Dec 2002 - Lionel Collectors Club of America

y Bill BracyBill BracyTrain TalkCEO, Lionel LLCAs we enter thefestive holiday seasonand bring 2002 to aclose, all of us at Lionelwould like to thank allof you at LCCA for aterrific year. Weappreciate all theopportunities we had tomeet with you, gatheryour advice andcritiques, andstrengthen our mutualcommitments to makethe future even better.We’ve had some great planning discussions with your Boardof Directors to bring even more excitement and enjoyment toall of you in 2003 and beyond.We’re finishing 2002 on a high point with the introductionof the Norfolk and Western Y6b 2-8-8-2 – the latest in theJoshua Lionel Cowen series. Our announcement flyer is goingout almost concurrently with your December issue of The LionRoars. In 1952, locomotive #2200 rolled out of the N&WRoanoke Shops – the last mainline steam locomotive built inAmerica. We’re celebrating itsGolden Anniversary. Detailing andperformance features are toonumerous to include an exhaustivelist here. I really enjoy the valves,gauges and planking on the interiorof the cab, the opening cab roofhatches, the working lubricatorlinkage on the running gear, and thesynchronized smoke, sound, and motion as the chuffing shiftsfrom simple to compound as the speed increases.Many of you have expressed interest in our efforts to reachnew customers and start them on the path towards becomingenthusiasts and collectors. Sales of train sets will be up some40% this year, priced between our entry level Union PacificFreight Express at $140 up to our Pennsylvania K4 Freight at$650. Families are returning to favorite memories of theiryouth and their children into electric trains as an activity thatbridges the generations and promotes family interaction. OurDealers are excited about increased track sales along with allthe accompanying accessories — evidence that more first timelayouts are under construction across America.Consumers are pleased to find retailers who wouldn’tnormally be a site for train sets including them among theirofferings. From the National Geographic Magazine catalogto select locations of Home Depot, from L.L. Bean toBloomingdales, families are taking Lionel home for theholidays.I recently spoke with one of our dealers in the West whosaid the Wendy’s promotion we did from mid-October to mid-November was bringing “tons” of new customers into his store,buying sets and redeeming coupons for free O-27 track.In mid-November the host of a syndicated Saturday “allmale”talk show invited me to be a guest. Along with ToddWagner, one of our product managers and an “unofficialhistorian” of Lionel, we discussed the past, present, and futureof Lionel trains. Based on the overwhelming response to thatshow, we were invited to join him eachyear, making a Lionel show an annualevent in 100 markets across the county.Clearly there is a broad and growinginterest out there for Lionel.Again, we thank you for yoursupport and wish you and your familiesa very happy and successful 2003.continued from page 30infected. By far, the majority of viruses are benign. They don’tdo much more than make you feel stupid and violated whenyou find out that you have one. They almost always take theform of a downloaded executable program, often as an e-mailattachment, but not from the e-mail itself.To avoid these, it’s very important to continually updateyour virus software. The viruses that cause the most potentialdamage are not the new ones your software has already beenprogrammed to detect, but rather newly created strands. Manyvirus-protection programs are set to check automatically forthe most recent updates, but make sure that you have yoursconfigured properly to do this.Remember, If it sounds like a scam, it probably is. If youget a virus alert, it is probably a fake. If you get a chain letter,it is probably a scam, and may be banned by your ISP.Forwarding it might jeopardize your Internet service. Don’tget me wrong. I think trust is a beautiful thing, and somethingto be cultivated. Just don’t even think about trusting anythingyou read in an e-mail.Be sure to copy this article and e-mail it to everyone onyour list.IBCThe Lion Roars December, 2002