Home Page Column from August 2000

Hello. We hope everyone has been having a great summer. It has been a while since we've produced a new webzine and it's great to be back. It has been a year since we started the webzine. We have been quite busy recently with the production of our newest video A Century of Lionel Trains. All of our efforts for the past three months had been directed solely at completing that project. Although we never really established a concrete schedule for producing this webzine, we've tried to post a new issue every other month, with breaking news reported as it happened. We simply were not able to keep up the pace over the last two months.

A lot of new products have been released to the public this summer. MTH Electric Trains released their Volume III catalogs. Lionel will release a new catalog on September 5, the day of their 100th Anniversary. The cover will be original art from Angela Trotta-Thomas. Lionel's new Century Club II catalog is reviewed in this issue. Williams is coming out with reproductions of Lionel N5c cabooses and NW-2switchers. The switchers will be made like the versions with diecast chassis. When they come out we'll have a review of them.

Both the TCA and the LCCA had their annual national conventions in Michigan last month. Both featured trips to Lionel, Madison Hardware and Carail. The TCA was not nearly as well-attended as the LCCA. The buyer-to-seller ratio was reportedly about 1:1 at the Grand Rapids event. It seems that if people across the country are budgeting their time for TCA events, they give the two York meets higher priority. This is probably why York has the biggest toy train shows in the world. The LCCA meet was in Dearborn, which is much closer to Lionel. Some in attendance were wearing buttons reading "make trains, not war." Everything at the LCCA convention was well organized. Dealers in the main hall were a lot happier than the dealers in the other halls. They felt like they were tucked away in a corner. MTH rented a large room and demonstrated their new command technology. Lionel didn't have a sales display set up but since their headquarters were only 30 miles away, they didn't really need one. The banquet was up to capacity with a lot of other people on the waiting list hoping to get last minute available seats. Dick Kughn and Dick Maddox each got turns at the podium and both were greeted with enthusiastic applause. Make no mistake about it, this was a crowd of Lionel fans.

Speaking of Lionel, as stated above the day of their 100th Anniversary is September 5th. Also, if you haven't already registered for new issue or new article notification you should. Just e-mail us and we'll e-mail you whenever we post something new on the webzine.

John W. Brady has joined Lionel as Vice President of Marketing. The announcement was made by Richard N. Maddox, President and CEO of Lionel.

"John's experience, extensive knowledge of the industry and business, and his track record of success made him the solid choice to execute our plans and strategies and to enhance the Lionel marketing team," commented Maddox.

Brady was most recently Senior Director of Marketing Services with Radica USA, Limited. He has previously held various marketing, sales and managerial positions at Gallery Marketing Group, Fisher-Price, Casio and Mantua Industries.

In his new position, Brady will be responsible for directing consumer marketing activities, aiding in product development and promotions and overseeing public relations and licensing.

He first worked for Lionel during the Fundimensions era before leaving Lionel Trains, Inc. in the early 1990s. He was an invaluable source for TM on many books and videos produced during that time and we wish him another successful tenure at Lionel.

DID YOU KNOW that this year the Union Pacific Railroad
put the wings back on the front logos of many of their
diesel-electric locomotives? The basic design of the shield
in patriotic colors was first developed in February, 1888.
It's amazing to see a logo survive that long.

It's also amazing to see a railroad survive since the days of
President Abraham Lincoln.