Preliminary report from the center of Lionel worship, the Lionel Collector’s Club of America annual convention :). Worship is an appropriate word as the LCCA convention is sharing the Adams Mark Hotel with a large group of devout Christians who have some of the best behaved kids ever, and who are joining us trainheads in enjoying the large displays by Lionel and the Pittsburgh Independent Hi-Railers. Lionel is here in force, including Jerry Calabrese, Richard Kughn, Mike Reagan, Rich Moser, Tom Nuzzo, all arriving before the weekend, so this is a big commitment from Lionel to their most loyal fans. The exhibits look polished and Lionel seems to be doing very well indeed. The Lionel staff are sincerely gungho about the direction(s) the company is taking and the leadership of Jerry C.
The Lionel Grand Central Terminal layout from Christmas is in the hotel lobby for all to see, whether by LCCA’s or Conservative Christians, or non-conventioneers in this 468 room hotel and downtown Buffalonians. Had a long and entertaining talk with Tom Nuzzo for the first time. Spent lots of time with Al and Barb N. Had a long talk with Michael T., the oncologist from LI whose Dunham layout was featured in Lionel Nation, Vol. 1, and also met John W. (Lionelski), his train friend from home. Mike Mottler the editor of the Lion Roars was at the LCCA booth, so I took the opportunity to thank him for his hard work. Along with the TCA Quarterly, the Lion Roars is the highest quality club publication IMO, and the one I enjoy most (no surprise).
The “conventional classics” (actual from the last century) and I believe some pre-production samples or mockups of the Conventional Classics are being shown in the Lionel booth. Fun stuff. The registration gift was afirst Lionel water tower (one of those mushroom cloud shaped deals) marked for the NYC, very nice. The convention
Sorry, Jon, no camera. Too lazy and pictures will appear in The Lion Roars, and on their website, hopefully. LCCA is a really great club if you are a Lionel fan in any way, shape or form. Particularly if you like postwar Lionel these days as they have some cool repros or novelty items.
Jerry Calabrese gave a long talk at today’s Lionel Seminar at LCCA. Clearly the catalog is going to shrink in that they will be covering the waterfront in product niches with many fewer SKUs, recognizing that the market will not support the current situation, the dealers cannot stock even a fraction of their current product line, and most of the Lionel’s customers are less obsessed with specific railroads or locomotives than typical model railroaders. They plan to throw a lot of resources and effort at developing Legacy as a simple, but powerful layout control system that will work for layouts of all sizes and complexities. The high end first subway is at least a few months away from being finished for those who care. They will continue to make models that appeal to beginners (sets mostly), postwar and prewar fans, high tech fans and hi-railers (scale models). The variety of products will be decreased for each catalog from recent years, which will mean that some folks will find only a few or no pieces to interest them in any given catalog.
Here are some more notes:
One of the big issues being addressed by Mike Reagan (new chief of customer service) and others at Lionel is proper documentation for both operation and repair of Lionel products. I saw volume one in draft form. This should be of great assistance to repair stations and to consumers who wish to do their own work.
The issue of New Jersey came up (given Neil Young’s comments) and the only comment I heard is that they are indeed investigating distribution center possibilities on the East Coast, and Jerry Calabrese mentio
Thank you for the early report from the LCCA convention. I was very much interested in the Lionel Seminar, but was unable to make the trip this year. Your analysis of the future direction revealed some interesting developments. I am one who enjoys the conventional units, however run a few TMMC as well. It’s nice to know that Lionel has not forgotton the silent majority of this great hobby. If possible, could you report on the trading show portion - are sales robust, or is everyone basically looking and not buying? At regional train shows, the buying has definately been lower, I was wondering if the climate was better at this event - usually is pretty strong. Thanks. (A member of LCCA since 1996, former Lionel Ambassador)
Spent about an hour at the trade hall opening yesterday. It’s fairly small, perhaps 50-70 tables I’d guess, and it was packed. I saw a fair amount of buying going on, if people handing green pieces of paper to others was any indication.[:D] Hard to say whether it’s good, bad or indifferent compared with other years. I’m guessing today it will be packed with Buffalo citizens since the News ran daily pictorial coverage all week. So I’d expect some reasonable sales. I didn’t have a table so cannot give any further analysis.
As one of those “citizens” I can say that the room(s) started to fill late in morning. Saw Dick Kughn browsing the CCT booth. Managed to find a mint intermodel crane. It will soon no longer be mint.:).
Mr Nuzzo was there with a legacy table explaing all the features. He was kind enough to walk me through the lashup procedure. VEry easy. What is nice about this is that after the lashup is made you can still individually control each engine and break it up (or hook it up) like the real thing without a lot of effort or confusion.
Welcome aboard. I think you’ll enjoy it. The LCCA is a very successful and fun club with 8,000 or so members, and particularly appropriate for those who like Lionel’s products, current or historical. Lionel takes a keen interest in the group since it is specifically focused on Lionel. So there are lots of special run Lionel products for club members only at reasonable prices, a great bimonthly magazine “The Lion Roars,” edited by Mike Mottler, with fabulous authors like Bill Schmeelk and Erol Gurcan (the Locolawyer ;), and a yearly national convention that moves around the country (next year is Sacramento). Also a buy/sell publication and on-line buy-sell operation. Their website is:
They also, despite the name, have lots of operators as members, not just collectors. You can join online, the initiation fee is a $10.00 once and the annual dues are, IMO, well worth it at $30.00.