From: Alan Lambert Fort Worth, Texas Ed, I like your last sentence "and it is our collective job to motivate them". It will be Monday before I can get to my Lionel Hobby shop. I can't do this on my own To Lionel I am only one person. Write Lionel customer srvice here. Lionel LLC Customer Service 26750 Twenty-three Mile Road Chesterfield, Mich. 48051-1956 Phone # 586-949-4100 See what that does for all of our questions. Alan Lambert I'll check back Monday.
________________________________ From: Ed <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, December 21, 2012 5:38 PM Subject: {S-Scale List} Lionel stuff -- again.... > Ed, a quick check of Lionel's S scale website, and I can't seem to locate > this model. (S cylindrical hopper) > Mark Mugnai Hi Mark.... I will have to agree that consumer communication from Lionel is not one of their strong points. However, if you check the Lionel.com web site and download the current AF catalog and then flip the pages, you will see the product in question. The S cylindrical hopper in many different paint schemes is there. I didn't mean to excessively get on your case earlier, but it is frustrating to me that the Lionel of old is typically ASSUMED to be the Lionel of today. That impression is held mostly by people who have not actually seen and held the current Lionel models being produced -- either in S or O gauge/scale. I understand the difficulty in revising a mental image of a firm that has been making toy trains for over a half century. But things are changing -- slowly but surely. In addition, however, Lionel still deliberately makes toy trains that are appealing to the AF folks and the O 3-rail crowd. That part of their product line is not going away. So if you look at those products, you might conclude Lionel has not changed one whit. You'd also conclude that Ed L. is nuttier than a fruitcake. Reasonable assumption for sure. But it would be an incorrect conclusion. The trend line is clear: No S catalog, then an S catalog, then S scale wheels, then DCC....... I can assure you that the next S catalog will have some very interesting information for the scale folks. My point is that each year there is improvement. Each year the Marketing folks make new decisions based primarily on: (1) what sold the prior year, and (2) the letters from customers, and (3) dealer suggestions. Item (2) is where Alan Lambert is going to help us all do a better job. Right, Alan? So my tirade this week is to request that you hold the product in your hands BEFORE taking it to task for imagined faults. This tirade also applies to non-Lionel products also. And MTH products as well when they eventually reach your hands. No more assumptions about products. Only observed facts. Fair enough? I can tell you absolutely that Lionel can make stuff as good or better than SHS. So can MTH. (I am not choosing favorites.) The problem is not the capability. The issue is their motivation. And it is our collective job to motivate them. Cheers....Ed L.
