Be a Quarterly Author—Write for Us!

As TCA’s exclusive magazine just for members, The Train Collectors Quarterly is also shaped by members. Well-researched stories abound on The Quarterly‘s pages, and a lively exchange of viewpoints and information takes place in each issue’s letters section, known as “The Drumhead.” Readers also enjoy several regular and occasional featured columns, such as “Off the Rails.”

Are you a train collector who also enjoys writing in a journalistic or personal reminiscence style about toy train manufacturers, individual trains, gauges, or nearly any other topic related to toy trains? We would love to work with you! Contact us to get started.

What Kinds of Stories are Published?

If you’re a new TCA member, you may not yet be familiar with the types of stories that get printed in The Train Collectors Quarterly. In short, it’s typically informative and/or entertaining content that members enjoy sharing. With our members doing so much fine work collecting, operating, planning, and restoring their trains—there is no doubt that we all have stories to tell!

We’re looking for material that will help fellow hobbyists and collectors, as well as advance knowledge in the collecting realm more generally. Some examples include:

Reviews of books, catalogs, products.
How-to explanations that demonstrate skills that will assist other members.
Special topics, such as a particular manufacturer or a gauge.
Historical information about TCA or toy train developments.

Personal stories about your involvement in the toy train hobby.

Reach out to our Editor to learn more about the publication process and get started with contributing to The Quarterly.

Contact the Editor

Have an Opinion? Write to “The Drumhead”

The best magazines welcome reader letters to the editor, and The Train Collectors Quarterly is no different. If you’d like to submit comments on stories, corrections, or just general opinions, please write to us! We might just publish your letter in our regular column.

Write to: Mark C. Boyd, Editor
P.O. Box 248
[email protected]

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.