LION ROARS - Lionel Collectors Club of America

10Corning Hopper. Ours was a quad hopper and had morecolor than this new Lionel version, but the new one isstill a smart looking car. For American Flyer fans, fourcars are being offered. The Bordens flatcar shown inphoto 10 hasn’t been made for over 30 years.One of the first places I look in the catalog is in theaccessory section. I certainly wasn’t disappointed thisyear. Most of my train dollars will probably be spent inthis section. American Flyer’s Gabe the Lamplighter isfinally coming out. This version will be made from someof the original tooling. It will operate in much the samemanner as the original with a slight variation. On thisnew version, Gabe will inch up the ladder and once hereaches the top, the lightswill go on. This will be anautomatic feature and willnot require a separatebutton as the original did.To turn off the light, Gabemust make another trek upthe ladder to turn off thelights. Just as Lionel hadits loyal employeesdelivering milk, dieselfuel, and coming out of ashack with a lantern,American Flyer had Gabe.Now Gabe is working forLionel and should proveeven more reliable at hisjob on the light tower.Another great Flyeraccessory premiering this11year is the Seaboard coaler. This bucket loader has alwaysintrigued me, and I’m thrilled that I will soon be able toadd it to my layout.There’ll be lots of accessoriesreturning from the postwar days.The 128 News Stand returns alongwith the 282R Triple ActionMagnetic Crane. It’s interestingthat Lionel has chosen the “R”suffix that Lionel used to indicatea revision to the mechanism in thepostwar model. And, finally, the350 Transfer Station is returning.I’ll be anxious to see theimprovements in the drive systemthat Lionel makes. Even the table extensions are beingmade available again.As we had hoped, the Lionel Heliport is back withsome new features that were not on the original. Theoriginal came out at a time when Lionel was severelycutting costs. The original Heliport had no illumination,no interior insert, and required you to hook up a string tooperate it remotely. All of these faults have been correctedin the new version which ads an “R” to the original 419number. You’ll be able to launch the helicopter remotely,and the insert and illumination will be included.The Lionel Hobby Shop returns this year after itsrecent debut. This time it’s made up as Madison Hardware.In addition to bringing backsome of the postwaraccessories, there are alsolots of brand new ones.Railroad modelers havealways enjoyed building anamusement park for theirlayout. Now Lionel isoffering two accessoriesthat could be the highlightof any amusement park —a carousel and a ferriswheel.Lionel was also toutinga new feature on its website— the Product Navigator.Photo 11 shows the logofor this new search enginethat allows you to searchfor specific products past and present, or for a range ofproducts in a category you select. I tried it and found thatitems from the new catalog are not yet in the database.17The Lion Roars April, 2001