A Dozen Brownies

e*Train Issue: Nov 2003 | Posted in: Operating & Layouts

By David St. James 89-28821

When someone mentions brownies, I think about those little chocolate goodies. You know, the ones that you buy by the dozen and eat with a big glass of milk. After today, I won’t be able to think about brownies the same way. Last year, my oldest daughter, Savannah, joined the Brownie Girl Scouts. As a first year group, their meetings consisted of exploring the playground for bugs and leaves in the back yard. Well, this year they have advanced to field trips. The troop leader asked if anyone knew of a fun hobby that they could “explore” for a Try-It patch. My seven year-old quickly volunteered my train layout for the first trip.

Now those who have a layout know that it is never finished. Progress on my layout occurs in drips and spurts just before we host a meeting of the TCA’s Central Texas Chapter or a Christmas party. Well, I had less than three weeks to prepare. Most of the accessories had been wired, but they needed to be connected to the SC-2’s so that the kids could use the Cab 1 remote to operate the accessories. I was able to get Acc 1 & Acc 2 working on the SC-2’s but numbers Acc 3 thru Acc 6 would not work (lets not even mention Acc 7 to Acc 18). After a few frantic posts to the TTML, I received the e-mail responses that solved my problem (I had set SW to one instead of zero). Four more hours of connecting and testing and I was ready…or so I thought.

At 3:15 the first of three carloads of Brownie Girl Scouts arrived. Within minutes, they were asking questions about the differences between N, HO, S, 027, 0 and G gauge trains. How did the remote work? Why didn’t the barrel loader (the only accessory not yet wired yet) work? Overall, everyone was happy and excited. Amazingly, with nine trains running and lots of little hands reaching out, the only mishap was when the RailKing Big Boy lost its tether connection. One little girl asked if there was somewhere where her dad could buy a train set. I ended up handing out cards for my favorite local train shop to every child and adult in the room.

We always hear about involving the youth in our hobby. To a large extent, this is geared toward boys. Well today, a dozen Brownies were given a shot of the train bug. It is my hope that the “disease” will spread rapidly to parents and siblings alike. Oh, my favorite question: “How do you get permission from Savannah’s mom to buy all of this? My dad could never get away with this.” The answer – I let my daughters play with the trains whenever they want to. Yes, I will never think of a dozen brownies without remembering a bunch of smiles.

Shop Amazon and Help TCA

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.

Helping TCA with your ebay purchases when you use PayPal

If you’re an ebay user and have a PayPal account you use to make payments, you can designate a donation for TCA when you’re checking out — any amount, small or large.
If you’re a regular seller on ebay, you can pre-designate a percentage of your sales to be donated automatically in your name to TCA as long as the purchaser pays with their PayPal account.

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.

A Dozen Brownies

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