LCCA's September 29,2012 Special Events Day in Boston Area (recap)
On Saturday, September 29, the Lionel Collectors club of America (LCCA) hosted two Special Events in the Boston MA area. We had an open house special event at Lionel's largest train dealer, Charles Ro Supply Company in Malden MA and a second event in the evening at the home of Marty Fitzhenry in Dedham MA.
At Charles Ro, Lionel Representative Tom Nuzzo gave two presentations and hands-on demonstrations (one in the morning and second in the afternoon) with Lionel's Legacy Command Control Systems. Charles Ro Jr gave our members a private behind the scene tour of their mail order toy train operation including their G-gage Manufacturing facility. Members were able to see Charles Ro's personal train collection and impressive operating layout.
LCCA members received a 10% discount on all purchases made from Charles Ro vast inventory of Lionel products. Members of all ages from around the country attended this fun and worthwhile event. John Russbacky and his wife drove in from Masury Ohio to be there. Lucky LCCA members won some limited edition LCCA and Lionel product door prizes.
Members finished the day with a second LCCA special event at the home of LCCA member, Marty Fitzhenry. Marty and Dotty Perry hosted this event and provided our members with food, drinks and great hospitality. Marty owns and operates (and I mean operates) one of the premier home model train layouts in the country as well as a phenomenal collection of toy trains. His layout has an operating catenary system and has been featured in most, if not all of the toy train magazines and has been seen in toy train videos produced by OGR.
Photo's and video do not adequately capture the modeling and construction skills Marty has put into this layout. You have to see this layout in person to believe it! The electric trains run on the centenary track so smoothly, you would think they are receiving power from the O-gage track below. Marty often proves people wrong by showing them that he removed the rollers from the engines.
LCCA President-Elect Lou "Captain Chaos" Caponi was on hand and presented Marty and Dotty with a LCCA NS Vulcan Switcher engine as a token of appreciation for hosting this wonderful event.
Thank you to all of the LCCA members and their families for attending these LCCA Special Events and supporting the club. Special Thanks go out to Marty Fitzhenry, Dotty Perry, Charles Ro, Charles Ro Jr. their entire staff, Lionel and Tom Nuzzo for hosting these LCCA Special open-house events.
We hope these events provided our members with a great start to the upcoming holiday season. After all, no holiday season is complete without Lionel Trains.
Stay tuned to this website for additional information and updates about future LCCA special events in an area near you. If you are interested in hosting a future family oriented, train related LCCA special event, please contact me at agkolis@comcast or 248-709-4137.
Al Kolis
Immediate Past President and Special Events Manager