October 2025 York Post

 I was lucky enough to be able to get to York this year.  

I love going to York because I get to see people that make the hobby WAY better because they're part of it.  

The other and unexpected curve ball from the SGMA layout was the dramatic showing of Modern Era Standard Gauge offerings.  For people that love collecting and running standard gauge, we are in a golden era.  From Jim Waterman to Dan Furmanski (Both Sr and Jr) to Dave Carse (CMT), we are in a fantastic spot on our timeline.  

If you are a TCA member, definitely go.  Here are some shots from the SGMA hall.

By the way, if you have a car while you are at York.... Get out your camera or phone and go over to the city of York.  It is a great old town with some really cool stores.  Hands down, the Camera store was my favorite (Camera Center of York).  The architecture of the town is really something and it's just a wonderful throwback.

I didn't take the camera store picture (that came from their website).  Again, 100% worth a visit if you're in town.  Almost all old school film cameras.

-Marc

2008 TCA Car from MTH

This really isn't a review. It's just a couple of pics and thoughts on this little Reefer car. Couple of first impressions:

1) The graphics are some of the best I've seen on any car, scale, high rail or otherwise.
2) It is really well packed and it came out of the shipping box in perfect condition.
3) I'd like to see more cars like this one. Less brand recognition and more color and graphics.

Damn, this is a nice car. Makes me wish I had about 10 of them; I just can't afford that many! I hope the TCA keeps up the great work on these. Between the crane car from last year and this one, I am just blown away. I do hope they cut a deal with MTH/Lionel and do something really innovative. Look, these are going to cost some $$$, they might as well be really nice and really unique. This Brookside car definitely fits the bill!

Once I get it running behind a 390E I'll let you know how it holds up with switches and cross overs....

Marc

Linked In

For those of you not familiar with Linked In, it is an online service that is free of charge. It's for grown ups, it is designed mostly for business people to stay in touch and look at resumes and make recommendations.

I have found it is a great way of staying in touch with people without hammering them with emails and the like. Perhaps it is time we train folks use Linked In? Maybe start a TCA Group?

I'd like to see us start to leverage our power and message out there a bit more than we do. Or are we just content to watch our trains go around our layouts and hope that someone doesn't bid up that favorite loco on eBay?

I use this service often. I have kept in touch with folks I haven't seen or worked with in 15 years. So even more. I know the TCA publishes a big old book every year with names and addresses in it but I have train friends that aren't in the TCA or spend most of their time with TTOS. This could bridge all those gaps. Go out and join. It costs nothing and could be a tremendous tool.

For crying out loud, go out and join it and give it a try. It's a passive service that essentially requires diddly for effort. Stop being a garden slug!

Marc

Sunday, Busy Sunday

I had a table at a local toy train meet today, sponsored by the the TCA Atlantic Division. This was the first time I actually sold stuff at one of these shows. After a while, after close to a decade of collecting, the time has come for me to adjust my toy train collection and sell off some of the items that I bought long ago in which I am no longer acutely interested. The benefits of this sort of thing to a collector are: 1. it makes room for new acquisitions; and 2. the money raised is welcome. So I was busy for a good part of the day today at the train meet. I had a good time and I did sell some stuff.

Jim

More METCA

Most of METCA looked like this:

Not bad but acres of orange or purple boxes can get kind of boring.....

I'd rather see this:

A rather large and well preserved prewar Erector Hudson. There's much more. And here's a Youtube vid to get us started:


Marc

The New Quarterly from the TCA

If there was ever a reason to join the TCA, this is definitely it.

I just received the latest Quarterly and Mark C. Boyd (the current editor) just keeps whacking the ball right out of the park.

Fact is, this isn't a good train magazine, it's great. This month there are articles about Dorfan, a really great article by John DeSantis on "The Other Big Three" and quite a few other articles that are just plain outstanding. The cover makes it worth it alone.

So join a great club and get a great magazine. PS you can make a few friends in the process!

Marc

2008 Boxcar

Here comes the new convention car for the TCA. The graphics are impressive. I've included the link above for ordering and perusal of the O gauge stuff (blah).

Marc

PS Rumor has it the TCA 2006 "Gramps" MTH Tank car is shipping in August. I'm looking forward to it (it will probably make my August!!)

Al's Fantastic Layout!!!!

Like all great living things, layouts tend to reflect the hands that created them. If you are lucky enough to be in the TCA, you can meet the great man that created this layout and also view his wonderful collection.

This is Al Merris' layout and part of his collection. He dedicates the bulk of his display space to McCoy gear. Al is the gentleman that put together the Steeple Cabs some years ago that many collectors still avidly look for today.

It's better if I let Al tell you about his wondeful layout and collection in his own words:

"I've included an overall shot of the layout that better explains the concept. I've got two standard gauge lines. The main line (the articulated is on it) climbs over itself and has 072 curves and the grade doesn't exceed 2%. It is point to point and the articulated can handle 8 cars uphill (an E-2 can pull 10).

The interurban line intertwines the main line and has steep grades and sharper curves, but the steeplecab can handle 5 cars with ease. I will also be running McCoy interurban and trailer sets on this line and hope to someday have operating catenary. Between the McCoy carousel and the lake on the upper level there is an interchange track between the two lines per prototype. The articulated was made from McCoy components (two little chief chassis) by my friend George Perry in Portland. George was a very good friend of the McCoys and is also responsible for the OWR&N artwork on the boxcars in the forground. This is my favorite McCoy car. The bottom steam engine was Bob Jr's rework of the venerable Chief Seattle. He felt that after 20 plus years it could use an upgrade. I think total production was 9 units. He also created a new look for the passenger cars to match the engine and they are stunning as well.

In the broadside shot you see an open space in the collection....the REA boxcar behind the steam engine normally lives there. In the first shot you'll notice a large rock behind the pilot of the articulated. That is a chunk of Mt St Helens which was delivered to me by USGS helicopter in the early 80's, still warm. In the overall shot you'll notice I have a "groove" around my layout with a loop of Lionel "O" so I can run those trains too. You'll also notice a loop of "G"gauge going around the edge of the ceiling soffit. I like all trains, manufacturers and gauges. I have restricted my shelving (600 ft of railrax) to McCoy exclusively and have about 30 items in storage that won't fit. "

Al is going to be showing off his layout and trains at an upcoming TCA Event. I will ask that you respect Al's privacy. If you have any questions feel free to post them and I will forward them on to him. He's a great guy and I am honored to have his contribution and interaction with the blog.

Marc

PS Click on the pictures to blow them up. This layout goes to show not everything needs to be toylike or prototypical to still be amazing (the ends of two extremes).

Standard Gauge Is Dead?

If we are to believe the current owners of Lionel than yes, Standard Gauge is indeed dead. If we are to believe otherwise, than we should let it be known as brilliantly as it was in the brief article that accompanied this wonderful picture in the TCA Quarterly in 1966 (yes, 41 years ago):

"Those who are inclined to say so are in error, as proven by the photograph to the left. The Thorley Hoople Toy Company of Palo Alto, CA is now in production of the passenger train passenger train shown. We wish to quote a letter received with the picture:

"Enclosed is a photograh taken at the April 20th meet of the Northern California TCA. TCA Member Willard Saunders on the left and myself on the right are discussing future projects of the Hoople Toy Company. The "Major Belle" train is rumbling by in the foreground, with two cars in another color scheme standing on the siding.

Also of interest is the size comparison of the Blue Comet car and the 29 Day Coach. The track is also cataloged. Our catalogs will be available at $1 after June 8 (1966).

Probably the most historic feature of the photo, other than those items already mentioned is that Will Saunders was the purchaser of set number 0001! This was particularly gratifying because Will and the other early buyers of these sets are all senior members of the local division and purchase only premium items."

The letter was signed George L Cody, Jr. Previously Mr. Cody sent us a copy of an advance sheet, actually a full scale drawing of the three-car train set. The locomotive is a short coupled 4-4-0 or "American" type with baloon stack. To again quote from the accompanying letter:
"The locomotive is primarily of brass. The cars are the size of Blue Comet cars with cast details, sheet steel sides, wood bottom and roof. (Archbar trucks.Ed) The loco has a manual reverse and will operate on any standard gauge layout." We wish to thank Mr Cody for furnishing this very detailed info on the new line of trains."

Please remember the above article is not from 2007, it's 41 years old. Even 41 years ago people that played with trains knew that standard gauge is not only alive and well, it has vitality and always will have a passion that caused people to be heartfelt and spirited about the hobby. They built new products around a toy standard that has now endured for a century.

Marc

PS I used the Courier font because it is the same font the old Quarterly's were produced with (probably using a member's old Underwood).

PSS If anyone has one of these Thorley Hoople sets and can send us some pics, it would be greatly appreciated!

PSS

TCA Vision

The TCA just put up a really cool new web feature called "TCA Vision". It requires Flash 9.

I gotta say, every time I see a TCA or TTOS publication it makes me glad to be a member. They really are one of the best outlets for information and news in the toy train world.

This is the first attempt and it's a great one. There are some presentations from York, specifically the MTH/Mike Wolf session.

It's fun and I'd highly recommend watching! PS I think you should join too if you haven't already!

Marc

Amazing Auction at Maurer (April 6th and 7th, 2007)

As you all can tell, I haven't posted as many auctions up as I used to. That's predominantly because they have become in large part kind of ho hum. Boring to be exact. Would I like more 200 series or 500 series cars. Well, ya. Do I want to look at them over and over again? Not really.

As you know from reading my blog, I like Ted Maurer's auction house. It is NOT pretentious, going to auctions there seems to be consistently interesting and fun and I like the people that run them and manage them. All told one of the best run operations around.

So this auction is something special. Lots of C&F, Knapp, Howard, Ives, some absolutely great Lionel trolleys and some substantial classic standard gauge. There's also some top notch 2 7/8 as well. I'll try and post some of the pics. Remember, this is the estate of a well known and long time TCA person. It took a lifetime to roll a collection like this....


M

PS The pics I'll post are of items that I wish I could see made by our curent crop of manufacturers.

Our TCA Library

Humm..., did they make this in Standard gauge or just in 0 gauge? I'll bet you know the answer.

What we have here is the cover of the October, 1992 Train Collector's Quarterly. I ordered a copy of this issue from Jan at the TCA's library because this issue contains an article that I found very helpful in my current research on early Lionel. The article, penned by old timer Max Knoecklein (64-1079) focuses on the discovery of what is believed to be the 1901 Lionel catalog. At the time of the 1992 article, this was thought to be the oldest Lionel catalog known, however, since then an even older catalog has surfaced, discovered by former TCA president Paul Wassermann, which he believes dates from 1900. Digging around doing some detective work with these documents is interesting. We're fortunate to have the TCA library, staffed by a really helpful librarian named Jan. Send her an email and she will try her best to answer your questions and provide whatever back issues or photocopies you require.

Jim