Lionel Customer Service Open House for 2013

Allan, it was my pleasure to meet you, Rich, Ed, and Jim tonight. Also as Allan said above, it was a surprise to see all the other folks there....and it is too numerous to mention.

 

I will put it this way, I never thought I would meet all of these folks at all, let along in just one evening. Great time at the Lionel Service Center and thanks to Mike, Phil and the crew for the wonderful buys and the great food tonight.

 

See you all in the morning.

Roger:

 

Be advised that I did stop by the office en route home and picked up the items we discussed for delivery to you tomorrow.  They are in the car.  

Pat & I had a great time tonight meeting OGR, LCCA & Lionel folks along with a number of forum members at the open house preview.  Thanks for the invite Mike.  Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow along with other forum members and train enthusiasts


Kevin

I'll repeat part of what I posted in my earlier post at the bottom of page 2 of this thread:

 

Those able to attend the Open House tomorrow should definitely plan to do so.  In addition to the opportunity to meet and chat with a number of Lionel staff--including the CEO--you'll find a ton of stuff to add to your layout and you're sure to have a fun time just meeting with folks.

Just placed my parts order. The discount is added in your cart..very well done.I wanted to attend in person but 14 hour on the road and having to get up to run the camera at church tomorrow morning seemed to be a bit much to try to do. Hope everyone has a great time.

Scott Smith

If they don't it's their own fault!  Phil and the crew in Canfield have a ton of stuff for eager buyers to choose from (all nicely tagged for easy identification without squinting to read box labels) and there are plenty of other things to see and do.  Food and beverages on site, and best of all, there likely will be more than a few forum members and other hobbyists that you can meet and greet in person, along with many of the movers-and-shakers on the Lionel staff.  I hope to see many of you there in a couple of hours or less.

I can't make the open house, but I did get my Lionel parts order in this morning.

I hope everybody going has a great time.

Maybe I will be in attendance next year.

Would love to be there (as I'm originally from the area) but distance and imminent second daughter prohibit. 

 

Would have loved to have gone especially to see the Legacy and service demonstrations. I guess I'll have to settle for second hand information from my father. That lucky dog. 

I wish that I could be there but at least I was able to use the parts list I have been building up for the last year and get a good buy on parts.  Have a safe trip home Roger.

I just returned from a full morning at the open house.  I can report that it was jam-packed when I arrived there at 8:05 a.m.--so jam-packed that it was hard to move around inside.  Things had lightened up a bit by the time I left at 11:40, but there still was a very good crowd.

 

I had my camera with me, but spent so much time talking with folks that I never did get any decent shots.  However, there were plenty of forum members armed with cameras on-site, so I'm confident some image will eventually show up here.

 

The highlight for me was being approached by several kids--little kids--throughout the morning to autograph copies of the magazines they had secured from Ed.  A dying hobby?  Not by a long shot!

 

Kudos to the entire Lionel team and their volunteer assistants for putting on a truly fun event.  A whole lot of orange-and-blue boxes were seen making trips to the parking areas, so I imagine Phil's crew will not have a whole lot to re-stock after the day is over.  Kudos, too, to the folks who set-up the three operating layouts, and to Lionel staff who provided tours of the facility and demos of various types.  Trains are great, but it's the people who really make this the world's greatest hobby!

Allan, I second your thoughts great day put on by great people. I have attached a few photos for those that were not able to attend. Also the weather was just perfect today!!

 

Jeff

 

  

 

 

 

 

I placed an order very early this morning (almost 12 hours ago - I did receive the discount) for a few parts.

 

The order confirmation page said an email has been sent to my email address, but I have not received an email from Lionel.

 

For those of you who placed an order online today, did you receive an email?

 

I tend not to completely trust automated ordering systems, so I copied the information on the order confirmation page into a word document, so I have a copy of my order number and information.

 

If the email from Lionel is supposed to be automated, then something is amiss. If it is generated manually from Lionel, then I can understand the delay as I'm sure the folks in service were very busy today.

Here are a couple of shots I snapped of the Pittsburgh group's modular pike:

 

 

 

 

...and here's the reason I had to leave earlier than desired.  Had to pick up meds for my recuperating pooch and the vet clinic closes at noon.

 

Just returned home after a great trip to Canfield!  We arrived about 7:30 and had some time to chat with several friends before we went in at 8am.  Lots of product and the crowds were large at times.   I didn't see any tempers flaring but did see lots of smiles and excited people. 

 

Everything was clearly marked and priced and there were lots of Lionel folks to help out with carrying and boxing purchases towards the checkout lines.  At times the checkout lines were 20 deep.  Was great to see all the operating layouts and informational tables outside under the tent. 

 

Mike, Phil, and everyone from Lionel did a great job organizing and executing the event! 

 

 

I ordered parts 20 minutes ago and never got it either , for what it's worth I sent in a Legacy System to be repaired a few days ago and had to ask Talk to us  twice to resend  the separate email you always get with all the information when you send something back and I never received those either, I've sent things in many times and ALWAYS got the emails  no problem.  

 

I ordered some parts about a hour ago and received a email confirmation/receipt almost instantly?

 

Jeff

Can someone tell us about the deals?

Scott Smith

I placed a part order about 20 minutes ago and received an e-mail confirmation within a few minutes. I also received an e-mail confirmation for items purchased at the open house this morning.

 

Thanks to the Lionel folks for great job on the open house. Got a chance to chat with some old friends and meet a few forum members also.

 

From the looks of things with so many folks hauling boxes of stuff away, there must have been some good deals.  I didn't make any purchases because I pretty much have all I need/want in the road names I prefer, and also because I have a fairly costly Lionel Heisler (new old stock) due to arrive on Monday.

Scott, some 0-27 rolling stock unboxed $10.00 ea. with plastic trucks $12.00 with die-cast metal trucks. Boxed 0-27 rolling stock $15.00 most of these had die-cast metal trucks. I managed to pick up a BN Alum 4 bay hopper for $35.00. There were the higher end extended vision caboose's at $35.00 ea. The refrigerator cars from the "BNSF Ice Cold" set I believe were $30.00 or $35.00 ea. As far as engines, I saw a couple KCS ES44'sand a few other road names for $600.00 which was a great buy for someone!! Some Legacy steam in the $800.00 range. Way to much stuff to keep track of, but this will give you some kind of idea. A buyers paradise for sure.

 

Jeff

KevinB, jjames9641, and LIGVScott,

 

thanks for your replies. It's been about 14 hours, so I don't expect I'll be getting an email without human intervention.

 

I just asked about my order via the "Contact Us" system on the Lionel web site, if I don't receive an answer from them, I'll need to call customer service and check on it.

 

EDIT: called Monday and Lionel has my order. My email provider must have filtered out the email.

 

I'm glad Lionel allows customers to make online purchases as part of the open house for folks who can't attend the event in person.

Wow!! What a great time Friday night and today @ Lionel's Open House.  Finally got to meet Alan Miller & Alan Arnold Friday night along with so many OGR Forum members that I have conversed with but never met. Can't thank Marty Fitzhenry enough for talking me into coming to Canfield. Bought a few Engines & the SF "Scout" passenger cars.
Thank you Mike Regan & staff for your wonderful hospitality. This will be added to my yearly list of must "do's" along with York & Trainstock.

It was a gorgeous day and the staff were exceptionaly pleasant and knowledgable.  There were a lot of people and the food cooking smelled great.  The display layouts were great and I was able to quickly place my parts orders and then go through the facility.  Test layout is very impressive in terms of what equipment has to go through to pass.  I had my iPad and saw a demo of the LCS software/hardware and got some important questions answered about the product  and how it works.  They were able to link my iPad to the wifi interface box in about 30 seconds.  Really looking forward to that!  All of the staff were great to talk to.  

 

There was a lot of stuff and a lot of people with boxes of it heading back to their cars.  The pricing was very aggressive if what you were looking for was "on the shelf".  I found a nice Legacy diesel in a road name that will play well with my other equipment in terms of time frame being modeled and it was well below mail order.  

 

I got a chance to say hi to Dean (formerly of Brassuer's in Saginaw) and met MartyE and thanked him for all of the fine work he has done with the LUG and the material he has posted over the last 10+ years.

 

It was a three hour drive but it was definitely worth the trip.

It certainly was a fun day.  Many thanks to Lionel and their wonderful crew for putting on such a wonderful event. 

 

Having been to all three so far, they just keep getting better (and bigger).  Getting up at 4 a.m. was certainly worth it today (and boy, will I sleep good tonight!)!

 

Here are some of the shots I took of the event (I'll post the train pictures in the Weekend Photo Fun thread):

 

The crowds were there early!

 

 

Both Pittsburgh modular groups were on hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andy

Finally have a chance to get online!  The Lionel Service Center open house was WAY beyond successful.....it was a HOME RUN with bases loaded!!!  The ENTIRE Lionel service center team outdone themselves. 

 

Roger Wasson and I drove 900 miles from Mountain Home to attend this fantastic event and of course I was also scheduled to have a series of meetings with the OGR staff...more on that later.

 

Those of you that attended found as I did that there were many out of this world deals.  The Lionel team had everything planned perfectly and were as usual very friendly and helpful....it just couldn't have been done better as far as I am concerned.

 

I met many forum members that I have known for years via the internet and all of them were a delight.  Those of you that I didn't meet I hope to do so during this coming York.  Thanks to all of you that came up to me to introduce yourself.....there were so many people that to be honest I didn't recognize folks from their avatars!  Your congrats on my new position at OGR was greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks to all of the vendors that had great deals for the participants and a big thanks goes to the Fort Pitt and Pittsburgh clubs for their beautiful operating layouts that everyone enjoyed. 

 

Finally....I want to thank my great friend Roger Wasson.  He made the long trip on the interstate roads a pleasure....we had non-stop conversation about the hobby, our layouts, and trains and......you name it!!  Roger, you are a world class guy and I am blessed to have you as my friend!

 

Events like this assure me that our hobby is going to be around for a very LONG time and I am looking forward to a bright future....

 

Thanks!

Alan 

Alan, I agree with you totally on the Open House, had a great fun day and picked up some bargains. Also was good to meet some train buddies from out of state who also attended.

Mike and his Lionel team were terrific hosts genuinely concerned with helping everyone as much as they could, to find deals and have a great day revolving around trains. The layouts and the teams running them totally added great fun to the event.

Alan it was nice to meet you and thanks for helping me not allow Ed to sign my OGR mag, I didn't want it to loose it's value. 

 

Not much to add. Great meeting Derek from notch 6. I think what he is doing with the podcast is great promotion for the hobby. Talked to Allan, said hi to Dave from Mercer Junction, and chated with the PIHR group. 

 

As usual Mike, Phil, and the entire Lionel team did an outstanding job. I had a great time meeting everyone and even had a chance to lunch with Dave Slie and the gang. 

 

Thanks Lionel. 

The modular layout with the Atlas Master Series O Thrall Car Articulated Auto Carrier should have given somebody at Lionel the idea to lease the tooling from Atlas O to make runs of the Thrall Car Articulated Auto Carrier in approximate schemes for Santa Fe, Seaboard System, DT&I, Norfolk & Western, and other railroads who had similar looking Auto Carriers between 1970 and 2000.

 

Andrew

I just ordered parts and got the Email before I was done reading my completed order page. The emails are sent out automaticly in a couple of seconds. It must be your mail server or spam filter. NOT Lionel's .

 

The refrigerator cars from the "BNSF Ice Cold" set were $30 each. I bought 5 of the sound cars and 5 of the smoke cars. They were all marked as is, later in the afternoon I checked the numbers on the cars to see if I had a LCCA car. I had won a LCCA car on ebay only to receive a smoking car in the LCCA box. When I called the person who I won it from he apologized for the mistake and he said he must have got it mixed up when he returned the set, I wonder if anyone found the surprise car. Now my BNSF Ice Cold train set has 24 cars.

 

I also picked up some PS-1 box cars for $25 each, When my first round was done I had 2 1/2 stacks 4' high of large boxes. No engines this time but a lot of accessories and cars that I did not have. Some had damaged boxes but I didn't buy them from the boxes.

 

Oh, I did go back in with my wife and daughters looking for more things and we did buy more cars and accessories (my wife & one daughter stood by all of the boxes while me and my youngest daughter carried as much as we could on our 1st. round).

 

We were going to stay around till the last drawing. Around 3:30 a lady from Lionel informed us that there was a mistake about being present for the last drawing and that the lucky person would be sent their prize.

 

A great day for all. And many thanks to all of the people from Lionel that helped to put this great event on.

 

I checked my old email (I placed an online order in conjunction with the open house last year) and I received an email last year. I'm using the same email address, so no change on where the email was supposed to be received. Nothing from Lionel in my spam folder, so it's not my spam filters. I receive other assorted emails from Lionel throughout the year. It's possible it was filtered out before it got to my computer, but I don't know why it could be filtered out this year, when I received it last year.

I also want to say it was a pleasure meeting Chuck.  He always has some great information.  It was definitely a great day to see so many folks that I only have the chance to talk to on the forum.

 

Of course Marty and Dotti were there in force.  Always great to see them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was truly a great day!  The comment above about seeing smiles on faces is very accurate.  I enjoyed seeing old friends and meeting some new ones.  It was also nice seeing both Hi Railer groups there. 

 

The folks at Lionel Service Center did a wonderful job at hosting this event.  I can see it getting bigger every year.

 

Mike has done great things for the service department and I expect him to do even greater things for Lionel in the future.  It is comforting knowing that we have somebody like this in our corner!

 

Dave

I visited the open house in the afternoon.   Met Ed Boyle while there, as well as Mike Reagan.  I got to thank Mike for taking care of my HHP-8 set problems of a few years ago.  Also found a new TMCC upgraded version of the HHP-8 for less than half the msrp.  Mike assures me that this HHP-8 will operate much better than my previous one.

 

I was impressed by the numbers of families with small children at the event.  O Scale trains would seem to have a bright future.   It isn't just the old timers hobby.

Let's see, where to start? Just made it home from the Open House yesterday. It was once talking with Howard but Mike, Phil and their staff and family of volunteers pushed the experience over the top!

 

I met with Bill, Mark, Brian along with Dean and had extensive conversations with them all on many topics. It was great listening to the service staff talk with customers about different problems they were having. Their level of expertise and levels of communication were exceptional!

 

I have worked in the service/support/training field for over 40 years and I would have killed to have such knowledgeable, dedicated personnel on my staff! 

 

This was an experience that now one should miss in the future! The knowledge, experience, people, and oh yes, the deals were all fantastic! 

 

Mike/Phil, when is next years Open House?

 

Just got settled into my chair after a 7 hour drive home. What a great event. I also went a bit nuts on the Ice Cold express cars with nine cars and two cabooses. I had such a great time talking with everyone. Marty E, Roger W., Marty and Dottie, Chuck, the entire OGR staff and so many others. I agree with Alan that after sitting and watching for twelve hours on Saturday that this hobby is very much alive. Finally a special thanks to the Lionel staff for a great weekend. 

 

Derek

Just a word of "THANKS" to Lionel for hosting their Customer Service Open House for a third time. It was a fantastic event and as others have said, "if you didn't have a good time; it was your own fault".

 

The ride out there was long ( 6.5 hours from New Jersey) but an event like this was well worth it. I had a train associate with me this time, so we were able to share the driving and it was much more bearable.  The trip home was uneventful and we made it safely to our doors with our purchased treasures.

 

A  vast selection of product at fantastic prices on most. Would not want to miss any future  open house events.

 

Again, "Thank You, Mike, Phil, Howard, and my buddy,  Tom Nuzzo", the event has had to be a success.  

 

Until next time,   Dennis M.

 

I called Lionel, and they have my order in the system. So, my email provider must have filtered out the email. Thanks again to Lionel for extending the open house to allow internet purchases. It sounds like quite a few folks placed orders.

I put in an online parts order to take advantage of the open house parts sale.

My order now shows as shipped, and everything was available!

Too bad I wasn't able to attend in person.

Same here.

 

I really miss the discount.  When I was stationed at Ft Bragg I repaired for a Lionel dealer, "Trains'n'Rails", in Fayetteville.  Over several years I ordered parts direct from Lionel for TnRs.  The 50% discount applied to all the orders.  I still have all the receipts.  A complete GG1 chassis with Pulmore motors, trucks, e unit and lights was $97.