NOMA/town/ville/city?

e*Train Issue: Nov 2008 | Posted in: Operating & Layouts

By Mike Stella

You would think with a 20 x 56 foot table as the primary real estate for Lionel Lines (The Largest Lionel Railroad on my Block), that there would be room for everything a person could desire to display and operate.

WRONG!!! I ran out of plywood plots years ago and it has forced me to pass on many of the newest Lionel accessories that I would enjoy having. I am still looking for a place to put that Balloon Ride. The Steam Clean and Wheel Grind shop, however, will have to remain in the box until I can build my BIG Lionel layout?

But in making preparations for the upcoming NMRA convention and a few bus loads of visitors, I needed to cover up one small area of plywood at the far end of Loop Canyon.

My friend Greg gave me a NOMA Station because I have always admired the great looks, the talking mechanism, and the bright color scheme. (He has a Red and a Green Roof version) There was never a place I could find on Lionel Lines (The Largest Lionel Railroad on my Block) to locate the NOMA Station that wasn’t right next to another station so it has sat under the table for the past several years.

I was working on the north side of Railroad Canyon when it dawned on me that there was a tiny area on the south side of the canyon that might be the perfect place to locate the new town of NOMA(something).

A few additional small Lionel accessories could also be located here to really cram the area!

The pictures show the “before” and almost the completed “after” views of NOMA. A few additional things have since been done. People added on the Platform, a few trees planted, and a few very small areas of grass growing. Oh …the talking mechanism isn’t quite the way the original was intended. The train announcements have been replaced with a few “ADULTS ONLY!” sayings that cannot be repeated here.

NOMA adds another town to the vast countryside along Lionel Lines.

Happy Collecting AND Operating and be careful when you push some of those operating buttons …you never know what you might hear!

Looking Westbound at vast 8″ by 25″ empty real estate!

Eastbound and Portal to Loop Tunnel at the end of Loop Canyon

NOMA Station located between a Rock and a Hard Place!

Room for a #154 signal, a #153 signal, and a #1045 Flagman in Nomaville

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.

NOMA/town/ville/city?

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