Every year, a group of toy train hobbyists host an event during the Fall Train Collectors Association (TCA) York Show in York, Penn.
The purpose of the event is for guests to hear from members of the hobby that have a strong social media presence. This year I served as emcee, Eric Seigel from Eric’s Trains, Peachy from Peachy’s Trains, Sid from Sid’s Trains, and Art from Art’s Trains and the 3 Rails 4 Dads Podcast were on our panel.
We collected questions from the public ahead of time and panelists shared their responses at the event. Questions ranged from how to handle a YouTube channel to the challenges of maintaining a layout, to getting more women/girls into the hobby.
We always have a number of giveaways. These are donated from TCA members, the Lionel Collectors Club of America, TCA, Metropolitan Division of the TCA (METCA), Trainz.com, and O Gauge Railroading.
This year, I worked with Joe Gryzboski of Gryzboski’s Train Store to develop t-shirts for the event. Joe paid for the shirts to be made and they were given away to guests 16 and under and sold for $20 to everyone else.
Joe’s vision was to donate the raised money to a group that would promote the hobby’s growth. He and I had many discussions about this. The week before the show, I received an email from Gary Russell, owner of the Choo Choo Barn, to help assist him in the development of a curriculum for afterschool clubs. These would be run through his new non-profit foundation. The timing was perfect and I called Joe right away; he and his wife Karen loved it and I was able to get them connected with Gary.
All proceeds were donated to the Choo Choo Barn Foundation. A check was recently presented to the the Choo Choo Barn family.
