Family Trains

e*Train Issue: Jan 2016 | Posted in: TCA Adventures

By Ted Weller, TCA 04-57057 Winter 2016

In connection with the request of Bob Mintz for authors for the TCA e*Train, I wrote this a few years ago with the Fort Pitt Division newsletter in mind but never submitted it.

As the youngest of five kids, I have great memories of my oldest brother’s Lionel trains, a fixture of our Butler County family Christmases for many years. Clyde ran two sets of postwar Lionel – one led by a 736 Berkshire and the other by the 1862 General. Each year we would decorate a Christmas tree atop a 4×8 plywood platform, with green matting on top and red brick corrugated paper around the sides. Beneath the tree ran two loops of classic Lionel tubular O gauge track, with a Type ZW transformer supplying the power and a sampling of Plasticville bringing some sense of a village to the whole affair. Rubber Santa waved from nearby furniture.

In the fall of 1971, two memorable events occurred in my 8-year-old life: the Pirates won the World Series and Dad took me into Pittsburgh. On one Saturday we stopped by his office and then went on to Gimbels. There they had a Lionel train display up and running. I did not realize it at the time, but the trains were of course the General Mills/MPC reincarnation of Clyde’s ‘50s-era gems. How thrilling!

A few months passed and the next thing I knew it was Christmas morning. By that time, I’d forgotten about the trip from our country home to the big city with Dad. A large gift sat on the couch near the tree and I waited to open it until there was nothing else left, having no idea what it could be. Alas – a Lionel Cross Country Express set!

Our dad regretted selling his own Lionel trains as a college student in the late ‘30s. We’re blessed as a family to still have these trains and they see time on our layout over the holidays each year.

I have the original, albeit somewhat battered, set box as well. Is this set highly desirable in the context of train collecting? No – but it means a lot to me. I’m sure there are others, like me, who have trains from their youth that may not be highly collectible on the market but have deep personal value. And if it weren’t for this set, I would not still have my interest in model trains.

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.

Family Trains

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