Recently, TCA rolled out another benefit of membership. Back issues of The Train Collectors Quarterly are now on line in the Members Only section of http://www.tcamembers.org/. The issues are searchable and there is an index coming.
Access to this section requires a free registration. This registration creates a TCA X-change (http://www.tcabuysell.org/) account at the same time and the log in codes work for both sites. Our philosophy is to keep things as simple as possible.
I, for one, am very happy to see this project come to fulfillment. It was a huge task and there are a lot of people to thank for their hard work. Ron Morris and the Library & Historical Committee, the Internet Committee, TCA Librarian Jan Athey, IT Manager Nicole Peace, Jim Alexander of JimQuest Communication and Dan Dwaddy of Ribbonrail Productions worked together to deliver a quality product to TCA members.
This represents a major step forward for TCA as the Quarterly is a high quality publication that numbers among its editors such TCA notables as Lou Redman, Frank Hare, Editor Emeritus Bruce Manson and currently TCA member Mark Boyd. It is nice to see the work of past editors and authors preserved for the education and reading pleasure of future generations.
This new benefit offers a major service to the newer members of TCA. You will be amazed by how much youcan learn about toy, scale and model trains and the people and companies who produced them. The more you know about your hobby the more enjopyable it becomes. As we all know, educated collectors are smart collectors.
After reading some of these issues, perhaps more people will agree with me when I say that TCA is an organization that is deeply involved in preserving the legacy of an entire industry: toy train manufacturing. For those who wich to learn more about the hobby, the Train Collectors Quarterly is a great "fit" with the National Toy Train Museum and e*Train, the on line magazine of TCA, edited by TCA member Bob Mintz. These three components combine to educate TCA members and that allows them to more fully enjoy their part of what I call the "Railroad Interest Hobby."
