample of the Bi-Polar and talked a little about the Polar Express version.

5. Bigger news was Lionel's "aggressive" plans for HO. They have a Theater Car with wifi camera in the design stage planned for next year and this is part of an effort to appeal to "high end collectors and operators" which will include lots of new tooling. I really did not care much for the sound of this unless it also means new tooling for O gauge products as well but they made NO reference to that. Another big product line for Lionel is ambitious and they were keen to emphasize how "aggressive" they are being about this. I don't understand the business sense of leaving the core O scale market in doubt over QC while branching out (or back) into HO but as the whole show was in a "Lite" vein maybe that's a little unfair. Also Ryan has already (in his Toy Train Museum talk) trailed the possibility of a new VL offering next year and an Acela reissue.

Make of all this what you will.