> I am really disappointed in your attitude and > description of an organization to which you probably > don't belong.
Attitude: definitely needs adjustment, and an apology was already offered for the overgeneralization. Membership: I was a member for many years, and I had a column in the Rocky Mountain region newsletter the year they hosted the national convention, which is probably what led to writing for Garden Railways. I quit when the region I belonged to turned into an investment club and status preening contest, and as a young parent I couldn't buy the trains that I liked. It's cool to know that your region is different, and has a lot of live steamers, but the occasional contacts I have had with tinplate collectors in the intervening years hasn't done anything to effect the attitude adjustment. I still have my Lionel M10000 and Pennsy torpedo, but lost the Commodore Vanderbilt to zinc rot and a move; still have the AF Zephyr and the Marx M10005 and Mercury sets and some miscellaneous standard gauge pieces; still have a couple of cast iron wind-ups. That doesn't qualify me to strut my stuff at the TCA meetings, but they sure make me smile! That's what it used to be all about. It would be cool to have some tinplate live steamers, but I get to see Murray and Bill Wilson's cool locos every year at Diamondhead, and that's plenty for me, I guess. > 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. It will happen. It's already started with LGB collectors, and it wouldn't surprise me to know that someone, somewhere has already started hustling early Aster locos as "investment-grade collectibles". -vance- "Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal." -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. http://standforpeace.com
