OGR Magazine Names New Editor

O Gauge Railroading magazine has a new editor, Allan Miller, who replaces the current editor, George Brown.  The announcement was made in the current issue of OGR magazine, but no official announcement was made on-line.  An OGR forum participant broke the news on the OGR forum after he noticed the announcement in the  magazine.  A long time model railroad buff and prolific OGR forum participant with over 16,000 posts to his credit, Mr. Miller's profile from the OGR forum indicates that he was Senior Editor/News and Information for Virginia Tech.  Read a statement from Mr. Miller to OGR forum participants here. 

UPDATE: Corrupt CEO's Trains Sold

Remember the story of the CEO that ran LeNature's into bankruptcy and used company funds to purchase more than $1 million in O Gauge trains?  Well, the bankruptcy court sold the trains to Joe Grzyboski, Jr owner of Grzyboski's Trains in Scranton PA.  Mr. Grzyboski out bid Scott Griggs, owner of Trainz.com (an OGW sponsor) with a bid of $680,000.  Bidding started at $595,000 and continued in $5,000 increments.  Afterward, Mr. Griggs stated his limit was $675,000.  Read the entire story from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review here.

Related Posts

CEO Used Company Funds To Buy $1M Worth Of Trains

Catching Up.....

Here are a few stories from the last week or so that broke while OGaugeWatch was on vacation.

1. After a long absence, "Clyde Coil" over at Hi-Rail Times wrote a few posts about Lionel's Legacy control system.
2. MTH introduced the final Steelers Superbowl Boxcar in the series (unless they win another).
3. The TCA's New England Division will host the National TCA convention in 2008 in Burlington, VT.  They announced the 2008 convention cars and they are nice.  I'm sure the Ben & Jerry's refer and the Vermont Railway maxi-stack cars will be a big hit.  Save 5% if you order by 10/31/07.  See all the cars here.
4. 3rd Rail released production photos of their C&O Greenbrier.  What a sharp looking piece.  View the photos here.
5. Marc over at the Standard Gauge Blog found several videos on YouTube of the late Tom Snyder interviewing Ward Kimball, the legendary Disney animator and railroad enthusiast..  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
6. Joshua at the  prewar times Blog posted that MTH is releasing a new tinplate catalog at this October's TCA York meet.  Keep an eye on prewar times for possible pre-release information about the catalog.

Lionel Proactively Testing Products For Lead Paint

An article in Crain's Detroit Business covering a Michigan based product testing company, NSF International Inc., mentions Lionel as one of NSF's customers.  Lionel's CEO, Jerry Calabrese, indicates in the article that Lionel is taking a proactive stance and testing it's warehoused inventory for lead tainted paint even though the company hasn't received complaints.  Tests have "not found cause for concern" according to the article.  This is good move by Lionel and I'd be surprised if other O Gauge train manufacturers haven't taken similar steps.  Read the Crain's article here.

If you ever wondered why lead was ever used in paint, check out this Chemistry World article.

WANTED: Guest Bloggers

It's almost the start of "model train season" again (mid September through the holidays into late winter). If you're like me, the season never ends. OGaugeWatch experienced a considerable increase in visitor traffic during the model train season last year and I expect even more this year.  When I started OGaugeWatch back in the beginning of 2006, one of my primary goals was to help develop more interest in the O Gauge hobby by presenting a free source of O Gauge news and information.  Every blogger knows the best way to build an audience and generate interest in the blog's subject is to post good content.  There's no better time to present good content than when a blog's traffic is up.  To that end, I want to post as much original O Gauge content as possible in the upcoming months.  To achieve my goal, I need some help.  That's why I'm looking for guest bloggers.   

Interesting Collection For Sale On eBay

There's nothing new about someone trying to sell their O Gauge collection on eBay but the latest attempt will be of interest to those who collect Marx.  The collection up for auction has numerous Marx items along with Prewar, Postwar and Modern Lionel and some K-Line.   The listing doesn't include any detail photos of the items but there is a comprehensive list.  Check out the listing here.

A Little R&R...

OGaugeWatch has been dark for the last 12 days because I'm taking a little vacation from the blogosphere.   Look for new posts starting next week.  In the meantime, if you need a fix of O Gauge information get yourself caught up on the O Gauge legal sagas by reading all of Erol Gurcan's posts (dating back to  January of '06) here. 

If you're thinking about building your first Christmas layout this year (yes, Christmas is just about 4 months away) take a look at some of these past OGaugeWatch posts:

How to Build A Train Platform
Building Your First Christmas Layout - Part 1
Building Your First Christmas Layout - Part 2
Removing 0-27 Track Pins
O Gauge Track Plans

Also, be sure to check out all the links near the bottom of the right sidebar of OGaugeWatch.  Here are some of my favorites blogs and sites (in no particular order):

Standard Gauge Blog
Norm's Train Blog
Prewar Times
Tin Plate Times
Lionel Lines.net
Lionel Lines Blog
Al Z's Train Pages
ToyTrains1's Blog
Black Diamond Railway
Drew's Train Layout

There are more giveaways on tap for the fall courtesy of JT's Mega Steam, Evan Designs and Ready Made Toys.  I'm also looking for guest bloggers and will post about it next week.

I've been having a great summer, hope you are too!  Check out my summer project here.

Be well and thanks for reading OGaugeWatch.

Dave

Review: Ready Made Toys 2 Bay Coal Hopper

Back in January '07, Ready Made Toys announced a new addition to their product line, a smooth sided 2 Bay Coal Hopper.  The hopper is being reproduced by RMT from tooling originally created by Kusan, a plastics company that also manufactured toys.  Kusan exited the business of making toy trains in the early 1960's.   RMT supplied me with a pre-production sample of the new car in Con Edison livery for this review.

Auction Alert: Toy Train Box-Lot Auction On 8/11

Stout Auctions is holding a huge "box-lot" toy train auction on Saturday, 8/11.  762 boxes of prewar and postwar trains will cross the block.  The auction will be held at Stout's Williamsport, IN gallery and on-line through eBay live auctions.  View all the lots here.

MTH DCS Software Update for Coors Light Silver Bullet

MTH has released a new version of their DCS software (v 3.11) to enable owners of the Coors Light Silver Bullet set to activate the Coors Light refer car functions using the DCS Remote's "softkeys".   Visit the MTH web site for more details.  You can download version 3.11 from here.

Related posts:

Watch A Video Of MTH's Coors Light Silver Bullet Train

PODCAST: MTH's Coors Light Silver Bullet Train

Atlas O August '07 Announcements

Atlas O announced this week several new paint schemes available for their C 424/425 Locomotive, X-29 Box Car, 40' Airslide Hopper and 17,360 Gallon Tank Car.  Atlas O also announced that a bay window caboose has been added to their Trainman line.  See the Atlas O website for more details.

Lionel Wins Major Rulings In Bankruptcy Court

Lionel won two major and important rulings from Judge Lifland in the bankruptcy court this morning. The more important of these was the decision that the future trial (in others words,the Bankruptcy Code section 502c "damages estimation hearing') in the trade secrets case would be tried before the judge, instead of a jury trial in the Federal District Court in Detroit, Michigan. The second important ruling was Lionel was granted a fifth extension of time, giving it the exclusive right to file its bankruptcy reorganization plan.

Click on the link below to read on

Lionel and K-Line by Lionel 2007 Volume 2 Catalogs Available On-Line

The 2007 Volume 2 catalogs for Lionel and K-Line by Lionel are now available at Lionel.com.