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Passing of Lee Riley

Started by John Tumolo, March 07, 2016, 08:01:48 PM

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John Tumolo

Lee was one of our best supporters-I had the privilege of meeting him several times over the years at the Bachmann displays at train shows, especially up in Massachusetts at the Big Amherst train show, and he was always a gracious host, intently listening to the babbling's of a fan, and remembered me as the guy always asking for a Bachmann Sandy River type 2-6-2 Prairie.  Thanks to him we got our Forneys, enabling us Maine 2-footer fans to build an affordable semblance of our beloved railroads. In my humble opinion, Lee was the best public face Bachmann could have ever asked for.  Truly one of the good guys. What really hurts is that he was going to retire at the end of this month!  It's just so sad...............

John Tumolo  [email protected]

p51

Crap, I'm sorry to hear this.
My understanding is he's also the primary reason why Bachmann made so many ET&WNC items over the years. Heck, he's the reason I got back into model railroading!
I was hoping to meet him at the NMRA convention in Portland but he didn't come. Now I am even more saddened to know I'll never get the chance to thank him.

God speed, Mister Riley.
-Lee

railexpert

#2
This text is from the owner of EDM Models, UK, Mr. Paul Martin, seen on his NG Trains Newsletter.

"Lee Riley  

I am hoping there aren't too many of you out there saying, "who?"

Lee Riley is dubbed by some as the father of 0n30 and he passed away last week at his desk just weeks before he was due to retire. He was Vice President for Development at Bachmann and largely responsible for persuading, some might say conning, Bachmann into getting in to 0n30 in the first place.

Others will eulogise (at length) about his impact on the model trade I'll stick to just one anecdote which may only be close to the truth but I like it all the same. Having been a modeller in 0n2 ½ (what 0n30 was called before it was called 0n30 and what it really should be called if you keep the nomenclature consistent) he tried several times to get Bachmann into the scale. The decider was persuading one of the `crap for Christmas' producers that a money spinner would be a Santa train set to run around the tree and they ordered thousands of units. That order persuaded Bachmann and largely paid for the set that we first saw with the Mogul and Three Coaches.  It was launched to modellers at the 1998 (I think) Narrow Gauge Convention in Colorado Springs.
[......]

I think the coming years might be interesting for commercial 0n30 as we have lost a champion well placed within the manufacturing world.

Paul Martin"




Condolences to family, co-workers and friends.

I hope On30 in the future has a place at Bachmann.


Railexpert










p51

MR's June issue has a nice tribute to him up front.
-Lee