A new POSTWAR podcast - Thoughts, ideas, your input appreciated

Absolutely!  Love the idea!!  

Absolutely! Great idea.

I’m a PW guy but I think this niche has enough appeal in the O gauge community to be of interest to many. And let’s face it. The demographics here (mostly) are folks who either had PW trains or have since bought/collected/run PW trains.

A few quick ideas for topics: 

• Reviews of some of the notable cataloged sets
• Uncataloged sets and promotional items
• Lionel tie-ins with certain RRs and advertisers
• Motorized units
• Operating accessories
• Rare or collectible items
• Dealer Display Layouts
• MPC-era

 Thanks, Derek. Hope this becomes reality. 

One word: yes!

absolutely !

Derek:

It's a great idea.

One thing you might explore is "How to avoid problems when purchasing certain models".  For example, if you were buying a 726 Berkshire, you'd want to make sure that the jeweled marker lights were both there, that all four steps on the tender were intact, and probably a half dozen other things I'm not thinking about.  AND, if any of these items were missing or broken, what are some sources for parts and how much they are and how difficult it would be to fix things.  If a collector had all that info, he'd 1) know what problems to avoid and 2) when he saw problems, he could estimate the cost/time needed to make the piece whole.

The list of items to examine is a long as what was manufactured during the postwar era: The cracks around FM body screws, restringing culvert loaders, replacing the film drive belt for the 334 dispatching station, putting a new cloth belt on the 364 log loader, etc.

If you made it a video production (versus just listening), you could also offer features on rebuilding things (e.g., how to rebuild a ZW, how to quarter the wheels on your steamer that you're rebuilding, how to replace the brushes, clean the commutator, and lube a 665, etc.

As a complete dinosaur Postwar guy, I'd watch or listen to every one of them.

I hope this gives you some ideas.  

Steven J. Serenska

YES!

Derek, so long as you have the people lined up, yes go for it. But another thought...

One thing I have noticed especially with the "other" train magazine, is that the focus seems to be on the extremes. There's always articles on the postwar era. Then there's reviews of mostly modern high end scale engines with layout features on similar layouts. Meanwhile the MPC and LTI eras seem to get overlooked.

I don't buy either 3-rail train magazine much anymore. The last time I bought the other one was in 2014 when they did a feature story on early MPC product. That was great!!

Of course, you could only do a podcast if you could find people who worked for Lionel during that time. Either that or people knowledgeable of that period with maybe the inside scoop.

I worked in the newspaper business for years. Current news goes on the front page. In the train business, the news is all the electronic developments and the scale trend. But on the inside pages, you have more liberty to cover other news or human interest stories.

It would be interesting to hear more about the MPC era or the LTI era up to the point where Lionel left Michigan and the real push with scale products took off.

Derek, I like your idea for a second show dedicated to postwar. However, I would rather see you incorporate "postwar" segments into your existing Notch 6 podcasts for the following reasons:

1. It would give you the opportunity to gauge interest before setting up a second show.

2. Postwar and modern may not need to be separated. After all, large numbers of people are interested in both, collect both and enjoy running trains from a variety of eras. 

3. Demographics: Those most likely to embrace technology and tune in to Notch 6 are of the very same age group least likely to have an interest in postwar trains, statistically. The majority postwar enthusiasts I see at our train local train store eschew the Internet, and run Legacy locomotives in conventional only. They are not a tech-savvy group. Certainly, there will be some young people who love postwar, just as there will be older people who love podcasts. In the end however, your demographics are an uphill battle.

4. Including heritage segments in the Notch 6 podcast would diversify your content. Rather than focusing solely on contemporaneous events, or interviews with Lionel or MTH personnel, you could introduce informational and interesting segments from not only the postwar era, but also prewar, MPC or LTI. 

Whatever you decide to do, good luck as you move forward!

Great idea.

Derrick,

This is a great idea. I would definitely listen to this.  Please do it.

This is sort of like old Mustangs versus new Mustangs,  some like both others only like one or the other, so I think a new series would be interesting, and that allows listeners to pick and choose.  I think PW should also include the MPC era as well, since much of the tooling is the same.  I agree with the earlier poster on how to repair/maintain equipment would be interesting.  

There are a lot of large niches in Lionel collecting that a podcast could easily go with each: prewar, postwar, MPC, Lionel Trains Inc., early and later Lionel L.L.C.

I know there's a huge amount of collectors who extremely knowledgeable about postwar Lionel, but as a result it's so common to see every source of information on the hobby talk about postwar. I agree with @brianel_k-lineguy that I would be far more interested in an article about Lionel Trains Inc. products or something that occurred then that was significant because that was my childhood and it's the era of Lionel I am most knowledgeable in.

The Madison Hardware book you did peaked my interest greatly because it was a huge moment in Richard Kughn's era at Lionel, and I vividly remember that story when TM did a video on it in 1991.

An informational article about all the big steam engines that Lionel Trains Inc. did is an article I would be extremely interested in, or maybe on the products Mike Wolf had a hand in developing for Lionel then.

Fun !

Peter

Sounds great.

Sounds like a great idea - perhaps AMT/Auburn/KMT/Kusan could make an appearance...

This brings to mind a gap in the collecting community.  The "other" magazine still focuses on PW.  This magazine on mostly modern. 

Nothing wrong with that. 

BUT witness the popularity of the MPC Era threads. 

We have a pretty good starting point with the early MPC years with the TM Books 1970-1980... but that's about it.  Where are the articles interviewing Michigan employees?  Where are the articles on decoration, manufacturing, and marketing of trains from the 1970-1995 era?  For some of us, those were our formative years in the hobby.  I was 12 in 1976.  I'll be 54 on my next birthday. 

These mags have to know their demographics are going to shrink unless they move forward.  When I started at KOOL 105, an "oldie" was a song from 1955 to 1972.  An "oldie" today is 1982-1995.  

Wait too long, and the people involved will all be gone.

Kudos to the LCCA for their recent series on the 9200 Series boxcars.  More please...

Jon

I think this is a great idea and commend you for considering it. FWIW:

• The PW content will have to have a different approach than the existing Notch 6 episodes. While Notch 6 typically talks about product launches, new developments, and the like, clearly there’s not much of that happening in this arena anymore.  The focus will have to be more on history, repair & servicing, current pricing, etc. You shouldn’t feel constrained to have the same types of episodes for PW as you would with current production. On a related topic…
• …a few of the other comments have suggested some fairly detailed topics and seem to be implying that the content should be based around those with “first hand” knowledge from back in the day. While I would find all of this interesting, too, I don’t think you need to limit the scope of what’s covered so narrowly. Personally, I’d listen to virtually anything about PW as long as the person is interesting and knowledgeable about the subject at hand.
• Finally, I too would suggest not creating a separately-branded podcast (at least, as someone else mentioned, not at the beginning). It’s hard enough to build one audience – let alone a second. I think there is a significant amount of interest overlap anyway, and if someone isn’t interested in a particular episode’s topic they can just skip listening to it.

I anxiously await whatever comes from your idea.

I think there are a lot of folks interested in the PW stuff and it would probably be a pretty good idea. Personally, I am really only interested in the modern command control items we have today. However, I would listen to your podcasts, but won't guarantee it will be all of them. It is sometimes interesting to hear about some of the PW stuff though and I am sure many others will be interested in all you have on the PW items. 

sounds pretty cool.....I'm in

I like the idea...and would like to see it linked in some way to this forum and the OGR Facebook pages...

Alan

I think its a great idea, but I wouldn't limit it to PW, but also include occasional MPC and even LTI subjects.

Please do and please include my favorite Lionel Trains. The MPC era.