I don't mind Lionel trains, they are alright. But i do just wish they'd retool the HO lines of trains to be more accurate in details. To see the "Toy-ish " appearances in HO kind of irks me.
Hey Mantua made great trains I have a small collection of them and they run excellent...much better to then my Lionel 2-6-2 steam engine that feel apart while it was not even running, Lionel=toys Mantua actually made scale models
In 2003 lionel released 2 HO locomotives that are actually worth a damn. A Challenger and a Union Pacific diesel. Those two models are actually very good,and I recommend you look at both of them.
MTH bought the tooling and re-released them under their name when they were doing HO. At least MTH tried to give a damn and released downsized Premier locos in HO vs. Lionel ripping us off with 1950's Marx junk.
This is glorious chaos 😂 I've still got my first run Polar, but they really need to revamp this lineup to stay relevant. Funny thing- they had a 3D printed prototype for a full scale theater car in Concord HQ..There was potential on the table, but we ended up with..this.
@cobramerciless Sitting on the shelf beside another sample in a Walthers Proto box lol. Would have been sick to have, even without the camera included..Simple streamlined cars with lights would print $$$$, much less full OCS trains like they do in O.
Lionel actually attempted HO scale again in 2004 with a Challenger and veranda turbine with DCC sound which were made in Korea by the same factory who makes BLI models. They were later produced by MTH. I got a Lionel HO tanker recently and I thought I got a good one. The paint and decoration looked nice, the knuckle couplers stayed coupled, and managed to roll as good as most of the cars I have. I only paid like 10 bucks for it too, which is about what Bachmann sell their warehouse finds cars for.
At least the locomotive worked. I returned a Polar Express set that was shipped with broken bits and non functioning engine. The replacement was also DOA. No QC at Lionel’s Chinese manufacturer
I got their HO Polar Express when it released for the first time. About 4 months in the engine began dying and I salvaged it for parts. I still have the coaches though. Somewhere anyway
I once found one of their berkshires (the polar express one) for 1/2 off and decided as a challenge if I could make it something good, or at least decent. As it was from the semi-earlier batches, I dodged most of the issues with them, and Ive been detailing, fixing, and generally improving it over a few years. Maybe in a few months I'll finally have something worth Lionel's absurd msrp! Then again, the Bachmann one will still be just as good (detail wise) when I'm done fixing Lionels errors with this abomination of locomotion.
Thanks for usin my clip! I assume the postwar HO tooling is long gone, or we'd have HO scale space and military cars again. And possibly less shitty rolling stock, since those actually roll. Also.... pretty sure my Marx HO rolls better and weighs more than what Lionel is making now. Rip.
Those lionel cars are from the same moulds as marx, except the caboose which is a Mehano creation, in fact mehano still makes it, they must have multiple extra moulds left over.
@@raymondleggs5508 not sure why you're replying to my comment? I contributed the clip at 1:23 showing some examples of what postwar Lionel HO looked like. The equipment shown is of 1959-1966 vintage, and was manufactured using a mixture of modified John English/HObbyline tooling, and original Lionel tooling. Yes, the HO rolling stock they produce currently is former Marx tooling that was originally bought up by Model Power. Presumably Lionel's postwar and early MPC HO dies are long gone or unfit for use, and purchasing the tooling from Model Power seemed more feasible than making all new HO tooling. I have some original Marx HO- like most Marx products, it was cheaply made but designed well and fairly robust.
They are if you look. I paid less than $200 shipped for mine, on Amazon no less but it was a used model which I am fine with I don't take these seriously.
The only good thing about lionel relaunch of HO is that they are releasing the old Pola made model power kits that faller didnt want to re release undernthenfaller name unfortunately despite having bought that ancient tooling, they sell if for triple the price. 😞 Same with the freight cars that used to be marx and mehano.
This is the first time I've ever seen your channel, and I'm only 30 seconds into your video before I had to comment. I swear like a sailor, but I also deeply appreciate you warning your audience in the beginning. Damn near no one does that
Haha, I'm starting to include those warnings since usually people associate train video with kids. I want to cater a bit more to a sorta teenaged audience, so I want to swear and be more angry in videos lol. Appreciate your view and comment!
This is a great video, could you also do a deep dive in review video of the history of the rise and fall and rise again of American Flyer S Gauge Trains?
I did have a Lionel HO train set in the 1960s. All I remember is that the locomotive was a NYC diesel and it worked. I don't believe there any photos as all of my HO layout. I started with American Flyer S gauge because that is what Santa gave me. When I got back into model railroading with my son in 1986, it was with my two original American flyer trains because they still worked. In December of 2000, I started all over again with Lionel built American Flyer coach because I liked the movie and the American Flyer coach looked more realistic than the HO or O versions. That one car became three Polar Express cars, but everything else I have on my layout is A.C. Gilbert production, and there will not be any Lionel products added. After having to re-soldier the wiring repeatedly in all three PE coaches while producing my Christmas video, I ran them behind a 1950s American Flyer locomotive at a public display, then put the coaches back in their boxes, probably to stay. I still prefer the Gilbert produced S gauge trains to anything else, because the combined quality and realism are still unmatched by anyone else.
Very interesting. I can very much appreciate Lionel trains (my godfather had an O scale layout in his basement), though I seem to have gotten more into HO as it's the scale I model in as well as what my local model railroad club runs. Additionally, I do have two HO scale Lionel Polar Express coaches, but have yet to test run them.
Before that Lionel did make HO trains in the past they were actually pretty solid in fact I was thinking of getting the Polar Express train set and cars I was maybe getting a CSX flat car maybe some other train sets like the Santa Fe flyer and possibly the New York Central
I wonder if the reason the curves are a 20 inch radius is because they're reusing tooling from their S gauge line. 20 inch radius is the standard curve Lionel makes in that scale, and since this was clearly made on the cheap I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to reuse even more tooling.
Lionel just taking old tooling, doing re-releases, and slaping different (in some cases laughably unprototypical) paint schemes, has to be the most accurate statement about lionel that I have ever heard.
My dad also had all the post-war Lionel trains that his late father had ever since his late mother died she and the family went up there and gathered every last Lionel train accessory and track that they had
i got a atsf set which they don't even offer any more the board will break after 6 months of use and then the rest of the tender electronics just slowly burn out
Thanks for your review. I am glad to learn the things you pointed out. I am disappointed with Lionel also. They are missing out on delivering great quality and creativity of their products. I want them to have an eye for color, imagination, animated products of train cars, and durability.
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This video reminds me of the thing I said acouple of times before,Lionel is the Disney of model trains All they have to do is ride of from their name of nostalgia a good times in order to sell a product, and since there's no big competitors anymore there's no reason to improve or to make something better anymore.. who's to say that Lionel is running a monopoly on the O gauge market..
That is Lionel's problem in HO. It isn't a captive market like O is for them so they can't do whatever they want. HO is open source with dozens of companies existing so we have choices. Either fly right or get steppin'
Being a long time collector of all things Lionel HO, I completely understand. I voiced my concerns about this product directly to their developers and you can see how that turned out. They never commit to HO scale. The Bluetooth was a nice touch, but I feel like there could have been more features. Quality control is a major problem will all things modern Lionel. Nice touch adding in the postwar and mpc variants. OO was just a victim of the time it was released. Truly amazing stuff there. Also, don’t forget that fancy rail scope alco set and of course the veranda and challenger fails. Unless it’s O gauge… they treat it like that stepchild they have to support until it’s no longer profitable.
Lionel isn't the only US model train company to re-badge models from other foreign manufacturers. For example, Model Power used to sell Triang-Hornby H0 locos and Budd Rail Car set badged as AT&T products, back in the 1970's.
Let’s see, gloves check, board for just in case, check, guard on chop saw, check, safety glasses, eehhhhh, I’ll let it slide, but all in all, you cutting that tank car is OSHA approved 👍🏻
There were safety glasses involved, as we say at work "In case of any doubt or uncertainty, take the safe course". I also removed the metal weight to minimize the chances of something going flying
My bli n scale p70 passenger cars came with the metal wheels with plastic axles and they derailed over every bump in the turnout so I replaced the wheels with all metal and now the light circuits don't work 😢
If I remember right the truck sides on those have to be insulated. Essentially one truck picks up one rail and the other does the other. It won’t work if both sides are attempting to pick up power
@@cobramerciless oh I have the insulated sides on the same sides to avoid a short right now because that's what happened when I had them opposite made sure no loco was on track when I tested luckily
@@cobramerciless I happen to own a Lionchief 4-4-0 with the "North Pole Central" paint scheme, and I'll be honest right now, while it isn't one of the greatest paint schemes out there, it is quite alright.
Same here!!! In fact the Bachmann HO scale Thomas Annie and clarabel train set is what got me into HO scale and Bachmann trains and model railroading in general! Before that my very first experience with model railroading was when my late paternal grandfather had those Lionel trains which I was amazed by then my late paternal Grandmother Had a Bachmann HO Thomas Deluxe set that featured the three aforementioned characters I mentioned earlier plus Bertie the bus Harold the helicopter and sir topham hatt.
I have a Lionel LionChief Ho polar express.. and it runs great.. have had to fix the tether once or twice but other than that it’s actually run better.. and probably an inexpensive way to get a Berkshire, and for not wanting to bite the bullet and buy a Bachmann Berkshire.. it’s better.. and I have heard Bachmann did make the decoder but it’s not bad for the money.. i got mine from an eBay with 2 polar express coaches and this is not bad honestly I like the trains, and I think the best bet is to buy the set without the track and or only the locomotive. Is it as good as the Bachmann one? no.. but it’s better because I don’t have the money to buy a Bachmann Berkshire yet. But a friend has one and it’s not that bad and both are actually close matched in speed and do well double headed and since the decoder is a stripped down Bachmann dcc decoder.. I’m not Surprised bout that.. and honestly this sets theme is cool.. but I feel the only train for Christmas should be the polar express and that’s it.
I think Lionel only cares for the gentleman collectors who can spend the big buck . The rest of us are just riff raft . The great unwashed masses . If you can’t spend a couple or few grand on an engine , you’re not welcome in the club.
I'll say it sents no one else will. Lionel quality has been going down for awhile now and only focusing on their most premium Oscale locomotives and only bringing out the same shit every year.
i love how lionel refuses to let go of the polar express, they even have recycled the exact same polar express engine body for many other trains with goofy-ahh “reskins”
I own the discontinued Army set that I bought for less than $200 shipped from Amazon to try out. The only good thing about the set are the Model Power passenger cars.....
I have post war Lionel 027 which isn't really O scale. It's more like S scale at 1/64th scale. The 027 was smaller than true O scale and a lot cheaper than regular O scale. I did enjoy the destruction of the track and melting of the boxcar. Also the fire at the end was funny. Cheers from eastern TN
I love Lionel a lot but everything here is so true. I wish Lionel would both get their stuff in a line and try to put out rolling stock comparable to their HO releases and get the Mantua tooling back out there. That could be their ace in the hole for the HO market but they are blowing it. With how good their NASCAR division is doing, it is a shame their train division is sinking
I think Lionel did hit it off when they did their Post war HO with the missile launching car helicopter car and basically all of their operating cars in HO My favorite being the exploding box car Not only that they were given real metal trucks that had real springs on them
Current Lionel is just more expensive reissued Model Power product..which itself was chunky and lousy in quality...and was imports from other brands like Mehano and Triang.
LMAO I had that exact same BN GP30 181, i loved that thing to death but had to sell it a few years ago as it didnt hold up anymore and it didnt ever properley run.
Until Lionel gets their act together there is only Mantua Red Box "Pro Series" Locomotives to hold them accountable for Dealing them dirty. If there was one thing that I could say is that Lionel is stuck in the dark ages, the Model Railroad Industry has moved onto Realism instead of "Toys" like you said. I don't have anything against Lionel, but the way they are puncturing their brand and making it Gimmicky makes the Carnival Game look more honest. I am sorrowfully Disappointed in Lionel's Business Model, if this is going to be the norm with them. I am not surprised they used Mantua Tooling which I don't blame them for. I would only be purchasing Steam engines from BLI (In N scale) Kato or Bachmann (In HO), and maybe Rapido, Riverossi, & Athearn if they make them cheaper (probably Roundhouse, not Genesis)
Ive collected lionel for many years… modern lionel is nothing like it was years ago. I have many Prewar O gauge locomotives and these locomotives have QUALITY. Something modern lionel wishes they’d have again.. almost 100 years old and run and look better than anything they make these days unless its a 1500$ piece
if you want good lionel you dont get anything non O scale or modern just get postwar items they are pretty much the same tooling as the new stuff , im sure the HO department is a broom Handle and a paper shredder
I haven't heard bad things about Lionel's S scale, I just haven't heard anything about it at all so I don't know if it's any good, but they're basically the only company still producing S scale so points for trying there.
