Richard Kughn, 08/01/1930-06/08/2019

[chuck]

healy36 said:

I suspect if you laid a postwar Lionel loco on a workbench in front of him and asked him to replace the light-bulb, he'd be clueless.

When he was a child growing up in Cleveland he pulled an old O-27 set out of a trash can and fixed them up and ran them in the basement. His dad did get him a Commodore Vanderbilt set that was run on a layout he and his dad worked on up in the attic. That's how he got started in trains. Wouldn't qualify as an authorized service center repairman but not totally ignorant either.


Hondo, thanks for posting the link to the YouTube video on the Sarasota museum. Yes, he bought the Sarasota museum lock stock and barrel. It's referenced in the same book, pages 10 and 11. You can see a large number of items from the Sarasota layout were in the CarRail layout.

BTW, the space figures/collection does not include Madison Hardware. That was in another multi story warehouse in downtown Detroit near the riverfront. The CarRail complex was off the Southfield freeway near the western end of Detroit. The guy really like to collect stuff.

Roy said:

I used to think of making the pilgrimage to NYC to see it, and I was saddened when I heard it was simply closed, and the contents moved back to Michigan.

Most of the original Madison Hardware was invisible to the public. The store front was only a small portion of the parts inventory. My dad and I went down to Lionel's show room (the Super O version) in the early 60's and were directed over to Madison Hardware to buy some parts and some "Peacock Green" paint to fix up my great grandfathers 10E. The store front was cool but we had no idea that 9/10's of Madison Hardware was "upstairs". When they went "in the back" they often went upstairs or "next door".

[HONDO74]

Madison Hardware used to advertise in all the model railroad magazine's. I remember buying parts from them mail order back in the late 70s and 80s when I first joined TCA western division So Calif. They must have done a lot of business by mail order.

[healey36]

When he was a child growing up in Cleveland he pulled an old O-27 set out of a trash can and fixed them up and ran them in the basement. His dad did get him a Commodore Vanderbilt set that was run on a layout he and his dad worked on up in the attic. That's how he got started in trains. Wouldn't qualify as an authorized service center repairman but not totally ignorant either.

Good to know...seems I misjudged him in that respect.

I visited Madison Hardware only once, during the late 1970s while on a business trip. Went in there to see if they had a loose controller for a Lionel 97 coal-loader. The owners struck me as a couple of pissed-off old codgers unhappy with their lot in life. One of them was lecturing a customer on the vagaries of the "golden years". Whatever, they showed no interest in me, so I left.

Years later I was attending an IPMS Nationals convention in Virginia Beach, and a vendor there had a stack of 1/72 Airfix airplane kits, all with Madison Hardware price-stickers on them. Struck me as odd, but who knows. He wanted a lot of money for them, simply for the provenance of a Madison Hardware association.

[rogruth]

Several persons that I knew that knew Mr. Kughn held him in high regard for his knowledge of model trains and collecting.
They also thought that he had the most influence in saving the Lionel company.

[chuck]

Healy wrote:

The owners struck me as a couple of pissed-off old codgers unhappy with their lot in life.

Yeah, they were that way 10 years earlier too. Some things don't improve with age..

[rogruth]

Healy wrote:

The owners struck me as a couple of pissed-off old codgers unhappy with their lot in life.

Yeah, they were that way 10 years earlier too. Some things don't improve with age..

I was never there but heard the same story from those that I knew had been there.
No price haggling. It was not a show room. Tell them what you want. they might go get it. They might not.
If you could get their interest they had just about everything Lionel ever made.
And some Lionel stuff Lionel never made.
Remember this is all at least second hand info from ones that had been there ( supposedly ).

[MurphOnMillerAve]

At the TCA meets @ York, he and his wife got into the habit of visiting my little Orange Hall booth and sitting for a while, chatting. This would happen twice during a Meet, usually toward the start and then at the last few minutes on Friday or Saturday . He'd observe what I had remaining, out of my usual 40 -45 pieces, and wave his hand over the lot of them and say, "I'll take them."

They would all be packed-up and ready for him to take them at the last few minutes of Saturday. Sometimes, he'd have me ship them to him , once I returned home .

He always paid in cash, in $100 bills. On one particular occasion, he handed me one of those bank-prepared little bundles of such bills , the ones enclosed nominally by a brown-paper inch-wide strip, which contained 20 in one bundle. He handed me two of them, saying, "You may want to count that."
I replied , "I certainly will not. If you say they are all here, that's good enough for me." He chuckled, as did his wife .

I never did count those little Kughn-bundles, not even when I returned home. His word was good enough for me.

For me, he was Class.
Murph

P.S. Even typing this narrative out for you guys , here, has put a catch in my throat . I liked him a whole lot. He had a certain style , a certain freedom to himself, which I admired greatly. Clearly, he was having fun.

P.P.S. I still have a couple of those brown paper money wrappers, saved, in the train room .

[MYmoo]

Thank you, Wayne, for the alert.
-----
I, too, am fortunate for having crossed paths with Mr. Kughn in CA & MI.

R.I.P. (and LOVE), Mr. Kughn ...

(... or let the Whistle blow!
Long and hard and Happy, let her blow!)
--------------------

[webenda]

Thanks to Murph, we knew about Mr. Kughn's death before it was reported in the press. Here the Detroit Free Press published an obituary on June 13, 2019: Richard P. Kughn, former Lionel toy train co. owner, dies at 89
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/ ... 427686001/

[Neil]

Small point. I think he was born in 1930, not 1940. A good long life, well lived.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Small point. I think he was born in 1930, not 1940. A good long life, well lived.

And he contributed something to the lives of others, which is something many consider a noble goal of living life well.

[Neil]

Indeed.

[webenda]

Small point. I think he was born in 1930, not 1940. A good long life, well lived.

Thank you Neil, I fixed the date in my first post.

I was tricked by the internet on his birth date:

Richard's Bio
Public
Summary
Richard Kughn was born on 08/01/1940 and is 78 years old. Richard's Reputation Score is 3.75. Previous to Richard's current city of Dearborn, MI, Richard Kughn lived in West Bloomfield MI and Royal Oak MI. Other names that Richard uses includes Richard P Kughn. Linda Kughn, Richard Kughn, Violet Taylor, Helen Blond and Jill Exler, and many others are family members and associates of Richard. View All Details

Source: https://www.mylife.com/richard-kughn/e458135140560

I have another source with a different date:

Name: Richard Paul Kughn
Birth Year: 1929
Has Photo: No
Source: Who's Who in Finance and Industry. 18th edition, 1974-1975. Wilmette, IL: Marquis Who's Who, 1974. (WhoFI 18)