Couldn’t agree more with your entire post, but this is the part that I simply cannot understand.
What is with this burning desire on the part of some to attract young kids to the hobby when it ain’t gonna happen?
Besides model railroading, I play golf, lots of golf. The sport is declining as the younger generations get preoccupied with other endeavors. I could care less. As long as there is a golf course to play, I am happy. As long as I can continue to mess with my layout, I am happy. It bothers me not at all if the younger generations seek some alternative forms of pleasure.
Well, I agree with Mike Lehman about the economics of more customers, any kind of customer, being good for the hobby.
But do I have any burning emotional need to save young people from their cell phones and video games with model trains?
Like Rich, my answer is no.
In my now 50 years in this hobby, I have been both hot and cold about its social aspects, I have worked behind the counter in the train store and helped new people, I have belonged to clubs and round robins and helped others build basement empires.
Those things were all fun. But can/do I enjoy model trains without those aspects of the hobby?
Very much yes thank you.
Good luck to LIONEL, but they are not likely to see any of my money…
Lionel did an online webcast yesterday at Trainworld in which Ryan Kunkle said that they were mostly aiming at the entry level market because they felt thst is where the Lionel name is most effectivly known.
Trainworld has posted on the website The HO is discussed about 2/3 of the way through the video.
I don´t understand the fuss about Lionel entering the HO market with robust, albeit rudimentary detailed entry level trains and accessories. If they think it´s worth investing into this market segment, it´s their own and rightful business decision to do so. If you don´t want their stuff, well, nobody is forcing you to buy it.
As Lionel is not taking away any market share from other, high-end manufacturers, I see them as a possible way of getting kids interested in trains without having to mortgage my home!
I just got my copy of the September issue and noticed the same thing and was going to start a thread about it but you beat me to it. Many of the structure and accessory packages are easily recognizable as Model Power retreads. I’m usually the last to know when these things are announced buy I’m guessing Lionel wants to get back into the HO market and bought out Model Power. I remember Lionel had an HO line back in the 1970s and maybe into the 1980s. I don’t remember them being a big player back then and I didn’t even notice when they go out.
A lot of what was produced under the Model Power name was junk but some of it was of decent enough quality to go on my layout. I’ve got a few of their structures at the back edge of my layout. They OK as background structures but their lack of detail would keep me from putting them up front.
Kids will get involved in MR when somebody develops an ap for virtual model railroading. Maybe somebody already has. They’ll set up model railroads on their smart phones and tablets and have at it.
Lionel switched from standard gauge to O gauge in the 1930’s. They could have successfully made the transition to HO countless times, but just consistently refuse to take HO seriously. They almost closed for good in the 1960’s because of that. So now they are offering Xmas cars and other fantasy schemes. I saw this coming a mile away.
I’m with you. To me there are two season. Golf season and train season. One begins as the other ends.
Not sure I agree with you about golf declining although I live in central Ohio which is a golfing hotbed. It’s Jack Nicklaus country and golf is still popular with players of all ages. I just took the job of golf coach and one of the smallest schools in the region. I have just four players, the minimum for having a team, but they seem eager to learn the game. Some of the Columbus schools have 40 or more kids trying out for maybe 18 spots (varsity, JV, and freshman teams). I’m looking forward to it although we are starting from scratch as the school hasn’t had a team for the last few years. All my players are underclassmen and some have played very little but for me success will be measured by what degree I can keep these kids enthusiasti
John, good luck with that coaching job. A lot more youngsters play golf than play with trains and, in large part, it is because of the media attention and the role models like Tiger and Phil and, more recently, Jordan, Justin, Jason, Dustin, Brooks, etc.
Let’s get a couple of things said. I don’t use model railroading as a social exercise. I live in a small town where model rairoading is as ordinary as a lunar landing, so I’m a “lone wolf” and have been most of the sixty years I’ve pursued this endeavor. The nearest place that sells a code 100 rail joiner or a bottle of Testors gloss black paint is a 330 mile round trip-which due to a lack of inventory in being a 7-11 type of hobby store, is not a destination for me. Saved by the internet.
I don’t play golf or hunt or fish but, I do have interests outside of model railroading. It is human and very healthy to have varied interests in ones life so I’m not advocating creating cadres of pint-sized foamers on every block in every town. I say simply expose them to it and maybe some will take the bait but, most won’t. This is still America! The reason is mercenary. If that super-duper model of 4014 with the wowzer-zowzer 654 function platinum decoder is to be produced and the manufacturer only has market potential of 50, possibly 75 buyers, what do you think the price will be–if it gets produced at all? Remember the current business of toe-in-the-water pre-ordering? If that potential audience suddenly blossoms to hundreds or even thousands, it will possibly be made and sold at a lower price. The manufacturer might even look for other items that have broad appeal. We already have manufacturers producing quality models of single classes of car types that were owned by a single prototype railroad. I like that. The more people enjoying the hobby, the better for all of us in it. Do you think we would be where we are in anything we do, without the infusion of new blood and, ideas?
I’m no starry-eyed savior swooping down to rescue America’s youth from their electronic leashes. It is way too late for that but, what&
I was very young in the hobby when I acquired my only Lionel HO locomotive, that being a ‘greyhound’ challenger with smoke lifters. It’s a lovely, robust, and well-crafted model. It isn’t especially well detailed, but it looks good and runs very well on my layouts. I’m happy to have it. I was sad to see that Lionel had already abandoned their (then) latest attempt to enter that scale’s market.
I wish them success in their latest attempt. As others have said, the larger and more diverse the market, the better it is for the hobby. And, I think the best ambassadors for the hobby are those who practice it and who let others know why they enjoy it the way they enjoy it.
Based on the crowds of over-excited youngsters (and adults) that I saw trackside last week to watch the UP Big Boy go through, I suspect someone selling trainsets of any scale out of a van could have made some serious money.
Based on the crowds of over-excited youngsters (and adults) that I saw trackside last week to watch the UP Big Boy go through, I suspect someone selling trainsets of any scale out of a van could have made some serious money.
After browsing through the Lionel HO ad in the September issue, I noticed one bit of irony: some of the freight cars shown in the ad are made from tooling which originated with the Louis Marx co. in the 1950’s when they began their venture into HO.
I would hazard a guess that many people who became model railroaders in the late 1950s and early 1960s got their start with Marx HO. It was inexpensive, it was rugged and it RAN! The first HO scale train that I ever owned was a 1959 Christmas present of a Marx HO set, which consisted of a rather crude “GP-7” with no headlight, a boxcar, a gondola, and a bay window caboose. The set came with a circle of Marx track, which had tinplate rails on fibre ties. Yes it was crude. Yes it was toylike - but the engine was gear-driven and it RAN and RAN! This initial train set led to the purchase of some Athearn cars, which could be bought for a buck apiece, some Athearn F-units with cheesy rubber band drives, and some Atlas track.
The point is, that this little NYC geep with its three cars led a layput that now consumes most of the basement, has a thousand or more cars and more than a hundred locomotives. People need rugged, reliable trains to get started in the hobby. If Lionel can provide that, and at a resonable price, I say MORE POWER TO "EM!
I am not going to debate the past, but I must muse - couldn’t Lionel have improved somewhat on those horribly punny business names (“Holy Donuts”, “Curl Up And Dye”, the funeral palor billboard ad stating “We Dig You” and so on). They were groaners 4 decades ago, and remain stale now. Be more cerebral, Lionel.
It looks like Walthers did brought the rights to only some of the model Power molds, such as the Aunt Millie’s house (and it’s many derivities) or the 3 story Townhouse (again, and it’s many derivities), as they were notable absent from the Lionel listing while other well known building kits were listed.
The scooter, heh, I still have mine that I got in the late 1970s with a figure set, surprized the ad didn’t have the associated rider with the jacket and wool cap…
This mostly seems like a very wise approach for Lionel. The ex-ModelPower/Mantua stuff they’re selling is roughly the HO equivalent of the 0-27 toy-style stuff they already sell. Sturdy, colorful and mostly 1950’s. Sure they also make scale O in all eras, but that’s not what the general public knows them for.
If you check the website, you can see that their prices are also among the lowest in the industry and top it off, they’re doing all this while having to invest in virtually no new tooling.
The only unsure thing IMHO, is the track. Was EZ track so bad that they had to invest in a new expensive track system?
All this to say, they are clearly aiming at the casual holiday shopper at Menards rather than the hard core MR reader, but that may be exactly where they should be.
Oddly enough, there is a “Curl Up And Dye” in Newport, RI, Belmont, ME, Watsonville, CA, Malden, MA, Monroe, MI, and quite a few other places in the US.
Lame it may be, but there are a number of them in the US. It is, therefore, prototypical.
I was there for the first two legs of the May 4 run out of Cheyenne. There were a few kids among the many railfans both in Cheyenne and Laramie. I got in my car and tried to chase it to Laramie but it took the cutoff track and was quickly out of sight. I felt bad for all those people who were lined up along the double track main waiting for the Big Boy to come by. I nearly made the same mistake waiting for the arrival in Laramie. I forgot that the UP had built a third main on both sides of Hermosa Tunnel and was waiting on the double track main a long with a few other folks when somebody got the word it was coming in on the 3rd main which was about a half mile away from our spot. Luckily I got there in plenty of time to see Big Boy arriving just east of Laramie.
I read in Trains magazine that the caravan of cars that pursued Big Boy west out of Laramie was 12 miles long. I can believe it. I was in that caravan and there were cars as far as the eye could see both to the front and rear. Most of it was two lane highway (US30) and bumper to bumper. There was a short stretch of divided four lane highway where traffic picked up speed and I saw the train ab
Somehow I think the market Lionel is shooting for would want the bar raised somewhat higher, but I cannot judge from small items in an ad…and what an ad…!!! 18 all color full pages including the inside front cover. This has to be a record of sorts. Cost??? I’m assuming Lionel is planning on huge sales. I hope for them that this line is succesful. I respect any company who produces products for our hobby. Also I’d hate to be a cow caught up that huge cow catcher on the Berk.