Lionel has released an HO scale catalog for Spring 2026...and it's kind of meh.
I'm sorry for starting off on a sour note guys, but it bothers me how Lionel's HO scale stuff is 90% IP, Holidays, and fantasy trains and 10% stuff from the real world.
And before anyone calls me out, yes I am a fan of holiday and fantasy schemes, but I want the option for real stuff to be there too. Lionel doesn't really provide that in this catalog outside of a few cars including the test cars they announced awhile back.
If it makes you feel better though Lionel, I did see some good stuff in here, starting with the American Berkshire.
As someone who's a sucker for Patriot schemes, I couldn't help but really like this scheme. It's on my "want to see it be made in real life" list, and at least from the photo provided it provides a decent amount of detail to look at. It also can run on DCC or DC and does smoke. Just try not to look too closely at the price tag.
Some of the 250 cars win me over as well, such as the president's cars and founding father box cars.
Alright Lionel, I'll give you a thumbs up on the Halloween passenger cars. Yes their molds of the Polar express passenger cars made to look spooky, but it honestly works here, and any HO Halloween stuff that isn't from a certain subscription company is a win for me.
Speaking of the Polar Express, I gotta also give a thumbs up to the presents car. I believe Lionel did something like this in O, so seeing them shrink it down a gauge is pretty neat.
The searcher lights are new tooling in this catalog and I like the ones they provide in this catalog for the most part. Maybe it's because I'm looking in the wrong places but I do miss those types of cars in HO scale.
Well I did say I wanted to see more John Deer HO scale stuff...
OK Lionel you better be getting ready to release an Area 51 Railroad train set soon. I'm all for the Area 51 ET44 getting shrunk down to HO scale and put in a train set.
Of course, this is assuming Lionel has tooling for an ET44 in HO scale. One can dream alright?
Like I said, this catalog does not really have that many "stuff you'd see in real life" cars. Just one in a half pages and it's crane cars...
And then the test cars I mentioned before.
Also while not apart of the catalog, I saw this screaming eagle HO scale train and honestly? Looks pretty good.
Final Thoughts:
I just wish these catalogs would have more train cars that were realistic as opposed to fantasy. Again, I'm all for the fantasy stuff Lionel, but your competitors in HO scale are providing a wide, wide range of realistic fright cars alongside other types of trains as well.
This ain't O scale, you don't have an monopoly in HO scale, and I ponder how long you'll even have HO scale when this is what you're putting out there, and for high prices too...
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