Vance I am really disappointed in your attitude and description of an organization to which you probably don't belong. There are far more live steamers in the TCA than you probably expect. I know that fully 25% of the steamers in this end of the world (NE US - remember, about 50% of the TCA membership resides in ONE state - Pennsylvania) that I know personally also belong to TCA.
This is primarily because they like trains of ALL kinds. The York TCA meet now sports everything imaginable, including Aster, Accucraft, and more than a few high end Ga 1 pieces from Europe. It is a great place to look for Ga 1 Marklin rolling stock for your Aster BR-86, BR-44, BR-96, BR-1, BR-03, BR-38, blah, blah, blah. And many of us run trains in S, O, HO, N, Z, etc,etc. It is true the beginnings of the organization centered around a bunch of guys interested in Lionel Standard Gauge and O; and many still go nuts looking for an unopened train set to put on their shelves. But they now represent a growing minority of the 25,000 members. Besides, if collecting old corrugated boxes is your bag, and it doesn't inflate the cost of live steam, who cares. Just think what our engines WOULD COST, if a guy willing to pay $1,850.00 for an EMPTY PRR Congressional set box, got into THIS Hobby. An Accucraft K-27 would be $28,000 instead of what it is; the C&O H-8 would have been $78,000 instead of $ 18,000 (too bad, Hans). Jim Stapleton TCA 89-30008 =========== At 10:00 AM 03/19/2003 -0700, you wrote: >> TCA? > >"Train Collectors Association", the convocation of tinplate collecting >fanatics, whose highest goal in life is to acquire an ultra-rare, mint >condition AF 351 uncatalogued set in the original box. Better still, >unopened in the original box. They might x-ray it to make sure it's >there, but they would never open it or -- gasp -- touch it, 'cause that >would lessen its "value". > >For most of that group, it's not about the trains, it's a pissing contest >about who can acquire the most objects that no one else has. They >value rarity, but only if there's a remote chance someone else could >get one -- then, there's room for competition. A one-off scratchbuilt >model is of absolutely no interest, because there's no competition >possible. Weird. > > >regards, > -vance- > >Vance Bass >Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA >Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass > > Jim & Jo Anne Stapleton Purcellville VA [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
