I see the e-mails went out!
Jack Barton said:You mean you're still on the Ventilators' distribution list? ! ? :D That was quite a slick operation you guys had going, worked like a greased pig slithering off the loading ramp in the wrong direction. And you think others would have to lower themselves to your standards?? Jack, it's time for a reality check!
I see the e-mails went out!
“so it goes” Kurt Vonnegut
Jack,
just think ‘conspiracy theory’. It worked for George ‘dudya’, but then I do credit you with a level of intelligence, something maybe not attributable to the former or his advisers, or is that minders?. Maybe when the team in the whitehouse vacate the premises (Democrats have no need for hasbeen political advisors), your buddies at Silvergate could employ them as business managers. They did such a good job for the country, just imagine how much they could achieve in the real world.
In so far as emails, well you are the expert on that front, maybe we learned something from you after all.Jack,
coincidence or not? When checking those who are online, one notices that when you are no longer active, your comrade JJS suddenly makes an appearance momentarily after you vacate the scene. Coincidence - not even enough time to get the email trail working. You guys must be psychic or maybe reading your own thoughts. One and the same, Clark Kent and Superman.
To throw suspicion away from you Jack, you need to have two computers with separate internet servers, so that both you and your alter ego are able to post simultaneously, not consecutively as is now the case. Now that would baffle some and thus perpetuate your identity mythology.
Dear Jack:
So if I put a single page on my web site that says LGB that means the LGB name is back?
I posted: “I’ll bet you 5 bucks that in 6 months you will not be able to find an LGBoA web site.”
This was prompted by the statement that “LGBoA is not going away”
Yep, no LGBoA web site any more. You have lgboa.com, but you no longer have an LGBoA web site.
That’s all I said. You came back with a retort. But LGBoA web site no longer exists… it HAS “gone away”, that’s all.
I can give you the address where to send the $5. 
Regards, Greg
Jack Barton said:Hey! Wait a minute, I didn't get any e-mails!
I see the e-mails went out!
I see that I am out of the loop, again.
So it goes. HJ… 
Steve Featherkile said:Jack Barton said:Hey! Wait a minute, I didn't get any e-mails!
I see the e-mails went out!I see that I am out of the loop, again.
So it goes. HJ…
Steve,
Barton, the Original Ventilator, has been spinning so furiously, all he sees is loops and circles. 
Greg Elmassian said:
I'll bet you 5 bucks that in 6 months you will not be able to find an LGBoA web site.
Jack Barton said:Greg, I'm not sure how you consider the above to be a "bet". My statement clearly reflects Silvergate's stated intention to convert it's LGBoA urls to the new sites sometime between 1 June and 15 June. I believe that means those LGBoA sites would disappear at that time. Knowing that, I would never bet something was not going to happen that I [b]knew[/b] was going to happen! I was just having fun linking you to one of the remaining LGBoA urls.
Why wait 6 months. As far as I know it will be more like 8-23 days.
But please forward your address to me. I’ll find some good use for it.
Jack
Time marches on, at a quicker step than we realize.
I can just remember a few names from the day before yesterday, but for “Someone elses’ life” of me; I can’t place where I have ever heard of LGB, or LGBofA.
…but in my simple little life; I don’t think I need to give a durn…I think I’ll survive, without knowing a lot of things, and will probably sleep much better for it !!!
Sorry Jack, seems we are in agreement and I did not understand.
Yes, no bet was accepted, was more in jest.
I guess I misinterpreted the statement of “LGBoA not going away”… I think it has gone away as everything but a name that might draw a price from Marklin.
In any way, my address is on nancy ridge road, a big empty building with red brick…
Regards, Greg
Silvergate had a small booth - an end display - at the Big Train Show.
A few attendees stood in front of four employees behind the table. Most passed by.
Shown were some power packs, track, PIKO European locos and other items. The PIKO catalogue was there to take. Featured in the first pages was “G” with PIKO locos and then track descriptions.
In short, my take is Silvergate is a now a direct order house for remaining LGB items, PIKO track and locos, along with the power packs. As to their being a distributor of PIKO, and the power packs to retailers, I have no idea.
Wendell
Wendell,
Silvergate is a distributor for those products mentioned. In so far as direct order house for remaining LGB, well LGB items have been ‘cleared’ on eBay for sometime now through a California based eBay seller, rumoured to be a ‘frontman’. I have dealt with the seller many times and apart from recent purchases, he has always been extremely courteous and items have matched the description to the letter.
Wendell Hanks said:
Silvergate had a small booth - an end display - at the Big Train Show. A few attendees stood in front of four employees behind the table. Most passed by. Shown were some power packs, track, PIKO European locos and other items. The PIKO catalogue was there to take. Featured in the first pages was "G" with PIKO locos and then track descriptions. In short, my take is Silvergate is a now a direct order house for remaining LGB items, PIKO track and locos, along with the power packs. As to their being a distributor of PIKO, and the power packs to retailers, I have no idea.Wendell
Silvergate is the exclusive distributor for Piko G and HO trains as well as Bridgewerks transformers.
Now I’m not waving the red banner but I noticed a good amount of people at the Silvergate booth, though I’d bet a dollar that all most of them had no idea it used to be LGBoA, thats just the nature of people at a show, see train, look at train, dont really care whos selling it
I even walked up to take a look at the new Piko Dismal, but I didnt see anything about the new Euro 0-6-0 starter set. BTW Marklin was no-show, no one in the know was really surprised by that, last time I rememebr them having a booth at the BTS they were there with the Maxi line - 2 years ago at the last Rusty Boat show.
Victor noting the absence of Marklin is accurate.
Interesting to me I completely overlooked their absence.
My guess is that the company has no western-style products to offer so why make an appearance to explain why they those products are missing.
If memory is correct, I think there have been photo postings on either LSC and MyLS indicating Marklin showing “G” products (European only?) from sizeable commercial Marklin booths at shows in Europe.
If they have not appeared at any other U.S. shows, that may evidence why they did not appear at the Big Train Show.
An interesting speculation: Marklin will leave the U.S. market to Aristo/USA/Bachman.
Wendell
P.S.
Further with the speculation Marklin will leave the U.S. market to Aristo/USA/Bachmann:
What would it take investment-wise for Marklin to be competitive against Aristo/USA/Bachmann? What is actually left for them to produce products either duplicative of the “big three’s” offerings or retrive the Mogul/Stainz mainstay and all-too-familar LGB product line? Meanwhile, will they be able to regenerate for Americans the LGB image of bullet-proof quality fueled by years of user accolades?
Instead, will they choose to focus on Europe and leave the West to be conquered by the big three. This is the group who apparently decline focusing on new “starter set” customers, instead they favor battling each other for sales to a diminishing group of older men who have already purchased nearly everthing they can afford.
Selah,
Wendell
Wendell,
It all depends: what will they produce, where will they produce, where is the lucrative market?
There’s the possibility that Märklin looks at the scale mish-mash a bit differently (I said it’s a possibility! :P) and will only produce those items that fit into either the NG niche or the SG 1:29 niche. Leaves all the wild stuff behind.
That would shrink the offering to a reasonable size and the incorrigible “Super Ventilators” get at least part of their fill. Even if the DUMBO JUMBO F7 would be history and the Santa Fé Alco along with it.
HJ - your on the right track. Sadly, Marklin may be just short of the checkered flag. Considering all of the bizare products LGB proffered up to the West – prop driven, Coca-Cola sounds, exploding box cars, motorcycles 'en rail, and the transparent bodied F7 – what would their profits be IF they had not done so? My guess is those products appealed to not only the devot purchase-powered LGB fans but to those who had no idea what “G” was or is. In short, will Marklin make an appeal to those who are NOT already in the hobby?
Meanwhile…
I saw no effort at the Big Train show to have a New-to-the-Hobby booth featuring a mass of EZ entry starter sets and pictures of trains in the garden. Yes, there were 10 folding chairs facing a blank screen for people to watch introductory footage, yet no generic display of different brands of starter sets backdropped by banner sized pictures of people’s gardens featuring, of course, outdoor trains.
Go to any garden show, and you will see vendors with PHOTOS, that’s G-I-A-N-T photo spreads showing their products in the setting in which they are intended. Clearly, in the displays and photos there is also an effort to reach those who have small yards, patios, condos, and trac homes with limited space.
At the Garden Shows, the only feature missing in those photos and banner pictorials are the trains.
Those same abundant garden photos and garden-featured banners with trains missing are still missing – even at the Big Train Show.
Wendell
Wendell,
It is always “preacher to the chior”… We want more people to get involved, but we do not talk to the correct people… At the BTS were any of the modular layouts down low so that the kids could see them with out help?? We build these for old men & women with bad knees… Why is there a Worlds Greatest Hobby Tour?? All us old F**ts are dieing off, & no new blood… IMHO LGB is gone here in North America, Marklin may survive, then it may not… Again my opinion…
Bob
As a fellow choir member, you are accurate the message does not reach those who have the most investment in reading it.
As to the Big Train Show, I did see a Kids Train with two controllers – only two children (young) with parents helping run the controllers. This is a setup constructed generously by SoCalif. Garden RR member Roy Heughins. It is taken to hospitals and is a wonderful diversion for bed ridden kids. However, those few children I did see at the show appeared as though they were “with” parents not that parents brought them specifically to intro them to garden railroading.
The two modular layouts were outstanding and were up. To me, these large layouts are not to promote having a garden rr - they are too massive for anyone to imagine projecting them into their yard. As I “sang” to the choir above, where’s the visuals showing possible garden layouts at these shows? Where’s the large standing photos showing Thomas pulling a few cars on track surrounded by garden plants with a child watching?
Just nuts.
Wendell