Welcome to the Legacy Users Group Meeting April 20th, 2018. Agenda Posted!

Carl J posted:

Hi Marty— I would like to better understand all the benefits and wiring of the new  Custom Switch Machine (CSM-2)  module coming out this summer for the Z-Stuff 2500 switch machine.

Thanks,

Carl J

Hopefully Dave will cover that.  I don't have access to those yet.  I believe Dave was going to get into those during his presentation.

I'll be sending Dave the questions this morning.  I will be out of town next week so I need to get them to him this morning.  If any other questions are posted I cannot guarantee that they'll get answered.

Thanks everyone!

Did we already ask the question about getting a "line out" on the audio board for those that might want to send the sound to a big box in the corner?  Anyway, if not -- that's a question - or more like a statement: "Put line out on your audio boards for user modifications."

I will be there, looking forward to it.

Hi Group!

Well the questions have been answered, presentations are in the final tweaks.  With a week to go I think we have a pretty good meeting coming.  I will post the Agenda later today or tomorrow.  I will have a minimal amount of printed copies with me so you may want to print it out when I post it to follow along.

We have a couple of treats in store and as always Dave and Dean from Lionel will join up.  Dave has put together a nice presentation and will answer all Legacy related questions in a Q&A after the presentations. 

We will not be fielding production questions if not related to Legacy.  I'm sure Dave will be willing to discuss some products we'll be seeing coming up though if you ask nicely but I hope to keep them geared toward Legacy related items.  Dean will be able to help with general Q&A on customer service related items but ask any specific issues be taken to the Lionel booth.  Please note I will strictly enforce this.

Legacy Upgrades and module programming / testing at the conclusion.  Depending on the time we may move this out into the hallway.

The summary will be up in Video form as well as the presentations at the meeting within a week or so of York.

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Looking forward to seeing you there Marty!

Blake

Happy Scrappy will be there with his sidekick EZMike. Thanks for all of the work, Marty. I know it takes a ton of time. I appreciate it.

Once again I wonder about the idea of driving to the meeting and then leaving... is the location/door obvious?

Severn posted:

Once again I wonder about the idea of driving to the meeting and then leaving... is the location/door obvious?

Unless you actually live in York I wouldn't.   The video is up a week later.  For the 45 minutes to an hour the meeting lasts, unless I was attending the meet I wouldn't.  There is a map on the first post.

Here is the agenda and questions that were sent to Lionel.  I will post this in the first post as well.  This si subject to change but it should be pretty solid.

2018 April York Legacy Users Group Agenda

I'll be there. Thanks Marty.

I'll be there

Regards

Albrecht

Marty, I'll be there. Thanks for all you do.

Just a reminder that I will have limited copies of the agenda.  Please take the time to print one out before you leave home.  I will also have a limited amount of LCS Partner Flyers but these will be included when we post the summary video.

2018 April York Legacy Users Group Agenda

Great meeting this morning Marty.  I learned a great deal.  Keep up the good work sir.

Blake

Care to summarize?

Severn posted:

Care to summarize?

If you’re referring to the meeting,  Marty will have a video posted of the meeting on the forum in the coming days.

-Blake

I also want to thank Marty for putting this on.  I also appreciate that Lionel sends their top managers to the meeting, although this year we were fairly easy on them.

Not a summary, but the two things that got my attention were the CSM2, which will allow feedback to the LCS from my DZ-2500s, and the closing of ERR.  I guess its DCS for my remaining conventional brass engines.

Thank you Marty !!!!

Gerry

Electric rr is closing?! 

Severn posted:

Electric rr is closing?! 

Yep, bummer isn't it?

Missed York this time.  Is there any further information about ERR?  Why and when is this happening?  What a shame.

Bill

Nobody seemed to know anything other than the command came from up in the Ivory Tower to shut it down.

ogaugenut posted:

Missed York this time.  Is there any further information about ERR?  Why and when is this happening?  What a shame.

Bill

Dave says they aren’t making enough profit to justify keeping it going.

All those old engine retrofits are perhaps competing with the shiny new ones... I'm projecting.

After the announcement of Jon Z. retiring I thought about what would happen with ERR and now we sort of know. IMHO I think the location itself is being shut down and the products moved in house to Charlotte. The real sad part is for Ken and any employees at ERR that are losing their job,I wish them the best in luck and thank them for their help in the hobby!

Doug

You only wish they were moving them to Charlotte, my info is they will cease to have retail sales.  They'll still sell to the OEM's, Atlas and 3rd Rail, but not to end users.

One imagines a boost to maybe blue rail types or mth if they continue to sell their retrofit kits...then again maybe not

Thanks for clarifying John.

Doug

Can we still order ERR or that is it?

Wow! While this has some impact to the O gauge operators think about what this does to us in S. I have at least one of every type of engine Lionel has made in TMCC and Legacy. It is a very small fleet. Without the ability to use ERR boards to convert AM engines to TMCC, S gauge will be crippled for new entrants. I have already had close to 30 engines converted to TMCC so I will be ok, but what about those still adding to their fleet. As I understand it Lionel is only planning one new Legacy S engine, the Berkshire. I have one on order.

We S gaugers also do not have the option to go MTH DCS. MTH has made one engine in S DCS. Rumors are a rerelease of an SHS steam engine with DCS may happen some year.

The only alternative now for S gaugers not wanting to run conventional is DCC. We could hope that Lionel could treat businesses like Goldinhands as an OEM, but they will probably not do that. Without the ERR products to convert AM and old Gilbert engines to TMCC I would have gone DCC on my layout and not spent over $10,000 on LCS components and ZW-L transformers in addition to the $4,000 I spent on ERR products. In S there are no shiny new Legacy engines to buy. Thanks Lionel.

You're not the only one that's bummed out about this Tom.   The word we got is they're going to sell the remaining inventory and that's it.

This news sure does suck. To me it seems as though Lionel doesn't give much thought or importance to those folks who at some future time may want to retrofit their favorite conventional trains to command control capability. Maybe from Lionel's vantage point, that might encourage those affected folks to purchase either LionChief/+ or the more expensive Legacy engines in order to have command capability.

But IMHO it's a disservice to those folks who might be looking to upgrade a conventional loco (or roadname) not available from Lionel with any form of command control.

As for Lionel likely selling ERR kits just to OEM's, does that mean GRJ, Alex M. and other authorized Lionel service guys also won't be able to buy those kits to do command control customer upgrades and repairs?

Seems like Lionel is forging an iron clad grip on their, once available to the general public, command control technology. 

From what I hear, we will NOT be able to get them, only manufacturers like Atlas and 3rd Rail that get orders shipped direct from the factory in bulk.  I'm wishing for a change, but I am not holding out a lot of hope.

When I start doing just PS/3 upgrades, that will start those folks down the DCS path, I can't see where that's a benefit for Lionel.  Right now, I do whichever the customer wants.

If they aren’t selling enough at the consumer level what are to do. I hate to see it go as well but you have to buy the product. 

Marty, there's nothing stopping them from simply listing them on the Lionel parts site, they already handle thousands of parts through that portal.  Adding 20-30 ERR products surely can't be that big a deal!

I agree 100%. I wish they would be available as a part from Lionel. 

That would seem to be the logical thing to do.

Doug

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Marty, there's nothing stopping them from simply listing them on the Lionel parts site, they already handle thousands of parts through that portal.  Adding 20-30 ERR products surely can't be that big a deal!

MartyE posted:

I agree 100%. I wish they would be available as a part from Lionel. 

This is very sad news!! You guys have the right idea here, especially since they will still be making them for OEM sales. What do they have against making a few more sales from the parts department when you already have the products? As GRJ says, couldn't be that hard to add a few more parts to the list, could it? 

I especially hate to see people lose their jobs too, and I think ERR had some very good people. Sure hope Lionel is able to keep the ERR employees. I have been on the receiving end of that job loss thing myself, back in the early '80s, not pretty!

Well that really is sad about ERR. I really hope Lionel just put this on the parts web site as suggested.

I have really enjoyed the stuff I have learned from Guns and the other guys when it comes to fixing TMCC and Legacy engines. And upgrading from scratch with ERR.

Nick

  This is not good for the  future of the hobby and Lionel train business. Does anyone think that Lionel will offer to install new electronics in any of their products that may died or will they push the hobby into a disposable platform?