LIONEL Red Carpet event today, How about info and Pictures?

Nothing? Is there a no cell phone and no pictures rule at this event?

People are too busy spending money...

 

Rusty

My Guess.  Sometime later today, someone will post pictures and give us some

 information on what happen there.  If Lionel is passing out the new catalogs,

it's also possible we may find out some of what is in them.  While I'm waiting,

I'm going to go visit my granddaughter.  She loves trains too.

Where is our man SCOTT?

He is always at this event.

Wanted to go but shoulder operation keeps me home. OUCH

 

GG1GUYY

I arrived at the Red Carpet Event a few minutes before the 8 AM opening.  There were about 50 people lined up to get in.  I left about 11:30.  Attendance was VERY light...I would estimate only about 1/3 as many people as last year.

 

The real bad news: No catalogs for attendees.   I was told they haven't come in from the printer yet.  But, they definitely confirmed the catalogs will be up on the website at 11:00 on Monday.

 

They didn't have nearly as much merchandise on sale as last year.  Last year I saw people with multiple carts of stuff who had to be spending $5,000+.  This year, I saw none of that.  I just picked up a couple of things....Snoopy pumpkin car, SP Legacy Dash-9 and a T-shirt.

 

The tour was interesting in that they have made a lot of changes in the office area.  And, they have moved the archives to another, larger room.  They also have a pretty large layout adjacent to the archives.  As Mike Reagan said, the layout has every single type of track that Lionel currently offers.  They run every prototype/sample that Lionel receives from the factory on the layout.  Mike said his job is to run every item until it breaks.   There were a few kids in my tour group.  Mike gave each of them a Lionchief remote and let them run the trains.  The expressions on their faces were priceless.

  

Gentlemen,

   I would sure like to see some pictures myself,  especially of the running layout with all the different type Lionel tracks and and the over all event also.

PCRR/Dave

Add me to the list of people wishing for pictures.

 

Art

Got these pictures via Facebook. Lionel vs. LCCA on track layout contest.

 

 

What were the deals?

 

Gunny

Scott, maybe still on tour, 

Josh and him did beat a team, in the layout construction,  that was a little bit

of fun,   the layouts were light, ( how do you say,) track laid down.  I believe

it was well known this would be a soft attended.  I would have loved to have

stayed, and received all the personal attention,  as probably might not have

been anybody around much after lunch.   I think the fall event will be more upbeat

and hope.  thanks

Terry

Roger...looks like I see that our Ed was there as promised!! 

 

Alan

It's a little over 3 Hour drive to Lionel from my house and I left at 4:20 AM this morning. No the aisles were not paved with bargains. The prices were around what you see at York some better some not. There was not a bunch of refurbished locomotives. The $5.00 rolling stock was $15.00 this time. The Polar Express passenger cars were $10.00 instead of the $5.00 they were in November.
     I had a great time. So what if they didn't have tons of extra product to blow out--that actually sounds like a healthy Lionel to me. The crowd was down however the tour was excellent and so was the scenery seminar that Roger Farkash did.
     There was lots of hands on train running. There were several set-ups that had the new Lioncheif  remotes and you were able to just try these sets out. Actually I was a big critic of these new systems; now I am quite impressed with them. I bet my son Joshua ran trains for hour and a half while we were there.
     The highlight for me was the layout construction contest. Many of you are aware of my son's disability and due to that I have never been able to do anything like a team competition with him before today. That event will be a life long memory for me and was worth the drive by itself. As stated above Joshua and I competed in the first slot against another team and won. I hope someone got a picture of us putting it together.
Scott Smith

Congratulations Scott to you and Joshua.

 

Great job Joshua (and Scott)

Fantastic Scott....give Josh my thumbs up!!

 

Alan

Congratulations Scott and Joshua, that's great

 

Let see some more pictures of this event !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure Ed took a bunch of pictures

 

Alex

Well we just back, we left 9:30 last night got there at 4:30 this morning. Left there 1:00 this afternoon back here at 8:30 tonight. 7 hours each way.

 

Here is a teaser until I get myself together. Some may want to re-fi their home.

 

 

You wanted  Cab-forwardeds 5 AC-12's.

 

Hi Bob, did you take some photo's for those of us who live to far away to attend?

 

Steve, Lady and Tex 

Thanks Paul for taking the time to take some photo's and share with forum members who are too far away to attend.  Great job.

 

Steve, Lady and Tex

Indeed.  In one of the Big Boy threads last week -- I forgot which one -- someone commented that this was never an "inexpensive hobby", at which point I rambled off a few items that just came off the boat recently... and they tallied up a few grand without the blink of an eye.

 

Looks like this catalog is gonna push that even further -- not so much any ONE item, but rather the sheer total of "everything" that someone may want to purchase.  Some folks may have just enough means to be VERY dangerous to themselves!!! 

 

I can see it now... wish-lists exceeding $20K... EASY!!!

 

I don't think I could have picked a better time to switch gears over to Standard Gauge.   It's actually quite a relief to grab these "sneak peek" teasers of new O-Gauge items, and not feel the slightest urge to reach for my wallet (yet).  The only exception is the PE Berk, but that doesn't really count 'cause it was already previewed in last year's catalog.  

 

But I worry about some of you guys (and gals) building these huge basement empires, 'cause by the looks of things this catalog has you square in its sights!!!  

 

David

Not a single Legacy Diesel Locomotive has been mentioned yet. I wonder if something is coming, or did they run out of important railroads for the diesels.

 

Andrew

H-24-66 Trainmasters

New EMD E8/E9's

Not much shown.

Al,
I am at church at the moment. I'll call you when I get back.
Scott Smith

Nice photos of you and your Son, Scott.

I see some LCS modules. 

Nice haul Scott, I see the shopping cart came in handy.  It looks like your son had a great time over at the Lion Chief layout.  Can't beat the smiles that you share with us.  Thank you for posting the photo's and glad you guys had a good time.

 

Steve, Lady and Tex

I'd be curious if there are an GG1s. 

Fastrack out the ying yang,  those cute box cars, smaller Coke, Caboose, searchlight cars,  RTR, sets (Nascar, Area, N/S,Maple leaf,  few MLB,oops & of course Christmas)  Speeders, Heritage Cabooses,  AUTO RACKS, Scale box cars--(not my focus),   some Polar CARS,  Zephur sets, J Class,  Then the legacy engines, and non power matching road names, for the Legacys,  I lucked out and found a Non power Alaska RR, (the only 1 in the bldg), names ( L &N, Seaboard, N & W, NKP, Heritage NYC , Wabash)  Amerian flyer over in the corner, did not go , and the toy section on the way out.  I saw a scale, CN car, in a cart,  asked, walked over to where they pointed, ?? not see, mayhave been in the specialized box cars.  For anybody that wanted the RTR, sets, to say start, the family, and kids, on an adventure,  then YES,  (but wrong crowd,  no mom and pops, were there yesterday)!!,  and I will say the Lionel crowd as always  VERY, Nice to work with !!!!!!!!!!! 

thanks

So how were the prices?

 

And was there a good assortment of stock?

 

GG1GUYY

OK here we go are some much needed sleep.

 

First off we had a great time and many thanks needs to out to Lionel and all of their great employees who helped make the day special.

 

This time around we only came home with large box (last year we filled the car) of purchases. Plenty of trains and related items for sale, luckily only 1 thing on my short list I found which was a CSX TMCC speeder.

 

The tour was great and here of some photos that I took (sorry for some of the quality as most were taken while I was video taping most of it).

 

Some of the new items that they had at the toy fair both a O & G gauge frosty the snowman sets.

Some questions & answers, one thing about the Legacy control systems release my impression was don't look for it soon.

 

Look for a increase in the train art and Christmas related items.

Our sneak peek into what you will see tomorrow and that the catalogs are not printed yet.

One thing that appeared to me me was a very increased G gauge line.

Look for a increase in the items MADE IN THE USA. We a new agreement with MLB they are going to be making some box cars for the teams made in the USA. 

To me the best part of the tour was the new archive section and a great job by J Don Reese showing us parts of it. Just about a 17 minute video that I took and a great look into just part of Lionel's past.

J Don's favorite piece.

Mike's great hide away upstairs of the archive. One of his layouts used to try to break in new products. Everyone was given a chance to operate a LionelChief Plus. He had a UP E9 (really looked great) there and he say that they are on the boat and we should see them soon. 

I sent my daughter off the camera.

I missed Roger's seminar again and I really wanted to sit in on that. We had to leave early again, this time due to my wife was not feeling good since she had a operation Friday morning and she held up good for all that she went through. I even had to have her drive some about a hour after we headed home because I started having problems driving. You know it's bad when I started opening my eyes and all that I see that we are on is country roads in NC, I didn't say a word. But we made it home safe.  

Other pics are posted here.

Hmmm... An SP GS6 with an NYC ESE tender...  One of these things does not belong.

 

Rusty

Paul, 

thanks for the pics,  I only had a cheap phone, and you got some really good shots,

I was overwhelmed with to much, historical info ( I am not professed at what was presented)       I too, needing the sleep,  0200, sat a,m, then drive, walk way to much concrete for my authoritis,    I too, went with the N/S speeder,  it truely makes me wonder with some of ya'lls monsterous layouts,  these things have to get lost,  3 1/2 inches, but cute.

I almost bought the last box of 3,  I mean a Speeder consist,  yea, I am that well...

and this am after 13 hrs straight ,snooze  , I wish I had !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

might  add,  Mr.  Hitchcock, was very busy, in maintaining the supply tables, and keeping eyes on those Computer counters.  I wish they had a table for OGR, members, and nice name tags,( there was plenty of time) to view peoples names

had something like that been done, It would have just been informative!!

This was my first time to visit Lionel's warehouse.  The Lionel people were all very couteous and helpful.

The tour was very interesting.  Our guide was a Nascar guy who admittedly didn't know much about trains but he said he is learning.  Interesting to know the Nascar collectors are as crazy as we are.  Over $100 for a die cast car!  Who knew?  Was told the Nascar cars and the Lionel trains come from the same factory.  Would not have guessed this.

I asked about the tubular track and was told Lionel is going to have 3 years-worth made and then that will be it.  (Of course never say never).

There weren't many real bargains for sale.  I heard some say they were more expensive than previously .  Set break-up cars were $15 each.  These had plastic trucks and were nothing special.

Also heard the prices they were getting for other stuff was above dealer's cost.

So I didn't buy nearly as much as I expected but all in all am very glad I went.

Again I want to emphasize what great hosts the Lionel people were.

I didn't get a chance to take any pictures had to deal with an overly excited 3 year old son!! I've noticed that the prices are not at the same level as the door busters sale in November but they're pretty good if you was looking to get a deal on some items. I picked up a CRYO-TRAN mechanical refrigerator car to add to my collection of modern refrigerator boxcars. Me and my son did get a change to tryout the Rail chief plus remote and locomotives. I was really impressed with all the feature offered in these new series of locomotives. The sounds where better than what I expected but not at the same fidelity as the latest version of railsounds but still very good none the least. I also found out the Railchief trains will not interfere with TMCC or Legacy which is great to hear since I will most like be buying my son a his 1st new trainset for Christmas.

 

Al Kolis with the LCCA just sent this video - apparently there was a contest who could put together the fastest layout LCCA vs Lionel!

 

Mike even got on the table top... apparently "no rules" applied to this contest    

 

 

Roger enjoyed giving his presentation and Scott even sent me a video of it. I wasn't able to make the trip this year but will put it on my calendar of events for 2015! I'll be needing to do some GBaby shopping That's right, Roger and I are going to be grandparents in the month of October Truly blessed!!

Train Dame,

There are two parts to the video. Would you like me to post a link here for both?

Scott Smith