Back in May or June I preordered the Lionel CSX AC6000s - a powered and unpowered. They were to ship in July. Then, Lionel moved it back to October once July came. Then, when October came, they pushed them back to December. Now I understand when people complain about shipping dates being pushed back… Seems like things I am never interested in come out as soon as they are in the catalogs, but things I and probably many other people are interested in ship months after they are catalouged.
I just hope they dont cancel them. They did cancel the U.P. version…
Well, Grayson, you and I are in the same boat right now! In February I pre-ordered the BNSF SD70ACe, which was originally scheduled to ship in July. Before July arrived (in May I think), Lionel dropped the non-powered units and all of the Ferromex items, and right at the end of June they pushed back the BNSF SD70ACe to December. Although I was worried at first whether they’d end up making it or not, at this point I don’t think we have to worry about it. One thing you have to consider is if there were other engines painted differently that were cancelled (in the AC600 case there was UP) then if they were to end up cancelling the CSX version, they probably would have cancelled it right along with the UP one. Since they weren’t cancelled, I need not worry about them being made, they probably will at this point. As for the shipping date, I think it may actually happen this time. I’ve noticed that the vast majority of Lionel’s products on the Shipping Schedule now are supposed to be released in December, including the remaining UP Heritage units, the Pere Marquette 1225 and a lot of other significant items. My guess is Lionel’s getting everything made up now and then will ship everything out in time for Christmas. We can hope! [:-^]
Christmas 2008 would be great - I ordered PRR K4s in August 07 (not a typo) and have been watching the delivery date get pushed back every month. It would be nice to get in time to run under the tree. . .
According to Miss Edna, they have canceled some things. Both manufacturers are bad for that. She just got NY subway set ordered over a year ago. I have a Lionel Dash 9 dummy [with smoke and electrocouplers] ordered 9 months ago. Took me tow years to receive a MTH set of NS engines. When they came, they were priced the same as the newer paint scheme ones [delivered at the same time] but with old paint scheme. Mad, you darn tooten I was. Believe it when you see it.
Isn’t it sad! Joshua wouldn’t tolerate such nonsense from the Uppper level Mngmt. on poor decisions and cancellations from catologs like this! How dare they! Welcome to the world of Customer Service doesn’t exist anymore.
I have read that Lionel has indicated that the Lionmaster BigBoy will not be available until sometime in 2009 but the shipping schedule indicates December 2008.
Isn’t it sad! Joshua wouldn’t tolerate such nonsense from the Uppper level Mngmt. on poor decisions and cancellations from catologs like this! How dare they! Welcome to the world of Customer Service doesn’t exist anymore.
Stubbs, while you have a valid point, the hobby is also vastly different today than it was during JLC’s time. There wasn’t the vast variety of product cataloged, and there were not as many nit pickers in the hobby back then. They were once mostly toy trains. “Lionel Lines” was as real a railroad line as any other to the typical kid.
And the postwar Lionel company was pretty famous for making compromises on realism and scale fidelity in order to use parts and components from one product to another. Williams does that today, using the wrong type of trucks on a locomotive, and gets criticism for it for some. For others, it’s no big deal so long as the product works right and is priced right.
Upper level management, namely Jerry Calabrese, has already quite clearly stated his intentions to put more ephasis on starter trains and train sets, and to market those items where the public will see them. And to also put more careful consideration into making completely newly tooled high end products. So to some dgree, what is happening now is what Mr. Calabrese said would happen. There is also the circumstance of Lionel’s new corporate ownership along with the current tight money market, that not only effects consumers, but companies that need to borrow investment dollars as well.
Though I can certainly understand the frustration when a product of any type is announced, and then takes months or years to reach consumers. Or worse, gets cancelled without notice. While Lionel cannot afford to ignore the future customer with starter trains, it also wouldn’t be wise to totally alienate the established high end customer… Lionel (as do the other companies) need every sale they can make.
Brianel-There are more nit pickers today because Lionel keeps selling people broken products right outta da box, would you expect anything less? Ya know what? If you are announcing a new product to be released on XXXX, you make darn sure that you have weeded all the bugs out of it and that it will be ready to release on said day and have enough in stock to keep the buyers from not waiting so long. What good are starter sets when you can’t even buy a reliable serperate unit to begin with, you think starter sets with make it better? I don’t! People are going to by these and have things broken just like now. And imagine little jr. on Christmas with a broken train that Santa brought, Dad’s and kids won’t have a very good impression of Lionel. There products now look CHEAP, cost too much, are cheap because more people have problems with them now, and from what I read here and other boards doesn’t seem to be getting any better. What Jerry Calabrese says is something big business has lost, regardless of weather or not Lionel when through a bankrupty or not. Upper level Management in every company is nothing but a Robberbaron, they could give a ratsbutt about anything but thier own bottom line, not he companies, pure and simple! Sorry to say your as clueless as the next person when it comes to a new item that released by someone. You’ll wait till you die to get your hands on something that someone can’t release on time regardless of how long it takes. Not Me!!!
Stubbs - I think Lionel quality is great. And I also think that the “bugs” and “problems” that people complain about when they get a new High-end Scale Engine are due to a Chinese manufacturing problem. Rushing through the assembly process is most of the time what happens when a engine doesnt work right. Not the design or the materials used, but the faulty assembly. (Ex: wires not soldered or solder broken, wires not plugged into boards, parts missing, ect, ect.
But, that doesnt mean that some of the MPC stuff and the new starter sets might have less than desirable quality.
If you don’t think that Lionel’s Customer Service doesn’t exist any more, then you have NEVER dealt with Lionel’s Customer Service Dept. BTW, cancelling an item has NOTHING to do with Customer Service. I have dealt with Lionel’s Customer Service Dept MANY times, they are a model that other compaies would do well to emulate.
I have 6 Nephews and a Grand-Daughter, all of which I have started in O-Gauge trains, when something needs fixin’, they call Uncle Doug ( or GrandPa, as the case may be). I can not even begin to list all of the bells, axle journals railing stanchions and you name it that I have had to replace over the last several years. A Phone call to Lionel’s CSD, and invaribly the parts were in my mailbox 4 days later, NO CHARGE. I have never needed an expensive item, but the items I have needed were not warranty, but the result of a young child playing with the train. One item was a broken cradle on a log car, that at a guess was 15-20 years old but still similar to what is made today, they sent me the part, the little cast on pin got broken in the padded shipping envelope, they sent me another, this time boxed. They have never even charged me for the shipping, on ANY of it.
Lionel may not be PERFECT, but their Customer Service, is SECOND TO NONE.
Just checked the entire SS this morning. It was updated today, and everything still seems to be a go for December. ([:-^]…) I noticed that a ton of stuff was shipped in November. Looks like the only things that say a 2009 delivery are the Postwar Conventional Classics, most of the KLine Vol. 2 catalog, and the 2009 items at the end of the Lionel Vol. 2 catalog.
Hey lynbrookyankee, looks like you’ll get your wish, the SS indicates that the Pennsylvania K4 has indeed shipped this month, along with a number of other steam engines from the 2007 Vol. 2 catalog. I’m hoping other products can follow…
Arrived from Charles Ro yesterday via Fed Ex so it will be circling the tree. Looks nice, runs well, & nice package of rail sounds. Glad to finally have it even if it took almost 1.5 years to get here - talk about the slow boat from China [:)]
I must be a little strange.I have locos from Lionel,K-Line,K-Lionel,Williamsand RMT.Everything worked “out of the box”.Maybe I’m lucky.I do not play the lottery.
I ordered the K-Lionel Pennsy A5 in January,2008 and got it at the end of November.OK.I got it.My train world didn’t come crashing down because of the wait.If it would have been cancelled I would have gotten something different.
While waiting for a cancelled or late coming loco ,what do you do? Bide your time?Cry?Write nasty e-mails or make phone calls to the manufacturer?Threaten to never buy “their” stuff again?
Why not play with what you have and have some fun?
LOL, that’s exactly what I was thinking! I was curious to know how long it took for something to actually arrive after Lionel’s website says “Shipped”. I wondered if the ride on the “slow boat from China” was included or not. Apparently not, as you got your engine only a couple days after the SS was updated.
For all you other guys waiting on stuff (myself included), the SS hasn’t been updated since the 4th, so all systems are still at go for December!