2026 TCA National Convention-Special Mint Cars Production
By Clay Kinsner, TCA #93-37753 Fall 2026 e*Train
For the 2026 TCA National Convention in Grapevine, the Lone Star Division wanted to do something very special for the people who worked hard to make it happen. So the Lone Star Division teamed up with Lone Star Trains & Collectibles to make not one, but two memorable cars.
In 2012, the division sold a Lionel Southern Pacific Daylight San Francisco mint car with gold bars #58512.
That same year, the division released a Texas Special Dallas mint car with silver trucks and silver bars #58552.
This was a complement to the division’s 2011 release of the black truck version with gold bars #52585 (1954 Texas Special F3s had silver trucks, and 1955 had blackened).
I stumbled across three forgotten cases of SP daylight cars—a total of eighteen. So we decided to use these to make a special car for the convention committee. The cars were turned over to the team at Lone Star Trains, who then designed and customized the cars.
We all knew that we could not have “San Francisco” on a TEXAS convention car, so the city name was patched to “Fort Worth” to commemorate the location of the convention as well as one of the tour destinations—the Fort Worth Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
We had to do more, of course. So we added the colorful 2026 Convention logo to one window on each side.
But we needed something special for America’s 250th anniversary. When the special brass door plate for the cattle cars was revealed, we knew we had our other window. Jonathan Pfeiffer had designed a special TCA Convention/America 250 logo for the brass door plate. With his permission, we added it to the other window. This car was numbered 58512-250 to honor the semisesquicentennial.
During the work on the SP Daylight cars, Lone Star Trains bought a collection that had five of the silver bar Texas Special mint cars.
The division had been sold out for over a decade. There was little doubt that the Fort Worth gold bar mint car needed a Dallas silver mint companion to honor the convention that was smack dab in the middle of Dallas and Fort Worth.
These cars were donated to the Lone Star Division for convention customization. This car was numbered 58552-250.
One SP Daylight mint car was auctioned off at the convention Welcome Party, and after a very lively contest with the whole room counting down, it sold to the lucky winner, TCA National Treasurer Bob Mintz. One Texas Special mint car was offered at the convention Banquet in another exciting auction, won by TCA National Secretary Katie Elgar. The remaining cars were distributed to convention committee members and the executive board in appreciation of their hard work.
Clay Kinsner
TCA Lone Star Division Secretary-Treasurer
