Next Train Meet: Saturday, June 1st, 2013

This will be our fifth meet for 2013, and we welcome all TCA members, their families, and any interested guest toy train collectors to come and meet our membership, browse the trading tables for bargains, and share in the camaraderie of toy train collecting.  The trains will be running, and there will be lots of raffle prizes given away. The hall doors will be opened at our normal time of 10:00 A.M. There is plenty of free parking, and refreshments are available.

For a detailed listing of all upcoming meets, click here.

Video of the Art Deco themed layout set up by TCA members Steve Waller and Mike Donovan at the August TCA Meet that included one loop of Flex-track. 1930's vintage Hoge #900 Union Pacific M10000 articulated streamliner set, shovel nosed New York, New Haven & Hartford Comet streamliner set and American Flyer Zephyr provided by Steve Eastman. Lionel John Bull, Best Friend of Charleston, DeWitt-Clinton and Stourbridge Lion 19th Century classic railroad passenger set replicas provided by David Mabee.

What is TCA?

The mission of the Train Collector’s Association (TCA) is to develop an appreciation of and to preserve an important segment of history - tinplate toy trains - through research, education, community outreach, fellowship, establishment of collecting standards and to promote the growth and enjoyment of the hobby of collecting and operating toy, model and scale trains.

TCA Western Division carries out this mission by holding 10 monthly meets during the calendar year. At these meets, the trading and displaying of tinplate toy trains and toy train related items takes place. TCA Western is the only Southern California based toy train club that provides free use of tables for these purposes. We have plenty of them available, in a well lighted, spacious hall.

There are over 30,000 members in the TCA organization nationally. Western Division boasts a membership of over 300 train hobbyists. In 2003, for the first time since 1979, TCA Western Division played host to the National Convention for all of TCA. This convention was held in Ontario, California June 22nd through 29th, 2003. To read a recap of the events, and view a gallery of photographs from the convention, click your mouse here.

TCA and Western Division have been in existence since 1954. For a little bit of history about TCA Western Division click here.

Do you have a box of old tinplate trains that you have been storing in the attic all these years since your childhood? Are you anxious to break them out and run them again? Do you need help in getting your old trains to run again - perhaps they require some servicing? Have you been meaning to perhaps convert those old trains into some cash in your pocket? Then bring those trains to our next TCA Western Division toy train meet in Arcadia. Those dusty old electric trains could potentially be something rare and unusual. The club layout would be a great place to see those trains running again after all these years. Or, if you have intended to get rid of those trains, selling them at the TCA Western Division meet can yield cash for you and make a collector happy as well.