At a train show in Parma, OH- there he was, the man!!
They had him pull a name out for a prize drawing, and there was a room-wide ovation for this man who (probably) saved Lionel for the rest of us!! He is of course, aged, but engaged with everyone who came up to talk with him. He was BUYING some cars here and there, saying in one case: "Only $20? I'll take it!!" Personally I would have given him anything he wanted- without him we are all likely not in this hobby!!
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Cool!
That’s neat, Mike! Congratulations!
Mr. Kughn could have autographed my 31-year-old first edition of CTT if I knew you were going.
What, me worry?
Love the story! As time goes on, we come to increasingly appreciate Mr. Kughn's vision and contributions.
You’re very lucky. I’ve always looked up to and have been grateful to Richard Kughn for leading Lionel into some of the best years in the modern era (which some of us might take for granted now), and it’s nice to hear he’s still passionate about the hobby after all these years.
I met him at York about 25-30 years ago and he asked me what I picked up and he autographed my Lionel catalog.
Wow, thank You for sharing that moment and I honestly think he did save Lionel and better yet, introduced Command Control to make our love of toy trains even Better. He is a man of Integrity. Great thread, Happy Railroading.
If you meet him again, tell him to come back. We need him.
Cool you met him. Remember seeing him roaming the halls at York in years past.
We could use another Mr. Kughn.
Maybe its just me, but in the few posts here you can feel the respect for the man.
Met and chatted with Richard and Linda Kughn on a few occasions, they were both always very friendly and engaging. His was the last "face" you could associate with Lionel, much like Mike Wolf is MTH. Now its just a series of faceless CEO's. As the above posts reflect, Mr. Kughn was always a gracious and humble "train" guy.
Steve
He is a train and car guy, therefore more than usually admired by me. Got to see his collection of both in Detroit area during train convention in forgotten year, seems just after he acquired Lionel? Did not personally meet, though.
Wow, I wish I could have been down the street in Parma and meet the legendary Richard Kughn!!! Really the guy that brought me into O scale trains with the first realistic freight cars and locomotives for the modern era. My NS Dash-8 got A LOT OF use, and I will always keep it. Mike Wolf took this to the next level, but Richard Kughn started the game changes in O scale.
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