Among the people in attendance at The Lakes and Pines Division of the Train Collectors Association train show on March 13 was Peter Southard, known as “The Train Doctor,” who specializes in on-site train car repair. He had set up his workshop on one of the tables, with lights and trays full of jeweler-like tools, and a folded white bath towel to allow repairs without damaging the delicate pieces. Southard is a member and volunteer with Twin City Model Railroad Museum, the Emerald City of local model railroad fans. He is also a professor emeritus at St. Thomas University.
The semi-annual show was held at Murzyn Hall in Columbia Heights. Several dozen members set up tables with stacks of locomotives, rail cars, track sections, signals, transformers, and tiny figures, many in their original boxes. There were also books, posters, and engineer’s caps and in one corner of the hall, toy trains ran continuously on a large oval track. This close-knit community of rail enthusiasts meets nine times a year, and while Sunday’s affair was a time for the general public to get to see (and maybe take home) some of the items offered, it was also an occasion for members to reflect on the history of their hobby, and on its future.
The first “toy” trains date back to the mid-19th century, in Europe, shortly after the development of their real counterparts. Usually made of wood or lead, the trains might not have wheels, and had no means of propulsion. Wind-up trains came next, and in the 1890s, a German company introduced tracks (and shortly after, AC electric current) to make the trains move on their own. Around this time, American manufacturers such as Lionel, Marx and American Flyer started producing their own lines of electric toy trains, usually out of tinplate or stamped steel. By the 1920s, innovations made the toys more complex, attracting more adults into what had been largely a children’s domain. Gauges (track widths) were standardized and electrical systems became safer. Toy trains partially morphed into “model” trains, made to precise scale and detail.
Scrap drives in the early days of World War II claimed a vast number of the toys; surviving pieces are scarce today. Postwar designs became more “realistic,” with die-cast metal and plastic replacing stamped tin. The 1950s saw a big surge in toy train popularity, with trains as Christmas gifts becoming a standard image in department store windows and television commercials. At the same time, many people began to treat toy trains as collectibles, but trains and their accessories lacked the kinds of classification, such as age, history, condition, and value, that other antiques have.
The Train Collectors Association (TCA) was founded in 1954 with the aim of “furthering the hobby of collecting tinplate trains by publishing information for collectors, establishing standards on descriptions and valuations and promoting train meetings, and to provide for the interchange of ideas and information between collectors.” The association now claims nearly 20,000 active members. The TCA’s Lakes and Pines Division started in 1969, and currently has 80 members. Meetings are held the second Sunday of every month, except June, July and August. In August, there is an annual members’ summer outing, and an annual business meeting and a holiday party is held in December.
Southard said model train lovers are an aging demographic body and membership in train clubs and associations has been slipping in recent years. He added that it’s just not being passed down to younger people in numbers it had in earlier years. He also noted that as a greater number of the collections of older or deceased enthusiasts come to the collectible market, prices have decreased.
Still, sales were made, friendships renewed and members got together for a group photo before carefully packing their unsold hoppers, flatcars, tankers and 4-6-2 locomotives for the next show.
Below: Peter Southard, “The Train Doctor,” was ready to fix train cars and accessories. (Photo by Mark Peterson)
