Are you a former TCA Kids Club member who recently turned 13? Or are you between the ages of 13-18 and looking to grow in your toy train collecting hobby with others just like you? We invite you to join our free TCA Teens Club!
No matter how you look at it, the toy train hobby provides opportunities to learn about how things work, pick up technical skills, and have fun with others—and TCA Teens makes it easy to get involved.
When you join, you will receive a membership certificate, member card, and more—all for no cost. Provide your email address, and you’ll be added to our mailing list to receive our exclusive “Keeping Track” newsletter, which is full of collector stories and train news.
But that’s not all. Every TCA Teens Club member receives free admission whenever they visit the National Toy Train Museum in Strasburg, PA! Make a plan to come out and see our massive collection of trains—and run them, too!
Missed an issue? You can check out all of our Teens Club newsletters online now.
Are you new to the toy train hobby? Many teens grew up collecting from a very young age, but we realize that a love of toy trains can strike at any time! These are a few tips to help you get started—or check out our Teens Club members’ main page to learn more.
Please fill out our secure web form to apply to join TCA Teens. Upon receipt of your application, you will be sent a new Teens Club member packet in the mail!
One of the best ways to get started with the toy train hobby at any age is to visit a local toy train shop. There you’ll find lots of toy trains and equipment. More importantly, you’ll find people who love toy trains and are happy to share their ideas and knowledge. If you don’t have a toy train store nearby, you can check out our Museum Shop online.
The Train Collectors Associations has Divisions & Chapters covering nearly every square mile of the USA, and we can help you locate seasoned train collectors in your area. You will find that right in your community, there are lots of people with toy train layouts in their houses—but you may not find them unless you ask around.
Wondering what some of the best train magazines and other resources are for collectors? These are a few of our favorites:
We also invite you to get in touch with our professional staff at the National Toy Train Library to learn more about the resources we have in-house!
The Train Collectors Association is divided into local Divisions for different regions of the United States and beyond. Within those Divisions, dedicated Kids and Teens Club Coordinators are responsible for programming and are happy to provide information about membership benefits and more. You can find a contact listing on the landing page linked below.
TCA members who shop at Amazon.com can have each of their normal purchases generate a modest payment to TCA! And it won’t cost you anything!
The Train Collectors Association is now a participant with AmazonSmile, which is a special website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com.
The difference is that when customers shop at AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com), the AmazonSmile Foundation donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organizations selected by customers.
The process is simple. Just search for and select Train Collectors Association when you sign up and shop at smile.amazon.com.
You use your regular Amazon.com username and password, but when you log in to smile.amazon.com, you’ll see that you are supporting TCA with your purchases:
Note that if you just log in to the regular amazon.com, this benefit does not operate.
There are no costs to either you or TCA, but TCA benefits!
This is a great way for TCA to earn extra cash to offset costs, so sign up today to help support TCA.
* Note: TCA is not a party to any of your Amazon transactions, and does not endorse any products or vendors.
In both cases, you will receive a donation receipt from the PayPal Giving Fund, and enjoy applicable tax advantages.
How to do it:
Click on the image above, or use this link. This will take you to ebay, where you will see the following page (log in to ebay if you are not already):
This offers TCA as an option. Click on the “Add to My Charities” button where indicated with the red arrow. Thereafter, when you make a purchase, at checkout you will be offered the option to make a donation to TCA in any amount of your choosing. Small amounts add up, larger ones are great! It’s always up to you!
The option will appear at the lower part of your checkout page, something like this:
If you’re a regular seller on ebay, you can allocate a portion of your sales proceeds to be donated to TCA. Look at the green arrow marked “Optional” above to see how to do it. Details on how ebay calculates the donation may be read here. This is a wonderful way to share the financial benefits of your hobby with the organization that promotes it!
An added benefit to TCA is that these donations are not subject to normal processing fees, so that makes your donation work harder!
* Note. TCA is not a party to any of your eBay transactions, and does not endorse any products or vendors. PayPal issues the receipts to you for your donation, not TCA.