Display Shelves

e*Train Issue: May 2004 | Posted in: 1970-now Modern Era, Collecting

By Mike Stella

I am currently on a quest to get my trains out their individual boxes and on display.

I took a short jaunt this evening out to “Railcar” (the building that houses “Lionel Lines,” the Largest Lionel Railroad on my Block) and with my digital camera I shot a few pictures to share with you on some of my efforts to date.

I then started to write this article but stopped and went out to Railcar once again, this time simply to count the number of locomotives currently on display.

I counted just over 1000 and remember, that is just locomotives. I counted an ABA or ABBA as one loco, didn’t include any dummys, but a five car string of Budd cars counts as two because two units are powered. I have always had a weak spot for Lionel Steam, usually die-cast, and air whistle tender. I manage to add about 20 or so every year even though duplicates long ago became triplicates and triplicates became quadruplicates and so on and so on.

It is my intended goal to have 1000 steamers before I quit. I like ’em! I also have built a small mockup of a set of display shelves that will display over 1000 boxcars, but that is a story for another article at another time. For now I have these pictures to share with most of you.

As they used to say at Lionel…”Good Railroading”.

**Newest shelves built to display MPC Diesels**

**RailRax is used extensively, looks fabulous!**

**This wall is 36 feet long and 17 RailRax shelves high.**

**An empty wall! Soon to covered with RailRax.**

**Stairs always make good display shelves?**

**A set of shelves devoted to Union Pacific.**

**Just over 100 Lionel steam locos and tenders.**

**More under the layout shelves with more steam.**

**Alcos, Switchers, and a little bit of everything.**

**Some of the British Steam on display.**

**Postwar fills the shelves above the layout.**

**Prewar Streamliners along the stairwell.**

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.

Display Shelves

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