VIDEO With The New LIONEL TEAM

Thank You Rich, it is very informative and lays to rest much of the woulda coulda shoulda rumor mill we have heard and its straight from the source itself, not second hand info. Thank You Lionel!

Hi Rich.  I watched this last evening and very much enjoyed hearing the news directly from Lionel.  Thanks for putting this together.

Excellent video.

 

I suppose there will be some concern about what Mr. Calabrese refers to as Lionel developing "life outside its core business."  If done correctly, it can attract additional people to the core business.  I hope this is viewed as part of building up that core business and not divesting away from it.  "Brand development expertise" is another phrase that may produce shudders but it is probably more a case of using it to live and prosper or perish without it.

 

Mr Calabrese said he didn't want to target HO but I hope he sees the opportunity in wooing HO hobbyists who, due to age or other reasons, are frustrated with the small size of HO trains.  Two-rail S scale could be a great compromise between the size of the trains and space available for a layout.  But if they are coming from HO, most will want 2-rail scale trains and not necessarily the nostalgic American Flyer line of the past.  I believe that a market for 2-rail O-scale could also be developed beyond the existing small core in that part of the hobby but acknowledge that's probably a harder sell and riskier.

 

Mr. Calabrese description of the manufacturing processes was fascinating.  Congratulations to OGR for a first-rate informative video. 

Rich, this is so good. I think all the guys that are interested in the future of LIONEL and this hobby should watch this. Thanks again for taking the time to put this together for all of us.

Excellent interviews.  It's good to see Lionel moving forward in an organized way.  It's good to see they understand the business and what people have what functions.  

Thanks,

Dan 

Thanks Rich for making this avaiable.

I agree that if there was as large of an S scale presence today as O scale I would have that instead.  It's large and heavy enough to run reliably and it's 2 rail.  Plus the trains have typically had scale proportions.

Rich:

 

Excellent production.  Thank you for posting here.  I watched it while eating lunch.  Really appreciate the effort your team did to get it done and for posting on the forum.

Thank you so much for posting this, Mr Melvin.  I always that that Jerry C had more in common with J L Cowen that their initials.  They may be separated by decades but forward looking was what the original Mr Lionel was all about.  Terrific interview.

You are quite welcome, but "Mr. Melvin" was my father.

 

I appreciate the professional protocol, but we can all be on a first-name basis here.

OK Rich!

Just finished watching the Lionel Interview video and found it fascinating. Rich you did a great job and demonstrated once again why the OGR team is the best in the business. Thank you. Looking forward to your next groundbreaking video.

 

Tony

Up on "The D & H Bridge Line"

Excellent video, lots of good information right from the source.

 

 

The 8 paragraph summary is due Friday right?

 

 

It's all about the iconic brand. You can't buy it, you can't steal it, you can't build one overnight.

 

It's what everyone who thinks they have a better way will never quite understand.

 

 

Very interesting, thanks Rich

 

Doug

Thank you Rich for taking the time and making the effort to produce these video interviews. In light of some of the recent overly critical and somewhat negative threads, it makes me quite glad that Lionel is not run by some of the folks here who mistakenly believe they could do a better job.

 

Years ago, in the pages of OGR, Jerry Calabrese explained his reluctance to hire die-hard train enthusiasts, as they were too focused on their own wants while being too short-sighted to see the bigger picture as to what is good for the company overall.

 

And there have been interviews with other train company executives, who explain why they make certain products and why not others, and still many do not believe them. I remember when the CEO of Atlas stated it took several sell-out production runs just to break even on the development costs of bring a new product to market, and yet some folks here stated that just couldn't be true.

 

I think Lionel is in capable hands and I wish them the best in these tough economic times. I thought the new 2013 Ready-To-Run catalog was one of the best. Does Lionel always make what I would like? No. But there is always something in the catalog that catches my eye. And that's good enough for me.

 

And after all, this is a hobby that is meant to be enjoyed. If Lionel doesn't make something I want, I have learned to make things myself... that's part of the hobby. It's meant to be fun. And like many train guys, if I never buy another train car, I already have enough. Which is why I applaud Lionel for making such a concerted effort to introduce the hobby to the next generation.

 

For the amount of grumbling that some post on the forum, it makes me wonder if they enjoy the hobby at all?

 

Thanks again, Rich. I hope you had some fun making this video, because I'm sure someone will come along and make some negative comment. Or not watch them at all, and then make uninformed comments accordingly.

Have any of you noted the comment from Mike Phillips about 36 minutes in? He said, "As a steward of the brand, we want to leave it better than when we inherited it."

 

That kind of comment makes me believe that Lionel is in good hands.

this is exactly what I tell people when they say Mr to me.

 

great job with the video interview Rich!

You folks are giving me all the credit for this interview and it's not justified. All I did was run the video camera and edit the video. The guy who asked the pointed questions which elicited these great answers was Ed Boyle. So shoot a little credit his way, OK?

did not know that.

 

Thanks ED!!!!!

Well...that makes two of us! 

 

I must give credit where credit is due. I had noted that comment when editing, but an Email from Frank this afternoon reminded me about that line. Thanks, Frank.

Ya know its been a while since I brought a lionel locomotive.This is very tempting I might just get a sd70 csx.Darn it I was trying to keep to a 1 locomtive a year.Blast it all!!Well if can,t beat em joinem!!

Seaboard Streak, your posts would be a LOT easier to read if you put some spaces between your sentences.

It was really good to hear their comments on Lionel. I did not realize of their changes before reading it here.

 

I did have a chance to attend the red carpet event. And I have to admit that not only me but also my wife were overly impressed with Lionel and their staff. Everyone made us feel at home and they were also very informative. I would have liked to stay later but our youngest daughter was not feeling well. I also have to mention and give thanks to the LCCA members who helped out at the red carpet event.

 

And also at York I was still very impressed with Lionel and their staff. So hearing them on the video just reinforces my feelings on the direction of Lionel.

 

So I have to thank Ed, Rich and the rest of your staff that helped put this video online for all of us to enjoy.

 

Very nice interview of the team. The train guy in me liked the commitment to the hobby business, and the technical product marketer in me enjoyed the back story on the changes in supply chain approach and development plans.

Great video.   i want to thank the OGR team and Lionel for taking the time to do the interview. 

Very timely, informative and should clear many misunderstandings.

Many thanks to Rich and the entire OGR team.

George Cox

Very informative and timely video.  Thanks to everyone who contributed to this.

 

Everyone have a great day.

 

Ken

Thanks Rich, great info

 

 

Alex

Exactly what Alex said.

 

Gerry

I like these guys!  What they said shows the value of a team who have

a passion for the spirit of the company they work for, rather than just

a bunch of bean-counters who have no concept of heritage.

     Hoppy

Great video and interview!  The demise of the Lionmaster line will drive more folks to American Flyer.  I have JLC, Lionmaster and Flyer Challengers and the Flyer Challenger is the equal to the JLC version in detail and superior to the Lionmaster.  I do not have an S gauge layout set up but have started to acquire S Gauge Fastrack.  I simply do not have the space available for O gauge curves of more than 90 inch radii which is why I run Lionmaster.  Had Challengers been available 15 years ago in Flyer, I probably would not have a lot of my O Scale collection.  Lionel has offered very fine products in the Flyer line with the Challengers and I look for more offerings in this category!

Rich, I think the Video shows us with facial Expressions that the New "Lionel Team",is Dedicated To move the Lionel Brand in the Right Direction for All Ages. We "Senior Kids" have the best selections of trains and accessories to choose from Ever Made. I am Happy To See This Positive Change. Thanks.

I don't think I'm ready to scrap all the O-gauge stuff and start over just because they don't produce the LionMaster stuff.   After all, there are other options.

Rich, it really shows that you have an extensive video production and post background.  Those interviews were flawless!  

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate your comments. I've been working in the broadcast TV and video production industry since 1967. (Oh my God...has it REALLY been that long ago? Now I feel old... ) Think Norelco PC70 cameras and RCA TR-70 VTR's.

 

Today the big Mac and Final Cut Pro make it easy.

Nice job on the video and I was impressed by both the questions they were asked and their responses. To have handled the storm that has been the economy the way they did says a lot, very few companies could come out of bankruptcy after a major lawsuit, lose 20% of their business, and keep moving forward.

From a standpoint of someone with training in quality and build management, it was interesting to read about Lionel and what they are doing in China. My impression was they were still using the single source model, which among other things, is one of the reasons build quality was so poor coming out of China, when a single source makes everything, there can be all kinds of issues (there are advantages as well). The thing about this model is it is pretty flexible, if the die cast factory they choose fouls up, they can switch vendors, if not easily, it can be done, whereas when they were with Sanda Kan and they produced crap, they would probably get "Sorry", with the implication "Who else you going to get to do this?". Among other things, working with sourced vendors means they know you can switch if you find something better, so they have incentive to try and work with you to improve quality, since there is real competition.

 

More importantly, it allows sourcing and building things where it makes sense. So something like die casting, that in the US is an all but dead art, can happen in China, but for example, circuit board design or the motors, could be made here, as could final assembly. It is a lot cheaper in some ways to ship bulk parts to the US, for example, and assemble it here, then shipping the finished product (among other things, raw parts are a lot less subject to the kind of damage finished goods are, plus damage to the part is a lot easier to see then in an assembled package). One of the problems with China has been that while they compete against work done elsewhere, especially with cheap labor costs, businesses also were monopolies, there was little internal competition, this kind of changes that (one of the reasons this can happen, as Jerry alludes to, is that despite all the corruption and collusion with business to keep things monopolistic, the Chinese government has realized that it cannot build an economy sourced only as an exporter, and to build real companies producing their own products, competition is mandatory, monopolies and oligopolies don't work well). 

 

I think the most interesting part is with the legacy stuff, miniaturizing it.That is incredibly smart, because having pretty much the same boards across the line means cheaper prices and also much better quality (also known as standardized parts). Mike Wolf several years ago mentioned the advantages of doing this when they developed boards for HO based DCS, that those boards also would work great in O gauge, that they could fit anywhere and so forth.I think it is great they are doing that, I think that is going to increase quality as well.

 

The one question I would love to know, which he would never answer, are some of their quality metrics, specifically what is known as their cost of quality, how much they spend on quality related issues, percent of costs associated with units DOA at inspection here, the cost of servicing units, people returning them and getting a refund, and also a really tough metric, the loss of goodwill due to perceptions of bad quality. As a private company those numbers are not published, but it would be interesting to see where they were and in a couple of years where they will be with that.

Watch the video...

Great interview with lots of interesting insights.  I remember well the "business geniuses" in the hobby who were so critical of Jerry Calabrese in 2004,  and how he was going to destroy Lionel because he wasn't a "train guy."  He soon demonstrated to the hobby,  by hiring people like Jon Z. and Mike R. how skilled and shrewd a leader he was. Judging from both the current product line, new introductions,  and the description of future product and business plans thatLionel is apparently doing remarkably well considering the challenges of the last decade.