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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
For Barbara Jones, one of the greatest joys of toy train collecting is operating the tiny machines for others to enjoy.
Toy train collection is little-known attraction
By Joann Liao
Passersby can hear them before they see them. Approaching the store that hosts a bimonthly train show, the whir and whistle of a dozen or so train sets draws in the curious and the young. Once inside, children explore excitedly as adults look on with reminiscent smiles. Some of the trains, running on elaborately constructed courses, date back to the '20s.
On the second and fourth Saturday of each month, the Toy Train Operating Society meets at Vallco Fashion Park in the Sunshine store to hold a train show.
"Our object is to share our interests with the public," said Barbara Jones, a member of the train society, which has a national membership of over 10,000. Group members are drawn together by the love of toy train operation and collection.
There are six divisions in California; the one that meets at Vallco, the Golden State Division, encompasses San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Bernardino counties. It began holding its operating meeting at the Cupertino mall on Father's Day last year. "We had been operating at the Great Mall [in Milpitas] for three years, but [that mall] got full," Jones said. "Vallco had plenty of space, and when we contacted them, they were very interested in having us meet there."
Jones, a Cupertino resident, became involved with the organization in January 1980. "I bought a toy train in November 1978, and then I saw a Christmas show with the Operating Society," Jones said. "I decided I had to do this. I never thought that women could get as involved with trains until I joined."
She added that, seemingly, about 99 percent of the Operating Society's membership is male.
The favorite part of Jones' toy train hobby is operating the miniature machines. "I love the opportunity to make people smile," she said. "They come into wherever we're operating trains, and they start to grin and the kids jump up and down."
Division President Robert Remley agrees. "We enjoy seeing the old toys, we enjoy seeing them run and having the people see them," Remley said. "It's the interaction that makes it fun. Little kids enjoy it, older people see them as toys from their past."
The Golden State Division also holds monthly buying and selling meetings where members can purchase toy trains or sell them to other members. This division has approximately 85 members, according to Remley.
Toy trains were popular in the years before World War II and the decade afterward, according to Remley.
While some hobby shops sell model trains, most collectors trade them on the Internet, or through the mail, according to Remley, who buys most of his that way.
The trains displayed at the shows belong to members of the train society, who donate their trains and their time. "We have people who are into it enough to spend a great deal of time running them [the trains]," Remley said.
For more information about the TTOS, call Robert Remley at 259-9121 or Jim Tucker at 972-2420.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
