Lionel 2020 Volume 1 auxiliary tenders issue

Good Morning Everyone,

When the new Lionel 2020 catalog was released online, I tried to view it, but like everyone else I couldn't get it to load. So I instead listened to the Notch 6 podcast catalog review between Derek and Ryan Kunkle of Lionel. I was happy about the new Freedom Train/Preamble Express items including the new auxiliary water tenders. During the Notch 6 presentation, Ryan stated that the auxiliary tenders would be from NYC Mohawk tender tooling. That was great, because the both the real Freedom Train T1 and the following Chessie Steam Special both used this style tender. The other auxiliary tenders are either fantasy/what if for this tender style. Then I was able to view the catalog, there was a discrepancy between the description and the catalog illustrations. The description says the tenders are 12 inches long, yet the illustrations clearly show a shorter tender than the Mohawk tender should be. I emailed Lionel yesterday about this and asked what is actually going to be produced. Haven't heard back yet, but it's only 1 day. Then, today I watched the Lionel Ryan & Dave show which was their Facebook video presentation of the new catalog. When it came to the auxiliary tenders, Ryan mentioned somewhat quickly that Lionel doesn't have the tooling for the "correct Mohawk tenders" so they are going with a shorter tender that is "close".(in reality it looks like a Hudson tender that isn't "close". So now the product is already different from the podcast description. As far as the tooling, none of the newer TMCC/Legacy Mohawks have the correct tender for the Freedom Train/Chessie auxiliary tender, but where is the tooling from the late 90's or early 2000's that have the correct style Mohawk tender? I have all the other scale Lionel Freedom Train items which are great but I'm ticked off over this tender screw up and no, I will not purchase one. Just wanted to let those who might be interested in purchasing one of the Freedom Train/Chessie tenders that so far you won't be getting a scale Mohawk tender.