GUEST BLOGGER: Neil Blumberg - Lionel Nation DVD Review
The OGaugeWatch/TM Books & Video Lionel Nation DVD giveaway is over so if you didn’t win be sure to pick up your copy. The following guest blogger post from Neil Blumberg is a review of the Lionel Nation DVD.
Tom McComas
was kind enough to send a review copy of their latest toy train video
to me, the first part of a new series entitled "Lionel Nation."
It’s a DVD that runs about 65 minutes including the credits (which are
worth watching) but not including some very entertaining and
informative outtakes from their other videos. Tom McComas and
his colleagues, most recently including Joe Stachler, have played a
seminal role in reviving and nurturing the toy train hobby these last
three decades or so. In the 1970s and 1980s initially by publishing
unique and definitive collector’s guides, and in recent years
issuing videotapes, and now DVDs of ever growing beauty and
sophistication.
Lionel Nation is one of their best, although
they’re all worth watching if you like toy trains. And I should
emphasize toy trains. While the scenery and verisimilitude of
layouts are much improved from the 1949 Lionel showroom layout in this
video, or the Gilbert Hall of Science layout, the layouts and
subjects featured in most TM Videos are predominately of interest to
those interested in and passionate about the collecting, historical
and toy aspects of three (or two) rail trains.
As the years have gone by, the production values of TM Videos have
gotten ever more impressive. Little touches like precise
narration, use of a Lionel billboard to introduce each segment as a
train runs past, selective and economical use of subtitles, and
constant train activity, even during exposition, all make a cumulative
difference. This DVD is visually stunning, leavened with
humor, and captures the sights, movement, sounds and color that evoke
the essence of toy trains. Only the odors are missing. The
program has something for the layout builder, and the prewar, postwar
and modern collector or operator in its seven segments.
The first segment is a motion packed, colorful, visual and
narrative essay on sound in Lionel toy trains, from the "chugger"
of 1933 to Railsounds II in 1994. Lots of details are given but
very memorable and succinct. When Lionel didn’t quite make
things work well, Jeff McComas’s comments are appropriately, if
affectionately, critical. I learned quite a bit from this
segment that I didn’t know, and it didn’t hurt at all.
The second segment is a visit to the Tom Sefton Gallery at the
California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. This
enthralling and visually stunning display is captured in all its
glory, particularly the specially designed full scale Lionel model
replicas housing the displays and decorating the gallery.
Standard and O gauge tinplate trains of all makes are featured, though
mostly Lionel, and all vintage pre WWII. It is easy to see
why the Sefton Gallery and its spectacular layout are the most visited
parts of the museum.
The third segment is about Michael Theodorakis’s layout, designed and
built by the Dunhams, the premier proponents of toy train layouts as
theater, and creators of some of the most whimsical and rapturous toy
train layouts ever designed. This 20 x 12 layout on multiple
levels is a joy for nostalgia fans and toy train accessory
aficionados. Dunham Studios’ incomparable backdrops are featured
and this is a very special layout in many ways, a tribute to Dr.
Theodorakis’s vision and Dunham Studios creativity and skills.
The fourth segment is "Locos Then and Now" comparing
postwar/prewar examples with modern versions of the Hiawatha, Dreyfuss
Hudson, ATSF F3, GG1 and Norfolk and Western "J." I
don’t want anyone to think this is the toy train educational
equivalent of a root canal lecture. It’s is a lightning paced,
beautiful video essay on the art of three rail locomotive design and
operation. Most of us don’t have these locos and it’s a joy to
see them in action and discussed concurrently.
The fifth segment will thrill standard gauge fans, particularly
collectors and those who operate original Ives and Lionel tinplate.
It’s a visit to Chuck Brasher’s new, greatly enlarged layout with lots
of discussion/video of rare trains, accessories and plenty of
operation. These are items one will never see outside a museum,
and I cannot think of any standard gauge layout I’ve seen or heard
about, other than Richard Kughn’s dismantled Carail layout or Terry
Johnson’s 40 x 40 giant that are remotely comparable.
linear rail line with automatic stopping employing Lionel automatic
station stops, and a 253 Signal, employing FasTrack. Joe
Stachler walks you through this simple but elegant example of E-unit
functionality for your layout, in a way that even wiring novices
like myself could successfully implement after watching his 10 minute
video.
The seventh segment closes the video, very appropriately, with
Lionel’s return to New York City and its roots after a many decade
absence. In some ways, this segment is my sentimental favorite,
as a former New Yorker and lifelong Lionel fan. This is the only
way most of us will see Lionel’s new offices and showroom, with
their gorgeous reproductions of iconic Lionel dealer displays
populated with Lionel’s current products. Most of us cannot go
to NYC to see the layouts built for Lionel by TW Design, and
displayed at FAO Schwarz, Grand Central Terminal and Macy’s during the
Christmas season, but TM Video brings them into our homes in dazzling
color and movement. This segment recaptures the 1950s with the
glory of Lionel sets of the modern era echoing its history very
successfully, as Jerry Calabrese, Lionel’s CEO, had hoped when
he re-established Lionel’s New York presence.
There is a mystique and legacy (pun intended) about Lionel that
permeates, and, indeed, is at the heart of the three rail hobby
in all its manifestations. This video captures key elements of
why that is so. As long as there are folks that love tinplate,
E-units, ozone, toy train smell, feel and color, Lionel’s name will
have a resonance that goes far beyond anything else in model trains,
at least in the USA.
Simply put, the legions of folks who adore Lionel stuff, whether it’s
beat up originals from the 1920s or the pristine new stuff with
command control, are a good part of what keep this hobby going.
And that momentum and those folks’ obsession has been fed and to great
extent created by Tom McComas and his colleagues for many decades,
through fabulous efforts like this Lionel Nation DVD.
By the way, it’s $19.95 MSRP and you’ll watch it many times is my
guess.
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