From a postcard dealer, "WOW"

Words are inadequate to explain to someone who has not previously attended a York Meet the size of the gathering and the enormous variety of trains.

I know I am kicking the sleeping dog, but I wish the Eastern Division & the National TCA would produce a video to make known to the vast amount of train hobbyist as well as related hobbies how grand the twice a year gathering is. A You-Tube presence with ads in the related hobby publications pointing to this video would do wonders for increasing the membership.

A video would be great, but even some still photos would work. It did for me, many years ago when I saw mention and one photo of York in the book "All Aboard"...about the history of Lionel. On page 240 is a photo taken inside one of the halls (Blue?), showing a zillion people (dressed in '70s outfits).

There are times when I think the TCA doesn't REALLY care that much about increasing York attendance (ie, just send us money).

I wonder what the stamp collectors would think?

I just read the article The Fall of Lionel Trains by Bruce Greenburg in the current issue of the TCA Quarterly. In it he states how attendance at a train meet last year increased significantly. It was attruibuted to posting on Face book about th show and what it was about. I think an internet presence that explains the mission of the TCA and can visually show how many people are involved in the hobby would help bring new folks into the hobby.

I have the utmost admiration for the officers of the TCA and Eastern Division for their work. I can't imagine anyone would object to funding the production of a professional video of the York event.

Tom McComas and/or Rich Melvin...are you available?

Just my 2 cents

Sam

I'm happy with York just the way it is. 

My God, we agree Allan.

I am guessing there are a heck of a lot more stamp than train collectors, though, for

I was in defense courses with officers from other parts of the world, and on their

incomes, some were rabid stamp collectors who then, some years ago, were raiding

our post offices for stamps to add to their collections (dunno about investment?).

Since there has been concern about what was gonna happen to our trains after we

croak, and who would buy the stuff from our estates, IF it wasn't all tossed into the

dumpster, I'd think publicizing the size and existence, and even the pricing of this avocation, would bring in more members.  More members, from more interest, would

mean that mechanical door stop you prize would be recognized as the work of art

we consider it and more likely to be preserved for the future.  More interest from

more people means more stuff found in attics and made available, that we might be

looking for.....(I thought TCA was concerned about a dropping membership....

lower attendance at York, etc.??)

They are concerned about declining membership.  Same goes for all of the other national train organizations.

But they all made the same mistake in not paying close attention, back about 20-or-so years ago, to the changing demographics of our society and the hobby, so now they find themselves in a bit of a pickle.  The push for recruiting should have taken place back then, and the large numbers who were already members should have been tasked with more responsibility for assuring the group's financial future.

The simple fact is that the core of the hobby is made up of a group that is progressively aging, and there's really not a whole lot that can be done, by any means, to change that inevitable trend.  Trains--toy or otherwise--don't mean all that much to today's younger generations, and even though there will always be a strong interest developed by some, it's virtually impossible to ever again achieve the number of devotees so evident back in the late 1970s through the late 1990s.  We older guys grew up with trains and developed a somewhat natural attraction for them.  That doesn't happen all that much today with all the electronic gizmos competing for a young (and not so young) person's attention.