FEBRUARY 25, 2021 - A few months ago, Lionel, LLC released the Star Trek LionChief train set, based on Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Original Series. Lionel are now building on the collection with new pieces planned for release later in the year. Known for being the “go to” guide for Star Trek collectibles, a recent report from The Trek Collective brought us the details on the new additions to the set.

What could be more fun than watching Captain Picard, Commander Riker and the ever-troublesome Q chase each other? The new “Chasing Gondola” gives you just that. As the gondola moves along the track, you’ll see Picard, Riker and Q literally chase each other around cargo from the Enterprise-D and the Utopia Planitia Shipyard.

The next car in the line is the Dilithium Crystals Hopper. This open car features a massive pile of dilithium, brilliantly illuminated with a pink glow. But don’t get too excited, Discovery fans; this hopper of dilithium is clearly marked as the property of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D.

There’s one more item being added to the TNG line, a small locomotive called the TMCC Speeder. Captain Picard is at the helm of the Speeder, which looks awfully similar to a TNG era shuttlecraft.

Lionel have also beefed up their range of boxcars featuring the captains of Star Trek. The 2020 release brought the Picard and Kirk boxcars. They’ve added two new boxcars this year, showcasing Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine and Captain Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager.

All of these pieces run on Lionel O-gauge tracks and will join the original set, which includes the full TNG LionChief train modelled after the Enterprise-D, as well as the Ten Forward, Sickbay and animated Holodeck cars. The TNG LionChief set, itself, is also being re-released, and it’s been upgraded to Bluetooth 5.0. You’ll be able to use your voice to control the train through the LionChief App. You can even record and play custom announcements for your “passengers”.

According to The Trek Collective, we can expect to see the release of these new additions in the third quarter of 2021. For more information, seek out your local authorized Lionel dealer.