In loving memory of Richard Kughn who passed away today (6/8/19)

It has all been said here with more heartfelt eloquence than I could hope to muster. Thank you and rest in peace Mr. K.

Al K. posted:

Dick made this world a better place.   I am grateful for having know him and Linda.   Linda and I while hosting a LCCA Soecial Event pulled off a surprise 85th BD party for Dick.   We also honored him later at an event at the NJ Hi trailers club in Paterson NJ.   He was truly touched.  

I was fortunate to spend the day with him this past February and took him to a WGHOT train show in Novi MI.  He had a blast meeting with people at the LCCA table within the Lionel display and running Lionchief Lionel trains.  

We lost a great friend and ambassador of our hobby.   We love you and will miss you.  We offer our sincere condolences to his family and his staff at Kughn Enterprise 

Wonderful photos capturing great memories. Glad I had a chance to meet Dick many years ago. Thanks for posting these!

Some  may not know that Mr. Kughn  was an amateur magician in his youth and enjoyed the hobby of magic for a lifetime.  I remember the thrill of meeting and talking with him at CarRail during an LCCA

convention some years ago - and talked with him again several years  later  at a magician's

convention in Michigan.  We enjoyed visiting about our 3 shared interests - Lionel trains, magic,

and antique cars.  A wonderful, classy gentleman !

Dick Kughn was a strong supporter of the LCCA.  The LCCA has met with Dick Kughn numerous times and produced exclusive videos with him and Linda.   If interested in viewing some of these videos, please visit the following page on our website. 

Deepest condolences to the family on the passing of Richard Kughn. When he owned the company Lionel was at its best. I still run many of the products of his era on my layout. RIP Richard you did us well.

Rick Bednar posted:

Some  may not know that Mr. Kughn  was an amateur magician in his youth and enjoyed the hobby of magic for a lifetime.  I remember the thrill of meeting and talking with him at CarRail during an LCCA

convention some years ago - and talked with him again several years  later  at a magician's

convention in Michigan.  We enjoyed visiting about our 3 shared interests - Lionel trains, magic,

and antique cars.  A wonderful, classy gentleman !

I didn’t know about his magic interest. Was he at the convention held by Abbott’s?

Yes Brian - it was at Abbott's convention when I saw him - saw him only one time but I imagine

he was there more than one year since I knew he lived fairly close by in the Detroit area.

Richard P. Kughn once said fine vintage cars were works of art, "like a Picasso or a Rembrandt." 

He often treated them as such, doting over their curves and chrome and even opening a museum that displayed some of the most elegant specimens in his vast collection.

The Detroit businessman also loved trains. He ran toy train manufacturer Lionel for about a decade, breathing life into the company and helping introduce a new generation of kids to the hobby he fell in love with as a boy.

Kughn, 89, of Dearborn died Saturday. Funeral arrangements are pending. 

Kughn was born in Detroit and raised in Bay Village, Ohio. By age 18, he was back in Detroit working various construction jobs, according to his son, Gary Kughn. He joined the Taubman Co. as an estimator in 1955.

Richard Kughn in 2003 in his Carail Museum on Grand River in Detroit. (Photo: RICHARD LEE, DETROIT FREE PRESS)

To read the article: Click here

Gary