This past Sunday I had the opportunity to get together with a large number of TCA Members and antique car collectors in Northern Virginia. It was at the home of one of TCA's hard working National Officers. He and his wife are interested in both so the crowd, and it was a crowd, contained both groups.
I did get to see a very interesting and extensive collection of Standard Gauge and home made trains. It is the later that I find very interesting.
There is an art form called Folk Art. Proportions are skewed, colors are bright, sometimes garish and figures are sometimes cartoon like. For those how have been fortunate enough to visit the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center in Williamsburg, Virginia, you will have an understanding and appreciation for what I am posting here.
Some of these homemade trains fall into the Folk Art category, at least in my mind. Here I am thinking about the proportions (think Lionel short passenger cars) and bright colors (think Marx lithographed trains, as well as their out of scale proportions).
The National Toy Train Museum has a very nice collection of Marx Trains on exhibit. These are on loan from TCA Ed Heim. While most of them are what I remember most about Marx trains, there are also some die-cast plastic pieces on exhibit as well. This should give TCA members and non members alike yet another reason to visit the Museum when it opens for the 2008 season on Saturday 5 April. But I digress.
The homemade trains did not really fall into any one particular gauge or scale. They ran the gamut from very large to very small. Some featured an adaptive reuse of materials, there was a steam locomotive constructed from Pepsi cans. Others used more esoteric materials and parts of trains that were kit-bashed to make something new and original.
The common thread through all these was the use of imagination by the maker and it was obvious that each person had put a great amount of thought and ingenuity into their one-off creation. One might ask why someone would collect trains that are one of a kind by unknown makers.
Perhaps, it is because they show the human side of the hobby. It is, after all, a sharing of a passion for toy, scale and model trains that draws everyone together. Seeing how others use various materials and bring their ideas to fruition can be an inspiration to others. This is a good way to “recharge your batteries” if that modeling project is not going well, progress on the layout is up to the desired pace or that special item keeps eluding you are meets or on the TCA X-change.
“Train people” are all too often perceived by those outside the hobby of denizens of damp basements or hot attics. Hosting an open house for your friends both train and non-train can be a rewarding experience. Who knows you might discover some “closet” train people as well.
For me, this was a welcome change from the day-to-day challenges of serving as the TCA Operations Manager. While I am certainly interested in trains of all sizes, I seldom have an opportunity to "play" with my own trains. Seeing some great cars, an operating layout and talking to friendly people from two hobbies was a "walk in the park" for me.
