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Project Roar Publishing is...
John W. Schmid - Co-founder & President
John is the co-founder and President of Project Roar Publishing. He has been collecting trains with his father for as long as he can remember. "It was Christmas all year long" as the layout in the basement continually grew. While still actively collecting trains, John pursued a career in the software industry running sales divisions and organizations for companies such as Sage Intacct, Host Analytics, Siebel, Hyperion and NCR.
After the auction of 2001, when the Lionel Factory Orders were purchased, John caught the "paper" and historical bug and dedicated himself to publishing these newly found documents. He transitioned from the software industry to start Project Roar Publishing with his father.
John is the author and photographer of the Authoritative Guide to Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1960 - 1969, the co-editor and image manager of Inside The Lionel Trains Fun Factory: The History of a Manufacturing Icon and The Place Where Childhood Dreams Were Made, the co-editor and photographer of the Authoritative Guide to Lionel's Postwar Operating Cars, and the editor of Lights, Camera, Lionel Trains! A Photo History of an American Icon.
John holds a Masters in Management (MBA) in finance, marketing and entrepreneurship from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a bachelor's degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.
George J. Schmid - Co-Founder
George is co-founder of Project Roar Publishing. George started collecting trains in the late 1950's, when his biggest purchase was a Lionel no. 2296W Canadian Pacific passenger outfit (which he still owns). Trains were always around the family home, and George "infected" his three children with the train bug.
George retired in 2000, which allowed him more time to spend with his trains and his new interest, preserving the history of Lionel and other train manufacturers. After the purchase of postwar Lionel Factory Orders at auction, George sought to give back to the toy train collecting community as much as it has provided to him. Thus, instead of burying these documents in a basement, he helped to form Project Roar to publish and share this wonderful historical information.
George is the co-editor of Inside The Lionel Trains Fun Factory: The History of a Manufacturing Icon and The Place Where Childhood Dreams Were Made and the Authoritative Guide to Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1960 - 1969.
John & George Schmid at the Launch of Authoritative Guide to Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1960 - 1969
Our Authors Include...
Roger Carp has been fascinated by Lionel trains and the people who created them since he received a small steam engine and some freight cars as a youngster in 1956. His interest directed him, after earning a Ph.D. in American history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to Classic Toy Trains magazine, where he has served for 20 years as senior editor. Roger has written or edited more than 20 books and special-interest publications about Lionel—its trains and accessories, its leaders and workers, its showrooms and displays, and its legacy. Among them are The World’s Greatest Toy Train Maker, Classic Lionel Display Layouts You Can Build, The Art of Lionel Trains, Authoritative Guide to Lionel’s Postwar Operating Cars, Authoritative Guide to Lionel’s Promotional Outfits 1960–1969, Inside the Lionel Train’s Fun Factory, Collectible Lionel Classics, Lionel Trains of the 1950s, and Lionel Trains of the 1940s. He also oversees production of the annual edition of Greenberg’s Pocket Price Guide to Lionel Trains. A native of Los Angeles, Roger lives near Milwaukee with his wife and Lionel trains.
Roger Carp working on Lights, Camera, Lionel Trains! A Photo Essay of an American Icon
Roger Carp Signing Limited Editions of Authoritative Guide to Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1960 - 1969
Robert J. Osterhoff, a retired executive of the Xerox Corporation, has conducted extensive international management consulting, specializing in the practices of business effectiveness, benchmarking and knowledge management. He served on the Board of Examiners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and as Treasurer and Director of the Baldrige Foundation. A graduate of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, Bob received a master's degree in business administration from Rochester Institute of Technology.
Inside The Lionel Trains Fun Factory: The History of a Manufacturing Icon and The Place Where Childhood Dreams Were Made is Bob's third book, having previously authored Greenberg's Guide to Lionel Paper and Collectibles and Greenberg's Guide to Lionel Prewar Parts & Instruction Sheets. Bob and his wife, Laura, have three married children and six grandchildren, and they live in the St. Louis area.
Bob Osterhoff & John Schmid at the Launch of Inside the Lionel Trains Fun Factory
Joseph P. Algozzini is one of the leading postwar Lionel historians in the country. He began collecting Lionel trains in 1965 and has written extensively on them for Classic Toy Trains magazine and other journals. Joe is the co-author of the Authoritative Guide to Lionel's Postwar Operating Cars and Greenberg's Guide to Lionel Trains, 1945 - 1969 Volume IV: Uncataloged Sets and the author of Lionel's Postwar F3's, Lionel's Space and Military Trains and TCA's Postwar Lionel Reproduction Handbook Guide. As a member of the TCA Standards Committee, he has helped increase the level of awareness and importance of original postwar items.
Emanuel F. Piazza has been a collector of Lionel trains since the late 1960s and is also a leading postwar historian. He is the co-author of the Authoritative Guide to Lionel's Postwar Operating Cars, a contributor to Lionel's Postwar F3's and the author of articles for Classic Toy Trains magazine. Manny, a past president of the Midwest Division of the TCA, lives in Addison, Illinois, with his wife LaVerne.
Manny Piazza & Joe Algozzini Signing Limited Editions of Authoritative Guide to Lionel's Postwar Operating Cars
The People Who Bring it All Together...
Our publications achieve their high-end production quality because of the staff we have working behind the scenes. These include:
Peri Poloni-Gabriel - Design
Monica Thomas - Layout
Kym Hanrahan - Design and Layout
Kristi Ludwig - Design and Layout
Lisa Schroeder - Design and Layout
Mardi Callahan - Image Management
Helene Tsigistras - Production Management