I noticed the Lionel HO insert in the new issue of MR. Mostly Tyco-ish rehashes of the Model Power stuff. Just who is Lionel aiming at in the HO market?
The Model Power stuff was a rehash of Tyco/Mantua stuff.
This is what, Lionel’s 4th or 5th go into the HO market? That they aquired Model Power from MRC and are using that as their new basis is all you need to know as far as target market.
–Randy
Too bad they don’t produce the stuff from the early 2000’s. The Veranda Turbine was a great engine. I guess Lionel is targeting toy train collectors (non prototypical modelers) and kids with these. Also take a look at some of the Lion Chief sets. Most of them are angled toward O27 instead of 1:48. I wish they would reuse the molds from the last time they tried Ho. Atleast they were more detailed…
The magnetic track does intrigue me though for temporary displays.
Are you talking about magne-traction? As I recall, that was plain steel rail and the locomotive wheels were magnetized.
It did provide good pulling power.
No. Lionel has HO snap track sort of like Bachmann but it attaches with Magnets instead of plastic clips.
That one intrigues me. If it works, it’ll be great for children who don’t always take track apart correctly.
Paul
And wouldn’t it be good for the hobby to have more children involved again?
Yes
Dream on!
Rich
My thoughts, exactly. Why do they continually ignore the largest segment of the hobby? The people who want realistic HO trains. Save the toy trains for the O27 line.
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Yes, but I do not think re-hashing old HO train set stuff is the way to go.
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1:72 scale post apocolyptic steam punk dystopian zombie war railroading anyone?
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-Kevin
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I don’t know. That’s what got me hooked for a good number of years. Inexpensive. Robust “details” that were difficult for kids to damage. I think it probably depends on the situation. I also think the set Walthers is selling now (WiFlyer) is a good idea too.
BTW as now it doesn’t appear any of the Mantua / Tyco steam engines are being offered by Lionel. Some of the HO freight cars appear that they might be based on old Mantua ‘heavies’ cars. Most of it appears to be old Model Power stuff, including the structure kits (who I think pre-date Model Power?), streetlights, passenger cars, etc., with a few new items like the HO track ‘click track’ and Polar Express 2-8-4.
Yeah, they’ve made a half-@ effort and gotten half-@ results so left the market. As long as they continue to do that, the results will be the same.
You’ve heard the definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Kinda fits here don’t you think? [:o)]
Probably won’t gain much traction in the traditional MR community. Advertise those ideas in fantasy forums and you may get more interest. Just sayin…
While I’ve enjoyed my fair share of fantasy gaming including D&D etc., I pretty much prefer my trains the old fashion way.
Rich,There’a a lot of young modlers and railfans so,all is not lost. Unlike us old folk they seldom attend train shows because they perfer to buy at on line discounts.
By coincidence about the time the latest issue of MR came with the large Lionel advertisement insert, I was reading a much older issue of MR that had an interesting article by Gordon Varney - a sort of open letter to his fellow manufacturers as well as to modelers. His point was that there was a need for a separate version of HO --what he called the “grandmother” market: HO sold as toys and gifts.
His position was that toys are not as concerned with prototype accuracy or precise scale, have a greater need for durability than for detail, and the gearing and motors that please scale modelers are not needed for kids.
His real point, and this was perhaps more evident in the late 1950s than today, was that at the time HO was in some danger of trying to design products for both the scale modeler and children, with scale modelers coming out on the short end of the stick as a result. Flanges were actually getting larger (that was the origin of AHM and its Rivarossi imports for example), and things like “shorty” passenger cars that could take train set curves of 18" radius were being offered. Compromises with scale accuracy were being made in locomotives and other rolling stock so it could take sharp curves. What had been separate details like ladders and grab irons and air brake systems on models were being cast in place, or simplified, or just left off, not just due to the ease of plastic tool and die work but because separate details could not take rough handling. And the strange looking X2F coupler (so-called NMRA coupler) was replacing couplers that actually looked more like the prototype but weren’t necessarily automatic, like Varney’s own scale sized dummy knuckle couplers. Little fingers could not manage the Varney dummy knuckle couplers.
Gordon Varney didn’t say this was bad per se. His point was, don’t let the market force scale models to change their nature so that kids can play
Well said, Dave, and I opretty much agree with all of it. Let me throw in something else.
We’ve all seen the way On30 took off - running on HO track, more or less.
I suspect what Lionel is trying to do, besides putting out a durable and possibly collectible toy, is to incite a similar spirit in HO itself. Then there is the fact that they will sell a bazillion Polar Expresses over the next 100 years in whatever scale pleases.
What this means for the rest of us who don’t buy it is a bigger market in general for HO. People who buy may have entirely different intentions, but they probably spend just the same when they get in the zone. That’s OK by me and I don’t need to display any MRR merit bedges to think so. We don’t get a better hobby by seeing who we can subtract from it.
This hobby, in general, not just scale modelers, needs every warm body it can to attract the same effort we’ve come to see from mfg’s over the last few decades when technology has changed so much. The total market for trains is likely a big number to most of us, but probably puny next to some kid’s prospect’s who just won $3 mil playing video games will be at the center of a 44 mil customer base worldwide. There you’re talking some big bucks. Imagine what Athearn, Rapido, ScaleTrains, my fave Blackstone, whoever, could do in a market that size. Well, maybe someday.
Encourage them, don’t discourage 'em.
I wish Lionel luck in their endeavor with another fling at HO. It looks like they are aiming low again. Maybe there will be a market for their offerings, after all most of us “serious” modelers got our start with tinplate.
The desire to attract new blood into this hobby is a desire most of us have but, many young people have no interaction with railroads, trains and, railroaders. They can’t go down to the depot and get to know the switch crew or, chat with the station agent. In so many cases, if there are any trains at all, they roll through at 49 MPH with the crew hidden behind dark tinted windows. So many former branch lines are now trails where the dust is stirred by knobby-kneed hikers and cyclists instead of smoky Alcos or muttering Geeps.
If you want to interest your young in trains, its going to take more than 12 volts DC to do it. The kids need to experience the enormity and dynamic power of railroading to possibly spark their interest, since most kids pay attention to that which is large, loud, and overwhelming. Case in point: my daughter. When she was two years old I used to take her trackside with me when we heard a train blowing for the crossings in town. When the train approached she would wave and get rewarded with a couple of honks of the horn–which made her grin but, still, cover her ears. Even when I didn’t feel like, when she heard that horn in the distance, she was ready to go trackside.
Fast forward to today. She’s now a married 47 year old mother of two, who can tell EMDs from GEs and, GEs from Alcos. She remembers SP, Mopac, Miss Katy, Rio Grande. She has her own book of diesel rosters and calls me when anything unusual shows up on the W&LE or NS. And, she still waves at trains.
Before plopping the kid down with whatever Lionel or whoever is offering, let them e