When I had found out that Lionel had done HO scale trains before thanks to the book "Lionel, a collectors guide and history", I couldn't help but do a double take.
At the time that I first read the book, Lionel had done O scale and S gauge only, with G scale every now and then (this was a little before the battery operated G scale trains became a thing). It honestly fascinated me to hear and see what Lionel had done in the HO scale market back then and when they returned during the General Mills era (where the company was bought by General Mills).
For those who have read my past blogs, you'll know that my comments on Lionel's HO scale aren't exactly the most positive, bringing up them getting sued for not paying royalties on molds, high price of train sets, and fact that said trains in train sets had chugging more close to a machine gun then a train.
All that said, Lionel is starting to make some improvements to their HO line, and they do have the Berkshire on the way as well. Truth be told, I do want to see Lionel's HO scale line be a success for the following reasons.
HO scale is still pretty popular
Not trying to bait O scaler modelers out there into a fight behind the local train club, but it's true that HO scale and it's little brother N scale are still pretty popular these days, and depending on who you ask, even more popular then O scale.
The whole reason for Lionel getting into HO in the first place was because of the rising popularity in HO scale, which was due in part to homes becoming smaller after the baby boom, which was due in part to an increase in homes and contractors needing to make these smaller homes/apartments to meet those demands.
The smaller homes aspect is still a thing today, with not every model railroader having an attic, basement, or even spare room that's begging to have a massive train set up in it, and while it is possible for O scale train layouts to be set up in smaller spaces, some folks may turn to the smaller scale to fit more into what little space they got.
HO scale train sets
While I do wish Lionel would shake their train set line up a bit (diesel sets, different types of steam trains), I do appreciate them both fixing the chugging sound and in general, making train sets.
As I stated in my response to MTE's video defending Bachmann, it bothers me how Bachmann is really the only manufacture out there making HO scale train sets, even though HO scale is over-saturated.
Yes guys, I know that model trains have taken a 4th row backseat to tech and other hobbies, but people are more inclined to get into model railroading if they've got some type of starter kit that tells them everything they need to know, as opposed to just telling them "hey, just buy some track, a powerpack, a train with a couple of cars and your good to go!"
There is potential
For as rough of a start that Lionel has had with HO scale, they are trying to turn the ship around. Lionel's in house Berkshire looks like their legacy Berkshire if it was HO scale, which is a good thing, and they have other realistic options as well.
Back in my blog going over their summer catalog, Lionel offered HO scale cattle cars that made real sounds, which I thought was pretty neat as we don't really see that type of stuff in HO scale.
Personally, I would like to see Lionel put some of their legacy features into HO scale. I know not all of them are going to make it in (Sorry folks who want their HO scale trains bells to actually ring when they press the bell button or the coal cars to go down), but detail and sound features would win over the proto-typical crowd.
They made an HO scale Halloween train set
Look I know Halloween and trains don't mix as well as Christmas and trains, but it was nice to see a Halloween train set in HO scale that's not from Bradford Exchange.
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