Member Christmas Layouts

e*Train Issue: Jan 2018 | Posted in: Operating & Layouts

By Carol R. McGinnis, HE 95-41066 Winter 2018

This holiday season is celebrated across the world in many different ways. Often there is a layout, sometimes for a few weeks, sometimes for a few months, and even sometimes all year long!

We asked TCA members to share their layouts and we were not disappointed. Enjoy these treasures and hooliday greetings!

Grew up in Connecticut! Now live in Spencerport, New York (Rochester)
Frank Nichols, 585 349-1022, TCA # 11-66331:

With New Haven Passenger units and New Haven Diesel freight (all TMCC)

With a Culvert loader & unloader (a Christmas Gift from the 50’s)

Merry Christmas!
Joe Zarnowski (09-63919), New Tripoli, Pa:

A standard gauge MTH 384 locomotive pulls some boxcars and reefers filled with holiday goodies around our Christmas tree from 2015

A standard gauge MTH 408E runs on my layout. This engine was restored after being in a fire

A standard gauge MTH 384 locomotive pulls a Christmas train around our antique aluminum Christmas tree from 2010

Best regards, Bill Fuller, TCA #87-26705:

The locomotive of Lionel’s North Pole Central passes a carriage en route to the Christmas season. The horse doesn’t seem to mind his iron cousin at all.

Holiday travelers prepare to board a coach on the Hogwarts Express. They’ll find the on-board trolley overflowing with holiday goodies to please every sweet-loving palate.

A young lady and her puppy, both brimming with holiday excitement and fresh off the Polar Express observation car, leap down platform steps into the arms of a beaming grandmother.

Jim Koryta, TCA 15-71563, Bloomington, Indiana:

This was in 2013, back before I finished (as much as one ever does) the layout

These are Christmas displays I put on my normal layout.

These are shots of my imaginary town from the 1950s or 1960s

George Orosz, #HE81-17167::

These are two photos of the Orosz family 2016 Christmas layout. A simple double loop on a 5’x9′ homasote board. My first train, Lionel N&W 746 is in the background. A mix of Lionel, MTH and Dickens Village covers the board.

Cal Keeney, 69-2640, 410-746-6136:
You can see the trains running (video) at Cal Train by Cal Keeney!

Here are a few still pictures of the Christmas Garden

The interesting feature is that there are 10 trains

Each one follows the other over a maze of 500′ of track

It is up all year long in Queenstown, Maryland

And this includes an upper and a lower level

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.

Member Christmas Layouts

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