Unusual Use for Lionel Trains
Here’s an unusual use for a Lionel train. The photo below is from a picture gallery accompanying a Detroit News article about toy trains. It’s a photo of a scientist using a Lionel toy train to move radioactive material around a lab. Notice that he is at a ZW controlling the trains. Click on the photo for a larger view. The article itself has nice photo of the Lionel assembly line in 1976.
History of TCA’s Eastern Division and York
A post by Jim Mortensen on his blog jimmortensen.com gives a brief history of the Train Collectors Association (TCA) and their infamous York train meets. The TCA holds 2 huge meets per year in York, PA but the meets are only open to TCA members. I never new why the TCA was a "closed" event. Here is Jim’s explanation:
As long as it was
a swap meet and what commerce was done, was done between members of the
same organization, the state tax department kept their noses out of it,
even when the amounts of money would become large. In order to
preserve this tax-free environment, the Eastern Division and TCA
declared the meet a closed club event, open to members only. While
TCA members, regardless of what division they belonged to, were
eligible to attend, nonTCAmembers could attend only once in their
lifetime if, during that once, they were sponsored by a member. This
made the meet very exclusive, desirable, and a big incentive for
joining TCA.
Read the entire post on jimmortensen.com