Did K-LINE trains go bankedruped??? That is what i am hering from my train hobby store. I put this thread in the other forum by mistake. Here is the post on the other forum that i posted any answer would help http://www.trains.com /TRC/CS/forums/3/show Forum.aspx
In a word, YEP. If you go to the Lionel web site, you can find the notice from Jerry Calabrese with information on the tentative plans with Lionel’s share of the business. Shame as they had some nice stuff. I hope to find a K-Line Lackawanna F3 set with the 4 motors. I have most other items that I would have wanted.
Dennis
Alas, long gone! Lionel (which obtained the license to market K-Line items) is going to release a portion of the former K-Line product line, but I don’t think you can expect to see much–and probably nothing for at least a few months.
Lots of stuff still floating around ut there though, so if there’s something special you’re looking for, now is the time to conduct your search.
Dennis, Are you a Lackawanna fan, or do you just like this loco. I was fortunate to get one of these and managed to buy a set of 18" cars to go with it during the last warehouse sale. I have not seen any for sale in a long time. It would be nice if Lionel produced some buy I don’t think they will. Would outclass their own offerings.
Hi cr, You might want to check our October and November 2005 issues, and February and May 2006 issues for information on this. I believe this info is also archived in our on-line news section as well.
Where can I go to get info on a K-Line order? Ordered something in January and have no idea if it is coming or not, item has an order number but has not been charged to my credit card. Do I contact Lionel??
Lee F.
You might try Lionel.
John, Both, I do like the Lackawanna and have a few of their items, but really like the F3 set and with the passenger cars, would be a great set to have. If anyone has info on one, I am in the market.
Lee, as to your order, I would contact Lionel, but I don’t think you will have any luck since they did not actually charge you yet. I believe the Lionel letter said that they were honoring orders, and that they were doing it at their cost, so you might get lucky since you actually have a order number.
Dennis
What is Lionel’s website?
Lee
Uh, lionel.com
BOB;
That does not work!!
Lee
Works for me.
Had to go to lots-trains.org, my internet server must be differant than yours!
Lee
I have lionel 2006 train catalog volume 2.
Well, there you go. Info from the source.
Dennis,
Are you referring to the engines K-line first offered on their web site?
What is the product number for the engines you want? I saw an ad for Lackawanna “F7’s” but don’t know if they are what you are looking for.
cr6479, here’s the story in a nutshell: “Maury’s Manifesto”, Bob Grubba and the “Shared Technology Announcement.”
Sometime around late 2000, early 2001, K-Line owner Maury Klein announced his intention to be the number one 3-rail train maker in 5 years. This ‘manifesto’ was royally trounced on the OGR Forum. Then came the announcement which much excitement that Lionel’s Ken Silvestri and Bob Grubba had joined K-Line. Silvestri didn’t last long (for whatever reason), but Grubba went on to lead K-Line’s new scale direction… for better or for worse… opinions differ.
Over the next few years, K-Line produced IMO an excessive amount of scale products based on totally new tooling which it now is obvious they could ill afford. This was a departure from K-Line’s far more thoughtful and slower paced development of the prior decade. The scale passenger cars, the scale spine cars, the die-cast hoppers and the GP-38 had all been developed over the span of a decade. Rumours started that K-Line was having money problems. There were reported staff reductions and the toll-free 800 number was eliminated.
K-Line’s strategy was to produced stellar better detailed scale models at prices undercutting the competition. But you don’t need a college degree to see that when locos that are already competitively priced are being sold at blow out prices, this is not a good sign. But while K-Line was also gaining kudos for their quality, detail and their new technology, especially their new speed control, they had also dramatically cut back on the selection of the earlier less scale trains of which appealed to their early original customers. Many of the Train-19 offerings were reissues of previously released trains. The tradtional separate sale offerings were chopped back to a single Pacific, a single MP-15 and a pair of Alco FA’s.
Last year
Lionel is telling dealers that it will no longer make any S gauge K-Line locos or cars.
However, it will begin manufacturing S gauge American Flyer-style high rail track in straights, long straights and the 27-inch radius curved tracks like K-Line produced. No 20-inch curves as the original Flyer.
Pop Z
One factor not mentioned thus far in K-Line’s demise is that the marketplace for three rail trains (and model railroad items in general) has dramatically dropped over the last five to six years. Advertising revenues and pages in the magazines, particularly CTT, the premier three rail magazine, are way down, perhaps as much as 20-30%, as one important indicator of the health of the market. The market has slumped after growing ferociously during the late 1990s. K-Line’s attempt to grow market share happened at a time when market went into a dive. The growth in number of customers and their purchases was stagnant at best (Lionel), dropped by half (MTH) and there was little room for growth by K-Line to recover their investment. IMO, that’s probably the real story behind K-Line’s demise.
But remember nblum, other companies have made it though lean times. Even today, saying that the hobby is in lean times right now, look at RMT: they’re not pouring vast amounts of money into expensive new tooling, nor flooding the market with repititious arrays of offerings.
Based on Lionel’s very own statements that starter sets and related starter items are the best and strongest area of sales, I want to propose that part of what has contributed to this so-called market slump is that the train importers are not responding to the actual market. Instead they have been in a do or die competition, trying to out do one another and looding the market with expensive high end trains of which there’s the place where there are not enough buyers.
Now take K-Line for example: where’s the presige in the 027 Alco S2 switcher? But there were kudos and prestige for their scale Hudson, which probably cost them dearly to develop. And for what? Good reviews? The hobby desparately needs the types of products that RMT is currently producing, and ironically RMT is getting good reviews. And I dare say sales of the BEEP probably dwarfed sales of the K-Line scale Hudson, as they probably dwarf many Lionel and MTH high end items too.
The train compaies need to respond to the actual market and not the vocal market minority. Yes, the minority complains more and can spend larger sums of money on train items. BUT they cannot support the multitude of product offerings. Fortuantely for Lionel, they still have their most valuable asset - their name. But their current catalog is still lopsided towards the expensive and the high end.
I don’t think this so-called slump is actually customer created as it is manufacturer created. The train conpanies don’t support their smaller dealers and give favoable wholesale prices to instead a select few (decline in advertising dol