After a big popularity spike in the model railroading hobby in the 1950s, it can be said that the leisure activity of collecting, building, and operating model trains matured in the “modern era” of the 1970s through today. There have been many exciting changes in the marketplace in more recent history, and the introduction and refinement of digital controls and realistic sounds and movement are hallmarks of the era.
At the very end of the 1960s, ownership changes at the biggest toy train manufacturers began to shape the future of both model railroading and toy train collecting.
Lionel sold the tooling for its then-current product line and licensed its name to General Mills (maker of many popular breakfast cereals) in 1969. The Louis Marx Company made a similar move and sold out to Quaker Oats in 1972. While these changes affected quality and ushered in a period when brands began to morph and change quite regularly, there were also many tech innovations coming down the line.
For instance, three new gauges popped up right at the end of the 1960s and into the early 1970s, giving model railroaders a whole new world to explore and create in the proceeding decades!
One of the hallmarks of model railroading in the 2000s has been the proliferation of high-tech features, such as smartphone control systems. In fact, the command system offered by the majority of model train manufacturers in 2020 was a variant of Digital Command Control (DCC) versus more traditional DC power.
Video has also become incredibly important to the model railroading hobby. Many enthusiasts make and post videos of their layouts and trains on YouTube and other social media sites.
Ready to research? Examples of model trains from every possible brand abound in our database. Search books, handbooks, catalogs, advertisements, photographs and much more in our National Toy Train Library database.
Toy trains (including model trains) come in different sizes, reflecting different rail gauges—the distance between the main rails on the track—and scales. We have information for you about some of the most popular toy and model train gauges.
TCA has adopted standards to help guide toy train collectors and encourage common terminology usage when describing things like item categories and conditions. Visit our Grading Standards section of the website for more information.
Creating scale environments for toy trains is something that many collectors dedicate a lot of time to. Layouts may be purely make-believe settings, or they can be designed as scaled-down versions of real-world locations.
If you are not yet a member of the Train Collectors Association, you’re missing out. TCA Members receive a long list of tangible benefits that put them on the toy train collectors’ inside track! These include free admission to the National Toy Train Museum in Strasburg, PA, as well as access to special collections of material in the National Toy Train Library, among other great perks and benefits our TCA members enjoy.
Ready to get involved and join our excellent organization with thousands of other model and toy train enthusiasts around the world?
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.
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.