It's a little surprising some folks don't know about the Milwaukee club. The Milwaukee Lionel Railroad Club is large and very active. Google their impressive website. Among other things, they do a lot of great special issue Lionel cars. I've bought quite a number of them over the years. They also have a huge Trainfest event every November. It always gets a mention on the Forum.
If anyone's in Minneapolis, there's a lot of Milwaukee Road memorabilia in the old Milwaukee Road depot downtown.