Here you will find all the news from the Train Collectors Society

The December issue of the Train Collector is on its way to members (if it has not already arrived). As ever there is a fascinating mix of articles, with perhaps just a whiff of Christmas and even cigarettes and certainly train sets. It's that time of year. It also...

It's that time of the year again when letterboxes and postbags start to fill with cards of good cheer. And while they may not be dependent on them today, the comprehensive postal services we take for granted, and the 'tradition'  of the Christmas Card, were only made...

Our Photo of the Month for December is Carols for the Adler from Bryan Pentland. Bryan describes it as "The Salvation Army plays Christmas Carols while the tin plate Adler arrives into town" He adds that "the background paper is a German Christmas calendar, the...

Photo Competition for 2018 Following the great success of this year's photo competition the TCS is pleased to announce that there will again be such a competition for the coming year. Photos can be of any subject related to Toy Trains.  Closing date for entries...

Our Photo of the Month for November is Arrival at Bridge Street from Sarah Jenkins. Sarah explains the shot as follows "The photo was taken in a local field, using a "Photo Plank" made specially for photographs. The train is empty hoppers from Ffrwd Ironworks, near...

Our Photo of the Month for October is Arrival at Bridge Street from Michael Bowes.   Michael explains that "this is a photograph of the Brimtoy No.700 New Model Express Locomotive ’Flying Scotsman’ from 1926 pulling the very rare No.7052 Long Bogie Pullman Coach....

TCS member Fred van der Lubbe has found a way of 'hooking' our interest yet again. Another of his great books, based round photos of models in his collection, is now available. This time it is about toy and model railway cranes, that is those that travel the rails. Or...

Our Photo of the Month for September is When A Train Brought It from Peter Beale. The trains and accessories featured belong to TCS member Paul Aziz who has kindly supplied some more information on the scene. Paul writes: "All items in the photo are made by Märklin...

Another great issue is on its way to members (if it has not already arrived), even before September has actually arrived. There is a fascinating mix of articles, though the theme this time round is on accessories, from the efforts of Bing to (relatively)  modern...

Our Photo of the Month for August is Sunny South Sam from Steven Travers. Steven writes about this photo "As you can see, the photo is based on the iconic Southern Railways Poster - i’m taking an early holiday cos i know summer comes soonest in the south. Whilst very...

Our Photo of the Month for June is Le Rapide entering station from Fred van der Lubbe Fred describes the scene as follows "An 0 gauge CIWL express train made by LR (Le Rapide) in France around 1950 is entering a station some 10 Miles from Paris on its way to the Cote...

Our Photo of the Month for May is Erie Canal from Dirk Hertel. This is the second of Dirk's photos to feature in this year's calendar and shows a Bing freight train (as made for the US market) running alongside the Erie Canal in upstate New York Here is the calendar...

TCS member Dirk Hetel has contacted us to say with an update to his winning "Photo of the Year" Dirk writes; "The TCS January 2017 Calendar Photo starred my more than 100 year old model of Samuel W. Johnson’s Midland Railway 4-2-2 class 115 “Spinners”, one of Bing’s...

Updates to John Entwistle's Listings now available TCS member John Entwistle has recently updated his comprehensive listings of Rovex, Tri-ang, Tri-ang Hornby and (Margate) Hornby steam locos " A Definitive Guide To Triang and Hornby Steam Locomotives 1955 – 2017" and...

Our Photo of the Month for April is Crocodile kills Crocodile from Max Stahel. Max is one of our Swiss members and this photo was taken at an event at Waldeck Edersee in Hesse, Germany on 10th April 2014. Nice to know that even crocodiles play with trains! Here is the...

Most model railway collectors are familiar with the fact that The Model Railway Club, in London, is regarded as Britain’s oldest, but which is the second oldest? The only evidence seems to be in early model railway magazines, in which reports of club activities are...

Our Photo of the Month for March is Model-Land WCML from Les Martin Les tells us about his layout and this photo "It depicts a typical scene on the WCML in the 1960s. The layout is purely Tri-ang (with the addition of Britain's trees) - their range of models is...

TCS member Fred van der Lubbe has been busy adding more videos of trains in his garden in recent months including the B-L Prince Charles shown here. He has a YouTube channel SNCF231E to show then all. But we also have a page on this website - There are Trains at the...

At the Train Collectors Association meeting in York Pennsylvania last year towards the end of the show as traders and collectors are keen to clear their tables and take the minimum back home, I found a shoe box with three very dilapidated and rusty 1930’s Lionel...

Six photos have been added to the

Our Photo of the Month for February is Bing OO in the Summer Sun from Paul Williams Paul tells us about this photo "The loco is a Bing Table Railway electric LMS Tank 513, manufactured sometime between 1924 and 1930. So, between 87 and 93 years old and still running...

Our friends of the "Spielisenbahn" seem to have started the new year well! Here are some photos of a get-together held over the three days Epiphany weekend – it warrants a public holiday in Southern Germany - in a commercial greenhouse belonging to one of the members...

The results of our Photo Competition now in. We had a very good entry which made choosing the winners very difficult. Thank you everybody who took part. However the TCS committee never shirk a hard task (!) and so the decisions have been made. The overall winner of...

THE DECEMBER TRAIN COLLECTOR IS OUT Another great issue is on its way to members if it has not already arrived. The big news is that this is Pat Hammond's last issue as editor. Pat established the Train Collector ten years ago as the (new and improved) successor to...

James Day, a regular exhibitor at TCS and many other events recently posted to our e-group (TrainColSoc) a tale of woe about a relatively recent purchase James wrote: In around 2010 I bought a new four car set of Walther’s Life-Like Proto 1000 NYC R17 subway cars....

An Index to issues 1 to 36 of the Train Collector magazine in PDF format is now available to download from the Train Collector page. Many thanks to Pat Hammond, our editor, for preparing this. And don't forget, issues 1 to 12 are available on DVD to members (see the...

Two of the most iconic steam locos types in the world must be the NYC Hudsons and the LNER Pacifics. The real thing has always attracted considerable attention from both enthusiasts and the general public while myriad models and toys have been made over the years,...

THE SEPTEMBER TRAIN COLLECTOR IS OUT AND 40!   It is now 10 years since the TCS relaunched its magazine as the Train Collector and a rather good 10 years it has been. Issue 40, now on its way to all members  (if it has not already arrived) more than keeps up the...

You can now relax and enjoy another great miniature train journey. TCS member Fred van der Lubbe has produced another fascinating book based round photos of models in his collection. It complements his book on CIWL carriages first featured back in February but this...

As has been mentioned in a previous post TCS member Fred van der Lubbe clearly gets lots of pleasure from his garden. In his words “My track is used a lot for Gauge 1 and Gauge 0, running clockwork, steam and electric trains". He also videos them running and these can...

THE JUNE 2016 TRAIN COLLECTOR IS OUT and is on its way to all members, if it has not already arrived. Yet another great issue with articles, among others, on: TCS AGM – Show Report and Minutes Exley coaches Shops I remember Review of British Toy Trains 2 Alan Cliff...

More photos have been added to the TCS Archive Picture Gallery Called “Earlier Trains from Earlier Train Collectors” it features a selection of photos that originally appeared in some early editions of the Train Collector magazine, of some relatively early toy trains,...

The TCA Train Collectors Association in the USA is the equivalent of the TCS in UK only about 30 times larger as you would expect.  I have been attending their regular meetings in York Pennsylvania for many years and I attended one of these vast meetings in April 2016...

TCS member Fred van der Lubbe clearly gets lots of pleasure from his garden. In his words “My track is used a lot for Gauge 1 and Gauge 0, running clockwork, steam and electric trains. A selection of the running can be seen on my YouTube channel SNCF231E . I have some...

Spring does (more or less) seem to be with us, and our thoughts might well be on gardens as well as our trains - or of course combining the two, by running trains in the garden. Well TCS member Fred van der Lubbe certainly believes in doing this and has kindly...

Last weekend the German Tinplate Forum held its 30th Annual Meeting in Schwabisch Gmund, Germany. They had a full seminar programme  with topics including:  Marklin in the US, Mail vans, HAG - the heyday of  0 Gauge, the Adolf Schuhmann company, The Bing family,...

Well at the Summer Show last year I found a wonderful French Ge Ge station which I posted pictures of a little while ago and at the recent Spring show I found a wonderful wooden German castle from the 1930's made probably by Gottschalk pictured here after a little...

A model railway exhibition at Bad Krozingen, Germany 5th & 6th March 2016 While we have been having fun this month at Biggleswade some of our colleagues from a little further afield have been enjoying themselves as well. TCS member Karl Isele writes “Mainly this...

THE MARCH 2016 TRAIN COLLECTOR IS OUT and is 'rocketing' its way to all members, if it has not already landed! Another great issue with articles, among others, on More about CCW, including some TT items Of Motors and Men – Denis Leakey and the LL motor The Alan Cliff...

A new page has been added to the site - The TCS Document Folder. This is an on-line collection of files that may be of interest to the toy and model train collector and enthusiast, held separately so they will be available more permanently than in a news item ( though...

Dark, wet winter days: time to do some work towards finishing the HO Trix Express shelf layout.   Squeezed onto a shelf, the scenic section is just 45 x 8 inches (113 x 30 cms). The missing bit was a cassette  system for returning and storing trains. I...

Well, actually a Christmas bargain from Father Ebay.   TT  is the only gauge missing from my collection, and I could not resist a bid on this set. It came to me for £46.01, which I think is pretty good value. It also serves another purpose, in that I have always...

Membership of the TCS has advantages!   As well as the brilliant quarterly magazine, "The Collector", membership gives you access to the TCS community. As I am sure most of you know, it is common for engines and tenders to get separated. This can be really...