We had a great presentation at the TCA museum yesterday.

Jerry Calabrese was on hand to talk about our VISIONLine and its great features.  More important to Lionel is what VISION signifies about our company’s history and future.  As Jerry puts it, this is us going back to our roots for the newest and greatest features available to the industry.

Also at the event, J. Don Reece and Matt Ashba did demos of some of the new VISION features.  We were able to show models of the CC2, GENSET and GE Evo trains that are the centerpieces of our VISION Line.

As we’ve seen all along the way with our Product Showcases, our new features and trains are exciting fans all across the country.  It’s really something exciting for us to be a part of here, and we’re excited to see what our reception is at the tent we’ve put up at York.

This Spring, for the first time ever, Lionel ran a traveling Product Showcase to introduce our new products to fans and collectors all across the country.  After visiting 15 different cities with our demonstrations, we're now bringing it to the TCA's Spring York Meet.  Our Product Showcase features live demonstrations of our new products (including VISION Line), interviews with key Lionel employees involved in bringing you these great trains, and a live Q&A. 

Under our brand new Lionel tent (look for us near the Grandstand!) we will be hosting 10 sessions and handing out giftbags to all who attend.  Space is limited, so be sure to pick up your ticket at our booth in the Orange Hall!

After a week of rain, the skies parted and a beautiful day shown on Lionel and Eastside Trains April 4th for the "Lionel Product Showcase" event.  Eastside Trains is located in Kirkland WA a suburb of Seattle.  

Steve Suskin (owner) and his team made sure the store was packed with customers.   From 10am to 3pm there were well over 150 people who stopped by to listen to the video, see the blow down, steam whistle and playable bell features and ask a lot of questions.  Over the course of the day Lionel re-played the Vision DVD multiple times as new people came into to store.  Rich Moser was continually running Legacy demonstrations or showing customers all the never before seen in O gauge features of Lionel's steam engines while J. Don and Bob were answering questions.

With Seattle behind us, it's onto Los Angeles for Monday's event at the Train Shack in Burbank, CA.

Hi, it's Jason here, back yet again. 

The Product Showcase this past Sunday at the Newark Airport Marriott had about 140 people, our largest Showcase yet, and with good reason.  

First of all, as you most of you know, Lionel spent a great deal of its history (1920s-60s) in the neighborhoods around Newark, so it's exciting for us to get back to our roots.  Additionally, being so close to our offices in New York made it easy for us to get a lot of staff to the event.

Jerry Calabrese, our CEO, gave opening remarks and received a very warm welcome. Everyone was excited to see Jerry speak, a few people even asked for his autograph!

Our VISION DVD was well received and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. We broke at about noon for a tasteful lunch and, after lunch, Tom Nuzzo did a LEGACY demonstration.  Quite a few people stuck around for the demo and were amazed at the features available with LEGACY.

Overall, this was really good show and we had a great experience!

Until next time.

Without a doubt, the stars of our showcase have been our demos of the Pennsylvania 0-8-8-0 Locomotives.  Due to the intricacy of this new item, there are actually two demos on the road.  One is a dummy unit to demonstrate design, the other is a souped up USRA 2-6-6-2 Nickel Plate Road, which is showcasing the new technologies in use.  As noted elsewhere, this train is notable for its new effects of a smoke whistle, realistic blowdown from the engine and a bell synchronized to sound.

Each of these trains is literally one of a kind and built from hand.  So this presented an interesting challenge for us – how do we get these unique items from our offices in New York to the 13 Product Showcases across the country?

We were concerned by the cost and tumult of using FedEx.  Similar concerns existed in trusting the baggage handlers on airplanes...so we decided to hire a driver for our engines. 

A friend of Lionel's, Kristine, volunteered for the job and set out on a journey.  As you can see from the map above, it's been an intense trip.  Jason drove the car on the first two legs, getting it out to Cleveland and then Indianapolis.  After that, Kristine took over and drove the engines from Indianapolis through to Dallas, traveling over 2200 miles with the trains in about 8 days.  Along the way seeing a good deal of our country.

Dallas to Newark was too long of a trip to drive, so we purchased a couple of heavy duty suitcases and had Bob Kerekes trek them back on a plane.  After yesterday's show in Newark, Kristine is getting ready to get back on the road (after a much needed day off!) and will stop in the offices with the trains this afternoon before heading back to Boston. 

The trains (and Kristine!) have been on quite a voyage, and we'll keep you updated on their exploits.

Lionel just decided to post the DVD from our actual Product Showcases online. 

This is the video being shown at every location on the tour, so now we can see what everyone else is seeing On The Road.

The video includes interviews with CEO and President, Jerry Calabrese and Chief Technical Officer, Jon Zahornacky as well as video and information on all our product lines.

Please Check Out The Videos Here!

And just to be clear, there's plenty more at the Product Showcases besides the videos.  Real demos of upcoming products, Q&A with Lionel employees and experts and giveaways are all part of the fun at every stop.   To find out about upcoming shows, Click Here!

Hi, I'm Remy Convery.  I work at Lionel in Michigan and I've been here over a decade.  Over that time I've had a lot of different opportunities, but currently I mainly work in marketing and product development.

Last night, the Product Showcase came to our offices here in Michigan, and it was a really great show.  As at all our stops there were refreshments available and gifts handed out at the door, as well as a raffle.

It really felt like a townhall meeting to me.  There were about 60 people who showed up, and they were a mixture of dealers and customers.  It was very informal and although there were presentations, it really felt intimate. I really enjoyed getting to hear the questions from our fans and answering them.

I also had the pleasure of describing the Pennsylvania CC2s to the gathered crowd.  It was a great chance to meet and mingle with some of the wonderful people that make working in this industry such a fantastic experience.

Hope to see you next time!

Hi everyone.  This is Bob Kerekes from the New York office.  I work in sales, but I don’t always get to interact one-on-one with our collectors, so the Product Showcase really is an opportunity for me to get to know you.

I left New York yesterday on a flight into Indianapolis.  It was rainy and nasty when I got in, and I headed right to the hotel that Jason had left our demos at.  We got the show set up, and despite the conditions, I think it was a big success.

We counted nearly 70 people at the show and everyone seemed very into our new lines.

We showed our DVD of all the new products and technologies that our team had been working on over the previous months.  There were then copies of the DVD distributed to everyone in attendance along with catalogs and the VISION boxcar raffle.  We do these things at all our Showcases, so if you want to come join us, please check our upcoming schedule here.

Once again, the demos of our technical prototype and sample of the Pennsylvania CC2s engine got a lot of attention.  I can't wait until the real thing is on the market later this year!

Special thanks to Larry Pfost of Train Express in Indianapolis who really helped make this event a success.  If you’re ever in the Indy area, you should definitely stop in.

I got back to New York this morning, but the show continues on tonight at the Lionel Offices in Chesterfield, Michigan!