LCCA Members Have A Blast - Lionel/LCCA Red Carpet Event in Concord (recap)
Lionel and the LCCA hosted a true Red Carpet Event in Concord NC on Friday March 22 and Saturday March 23. The first of kind event was held at the new offices of Lionel.
This open house event provided our members with an "up close and personal" glimpse of Lionel's operations there. Numerous members and their families enjoyed spending their Friday at the Spencer Train Museum in nearby Spencer, NC. Members also enjoyed the scenic train ride at the museum.
Then on Saturday morning, despite a light rainfall, members were lined up outside the door and around the corner of the building waiting to get in and spend their money on great deals on select discounted Lionel products. Several hundred members and their families made the weekend get away to Concord, NC to enjoy a day at Lionel's new facility. Great deals were enjoyed by all.
Members enjoyed the tours of Lionel's facility including the Lionel archives. A late announcement was the addition of a Lionel Auction of prototype samples from Lionel's archives.
The LCCA's Mini-layout and the Lionel/LCCA FasTrack Modular Railroad System was set up and operating for all to enjoy. The FasTrack Modular railroad was set up in its trapezoid configuration. This LCCA/Lionel FasTrack Modular Railroad is generating a lot of interest. Thank you to the members who will be ordering our modular kits. Many members expressed interest in building modules and attending future LCCA Special Events. Lionel had a wide variety of product sales as well as their traveling operating layout which was designed and built by TW TrainWorx of Dallas TX. There were no shortage of Lionel trains running on various layouts throughout the show.
LCCA's President Elect and Product Development Manager. Lou Caponi was on hand with several pre-production samples of LCCA's future products. The LCCA's Standard Gauge limited edition "The Goliath", the Pre-war tinplate fantasy Flying Yankee Denver & Rio Grande road name Prospector set and a prototype operating coal ramp were on display and attracted a lot of attention and interest. We are developing this diverse product mix in an effort to appeal to the various product interests of our members. We believe there is wide variety of products with various price points for the diverse special interests of our members. Thank you Lou Caponi for creating and developing this Lionel/LCCA Red Carpet event for our members to enjoy.
LCCA President Dennis DeVito and several BOD Directors and officers were on hand to meet with fellow members. President DeVito exclaimed "This is a great event for both Lionel and the LCCA. We hope this event will turn into an annual event. I encourage each of you to get involved with the LCCA/Lionel FasTrack Modular Railroad system by building and bringing your modules to our 43rd Annual Convention to be held at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel from July 14-20, 2013". We hope to see each of you again at a future LCCA Special Event".
The seminars were standing room only, and very much appreciated by our members. Lionel's Mike Reagan entertained everyone with a talk about Lionel's Customer Service operations. LCCA's Roger Farkash of TW TrainWorx in Dallas TX, gave a demonstration of layout scenery tips and effects. LCCA's Bill Schmeelk introduced the Lionel/LCCCA FasTrack Modular Railroad system to the members in attendance. OGR's Ed Boyle provided an entertaining and informative presentation about S-gauge trains.
This initial Red Carpet event at Lionel was a huge success and very well attended. I have heard nothing but positive comments and great feedback from our members who attended. Thank you to all of the members and their families for attending and participating in this wonderful event. We hope this will be the first of many annual events to be held in Lionel's Concord Facility. Our sincere thanks go to Lionel's Howard Hitchcock, Michael Phillips, Mike Reagan, Tom Nuzzo and their entire Lionel staff for hosting such a wonderful event. Your hard work and efforts were very much appreciated by our members and volunteer management team.
LCCA made history with promoting this Red Carpet Event by being featured in the premier episode of the first podcast broadcast dedicated to the O-Gauge Hobby. LCCA member Derek Thomas launched a new Notch6 podcast dedicated to the O-Gauge hobby. For those of you not familiar, Notch 6 is the most frequently used throttle position on a diesel locomotive engine. To listen to this podcast, click on episode 1 at
http://notch6.libsny.com/webpage
Our sincere appreciation to all of the members who traveled to participate and support the club during this LCCA/Lionel Red Carpet Special Event. It is you, our members that make the LCCA such a great club to belong to. Thank you for your feedback and suggestions. We look forward to seeing you all again in upcoming LCCA special events and at our 43RD Annual Convention July 14-20 at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel.
Are we having fun yet?
Best regards
Al Kolis
Immediate Past President & Special Events Manager