Mike Reagan Resigns from Lionel

One of my favorite pictures from the Legacy Users Group meeting.  Mike letting Elliot that he still loves him!

The sheriff in town.  We'll miss your "official" presence at the Legacy Users Group but if you happen to be in town for the meet please stop by!  You can harass the "Lionel Guy (if we have one)" like some of the guys harassed you.

REVOLGNAD said:

"Back in 2008 our modular club "The Pittsburgh Independent Hi-Railers" got invited to set up a 16 x40 layout at the LCCA convention in Buffalo NY  and we where in the same ball room where Lionel had their display set-up with the latest Lionel offerings, at the end of our first day of operation we where getting ready to leave for the evening and in strolls Mike Reagan and some dude from Texas with a couple of six packs of Corona (I think) and looking at our layout and wanting to run trains the next thing I know Mike goes over to the Lionel display and gets the then new Legacy Union Pacific FEF to run on our layout,this went on till 1:00/2:00 in the morning and we got to run quite a few engines that evening !!! My son who was 14 years old at the time all of a sudden disappeared I found him asleep under one of the modules !! Very cool memories".

Sounds like he has some Aussie blood in him. That's the best story yet and I've read them all even though I don't know the bloke. Good luck to for the future Mike Reagan.

Roo.

Ah the good old days I remember at TAS with

Mike Reagan, Lou N, Phil, Me, Ron. 

What a Crew LOL, we could tell some stories.

Love you Mikey !!

Ernie

Mike sure wears his holster low on his hip-quick draw ??   Sounds like you guys had some fun.

Best of luck no matter what direction you take. You have earned the praise of many people in this industries.

Best wishes to Mike in his future successes!

Mike and I are "hometown" guys although I am a generation senior.

I too moved to Charlotte late 1978 after the very bitter "Blizzard winter 78."

My first contact with Mike was just after he went to Lionel.  I had contacted "TALK TOUS" 4-28-2008 about the 3/32" height  difference between my new Legacy Pennsy E7 A-units and the new E7 non-powered B-unit.  Mike emailed me 5-1-2008 saying that "TALK TOUS" forwarded my question to him and that he would investigate.  On 5-9-2008 he emailed stating he had the locs in question, saw the "High water" problem, and was locating parts to fix it.  On 5-12-2008 he emailed that he had the parts to fix on his desk.  He ask do I want him to send the parts, or me send the E-unit for repair, or he could mail out an other unit.  I chose the parts.

Not long after he moved to Concord he stopped by the local toy train shop which is across form the NC Transportation Museum.   I and others asked "how about a High-Nose GP30 (Southern) like is running at the Museum."  About a year and a half later I had mine in hand along with the N&W one on loan to the Museum at the time. (Now I had been in contact with a MTH VP since 2007 and talked directly Mike Wolf when he was here for the NS Heritage Event for High-Nose GP30's)

Mike Reagan listened and actively moved on things.

I have known Mike for a long time  He has done a lot for the hobby   I feel he is going to be missed at lionel

He brought the service dept to the front    From taking months to get items repaired to only a couple of weeks

The same ordering of parts from weeks to only a week

I learned a lot from Mike   I attended the service station school in ran in Canfield and went back a year later and spent a few days with his service techs

Mike I hope that you ever get change to visit Maine you can get together with a few of us Maine 3 railer club members

Lionel will not be same with out Mike Reagan

I join the rest singing the praises.  You were the ambassador to Lionel and patiently answered my questions at the open houses.  Best of luck and hope you will get to enjoy life more these days!

Lionel2341 posted:

Ah the good old days I remember at TAS with

Mike Reagan, Lou N, Phil, Me, Ron. 

What a Crew LOL, we could tell some stories.

Love you Mikey !!

Ernie

For sure Mike knew how to put a team together and make it function like a well oiled machine.  Stories you say, we could write a book.

Lou N

Lou N posted:

For sure Mike knew how to put a team together and make it function like a well oiled machine.  Stories you say, we could write a book.

Lou N

Lou, 

Instead of writing a book, would you be interested in coming on our online radio show called Notch 6 sometime? Mike has plenty of experience on the show and it might be fun to try a group interview. What do you say?

Notch 6 posted:

Lou N posted:

For sure Mike knew how to put a team together and make it function like a well oiled machine.  Stories you say, we could write a book.

Lou N

Lou, 

Instead of writing a book, would you be interested in coming on our online radio show called Notch 6 sometime? Mike has plenty of experience on the show and it might be fun to try a group interview. What do you say?

Both a book and Notch 6 podcasts would be even better!  

I thought your Madison Hardware book was great, enjoyed reading every word. 

I just want know, where in the heck do I get one of those legacy holsters. I need a double setup

This should be a "GREAT JOB MIKE, SORRY TO SEE YOU GO" forum.

I hate to see him go but all the best is all I will say!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Notch 6 posted:

Lou, 

Instead of writing a book, would you be interested in coming on our online radio show called Notch 6 sometime? Mike has plenty of experience on the show and it might be fun to try a group interview. What do you say?

 That is an AWESOME idea!!!  

Folks, why all the speculation on why Mike resigned? Fact is he did for whatever the reason. Your telling me that over the course of your respective careers you have never changed jobs, never took  better job, changed jobs for the sake of changing jobs? Needed a change from the Corp BS?

Its business, period. For whatever reason Mike and Lionel parted ways.

We all wish him the best. We wish Lionel the best. Both will survive.

We will all find out at the approriate time, if he wants to lets us know, where his new home is.

In the meantime can we stop all  the nonsense and speculation of why he left and where he is going.

Just wish them all the best.

As someone who spoke to Mike R. only a few times over the past 10+ years while at York (TAS & Lionel) and possibly during his 1st (honeymoon) year at Lionel Service to quickly correct the Lionmaster Legacy PRR T-1 "foam packaging/mold incident" I echo all the previously posted praise and admiration for Mike.  Among his other excellent traits, Mike's very approachable demeanor, wit, honesty, keen eye to a problem and determination to efficiently find its solution put you at ease and gave you extra confidence that he sincerely cared about what you were discussing.  Mike R.'s fine character directly carried over to and greatly benefited those he worked with and company he represented.

A tough act to follow:  Hopefully, whoever at Lionel that had the brilliant foresight and courage to bring Mike to Lionel and recognize the talent to further elevate Mike can do it again and hopefully produce at least half the worth Mike provided.

Best wishes to you Mike.  Based on what you showed our O-Gauge niche, wherever you land I hope you are happy, healthy and prosperous.  Wherever the place, it and its people will become better from the moment you step in the door.

Over the recent past, I had the opportunity to develop a business relationship with Mike as he was the point of contact for Lionel's Club Car Program.  Over the past 6 months, we had developed a pretty good rapport.  In October, at the OGR get together, I walk into the restaurant and Mike is standing at a table talking to Locolawyer Erol and the Hikel brothers.  I walk up to the table and tell a joke.  To my surprise, Mike fires back with a joke of his own.  He and I go back and forth for 3 or 4 jokes each.  We all were in stiches.  I then say "Hi Mike, I'm Stu Rankin from METCA."  He goes "Your METCA Lehigh Valley samples were delivered to your house today."  I don't think Erol or the Hikel's knew what planet Mike and I had just come from.

Mike will be greatly missed.  Truly one of the good guys in the hobby.

Stu

Mike, now where's the chick with the bad tooth.

Best of luck in your future endeavors. Talking to you (and Jon Z) at York  helped to push me to purchase Legacy products.  Your assistance to my German friend Albrecht was great and demonstrated your willingness to go the extra mile for Lionel. Thank you so very much for all you have done for our hobby. Gene