LCCA Has Great Day at Lionel’s 8-17-13 Customer Service Open House (Recap)
The Lionel Collectors Club of America is proud to have attended and participated in Lionel’s 3rd Annual Customer Service center Open House special event held on Saturday, August 17, 2013 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM in Canfield Ohio. Hundreds of LCCA members and their families attended this fun filled special event. We are off to a great start to meet LCCA President Dennis DeVito’s goal of reaching out and having direct contact with 2500 members and their family within the next 12 months. Wow, what a great start! There was something for your entire family to enjoy. LCCA members came from all over the country to be part of this LCCA Special Event at Lionel’s Customer Service Center facility. Thank you all for attending and supporting YOUR Club!
Lionel brought the Lionel/LCCA FasTrack Modular Railroad layout to this event. LCCA member Greg Dorsey of Pittsburgh PA(RM 31201) has the Lionel/LCCA FasTrack Modular Railroad Fever and brought his 4 modular sections in from Pittsburgh to hook up to the Lionel/LCCA FasTrack Modular Railroad Layout. His 4 green painted sections were great additions to the layout. Greg used the Lionel template and followed the on-line specifications to near perfection. Everything came together, fit properly and functioned with Lionel trains running on these modular sections all day long. Thank you Greg for catching the modular fever and being part of this new and exciting project! We hope others will follow your example.
LCCA Director Roger Farkash and member George Watson came in from Texas to help set up the LCCA/Lionel FasTrack Modular Railroad layout and to experience this great event. You should have seen how fast it was set up and operational. No clamps, no fuss, it went together very smoothly. Thank you George and Roger for being such a big help!
LCCA member Sal Gambino (RM12681) volunteered and manned the LCCA table all day long. Alan Szirony RM 17601, stopped by to pitch in and help greet members who stopped by the LCCA table. The LCCA Table was out front alongside O-Gage Railroading’s (OGR) table manned by LCCA member Ed Boyle, Allan Miller and Alan Arnold. That was a great fun connection. The following lucky LCCA members won LCCA limited edition Lionel product door prizes, just for stopping by the LCCA table:
1-Ed De Gregorio RM# 20130
2- Scott Davis RM# 31835
3-Tom Higginbothan RM# 23948
4- William Duff RM # 28052
Hundreds of LCCA members stopped by the LCCA table to talk trains, receive an un-cut LCCA billboard Special Event sheet, LCCA collectible Special Event Pin and to see the new LCCA Made In America two sided Billboard Frame and insert accessory set. This accessory is 100% made in America even including the packaging and cardboard. We are very proud of this initiative! We hope those of you who asked for train products to be made in America will place their orders for their very own limited edition LCCA product. Go to the store section on our website www.lionelcollectors.org to purchase yours today!
The Lionel Collectors Club of America (LCCA) unveiled this accessory item for sale that is 100% manufactured and assembled in the USA during our 43rd Annual convention in Chattanooga TN this past July. This is the first new design of a Lionel-Style billboard since the 1940's. This new billboard frame is ideally suited for trackside, roadside and rooftop displays for highlighting vintage or current advertising and other messages. Photos and more detail are included on our facebook page and OGR forum.
LCCA Facebook Page This is the first of many LCCA accessories planned to be produced here in the USA.
We are very proud and excited to be offering this new LCCA billboard which was conceived, designed, tooled, molded, assembled, packed and sold completely in the USA. It is also made of materials manufactured here in the USA including the packaging. We are counting on our members to appreciate and support these projects. This is a significant undertaking by the club, but we know it will help secure supply, enable on-time delivery while maintaining high quality standards on newly designed products that will appeal and be enjoyable to our members. We will very much appreciate your support and look forward to hearing your feedback.
Lionel’s Senior Vice President and General Manager Howard Hitchock was there running trains on the Lionel/LCCA FasTrack Modular Railroad layout all day long. He and the younger guests were seen running Lionel’s new LionChief remote controlled Thomas the Tank engine set which was donated by Ed Boyle. Lionel’s Mike Reagan, new Lionel Customer Service Manager, Phil Hull and his team did a fantastic job hosting this fun event. Tom Nuzzo was giving hands on demonstrations with Lionel’s Legacy Command Control Hand held unit upstairs on the customer service center’s second floor, large test track. Lionel had a huge sale of parts and discounted Lionel trains and accessories. Lionel also offered hourly drawings of door prizes. Lionel even gave away a new Lionel Vision Line locomotive to a lucky Grand prize drawing winner. Guests enjoyed the great barbecue food, great weather and great friendships all while enjoying and experiencing the magic of Lionel Trains.
Thank you to Lionel’s Howard Hitchcock, Mike Reagan, Tom Nuzzo, Phil Hull and the entire Lionel team for their hospitality and efforts to make this event so much fun! We appreciate all of our LCCA members and their families for attending and supporting our club. We hope to see you all again at future LCCA Special events! If you have any ideas and interest in hosting a future LCCA Special Event in your area, please contact me at
agkolis@comcast.net or 248 709-4137
Thanks again and we are off to a great start with our new season of LCCA Special Events!
Sincerely,.
Al Kolis
President-Elect & Special Events Manager
Lionel Collectors Club of America