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Lionel has entered the blogosphere with the announcement of the On The Road With Lionel blog.  The blog is supporting Lionel’s latest Product Showcase marketing campaign in which Lionel will be traveling the country to showcase its new products over the coming months.  Kudos to Lionel for using a blog as part of their marketing efforts!  Read the blog here.

By the way, the blog’s latest post announces a new product video page that is also supporting the Product Showcase campaign.  There are some nicely produced videos featuring executives from Lionel and videos showcasing Lionel’s product lines all presented in a cool “lightbox” format.  The product videos are basically slide shows of still photos set to music and lack video of the products in action but they are still nicely done.

Now that MTH has a deal to produce Lionel branded tinplate maybe Lionel can ink a deal with MTH to run its web marketing efforts

Over the past week, several high tech professional types have been working very diligently to move OGaugeWatch.com to a new blogging platform called WordPress.  Should you care?  Probably not since the initial move will be mostly transparent to readers except for those with a keen eye for details.  One side effect of the move will make the OGaugeWatch.com blog unavailable for a short time while the internet gods point www.ogaugewatch.com’s web address to its new WordPress home.

Stage two of the move is a site redesign which is one of the reasons for moving to WordPress.  Why all the fuss, especially since the future of OGaugeWatch was in question at one time?  More on that later.

So if you find OGaugeWatch is unavailable for a short time in the near future you’ll know it’s relocating to a new opulent, luxurious, lush, magnificent, palatial blogging home.

UPDATE: The move is complete and went as smooth as silk thanks to Alec and the gang at Foliovision.com.  A new design is coming soon.

Building a model railroad of any scale and size is a labor of love.  All model railroaders love to share information about their masterpieces - build stories, photos,  do's and don'ts, etc.  In my opinion, the best way to chronicle and share the events and memories of a layout build with friends, family and fans of model railroading is through a blog.

The other day I received an email from the builders of the Racoon Creek Scenic Railroad.  Their "Train Blog" has posts dating back to the start of the build and is another fine example of how blogging and model railroading are perfect together.  Check out the blog for yourself here and be sure to check out the layout photos here.  The photos show family and friends on the build team having a great time and most of the blog posts have a "What we learned" section which is a nice touch.  Thanks for sharing your site Cookie and Rick!

It’s been awhile since I visited Norm Charbonneau’s blog.  In my opinion, he is one of the premier O Gauge modelers of our time.  Back in March, Norm posted a few videos showcasing his customized Weaver H10 and
his newly purchased Lionel "Geeps" equipped with Lionel’s new Legacy control system.  The sound of the horn on the Geeps is awesome and I love the rail squeal at slow speeds.  Check out the videos here and here.

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.

D. Railer over at the Hi-Rail Times blog is maintaining a list of the differences between Lionel’s TMCC2 and MTH’s DCS train control systems.  He is also asking for both DCS and TMCC2 users to help add to the list.  Check out the list here.  (Ed. Note:  Hi-Rail Times & the Coil Couplers site is pro Lionel so keep that in mind when reading the comparisions and remarks.)

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