​​Lakes and Pines Division - Train Collectors Association

OCTOBER 2019 FROM THE PRESIDENT

I hope everyone who was able to join us in September for our 50th Anniversary party had a nice time. The event was well attended and it was great to hear from so many members about what makes the Lakes and Pines special. We had the three remaining original members on hand to celebrate. Gerry Mattson, Ralph Reiners and Ron Johnson (Big Ron) shared their thoughts and experiences about the last 50 years of Lakes and Pines. A lot of great stories and memories were shared and as I mentioned it is important for newer members to hear about the first 50 years and how we got here. One thing to remember is over the years we have lost a lot of great members that shouldn’t be forgotten. They helped make this club what it is today as well. If you know of such a member – send me a picture and a paragraph and we will add them to our website.

The pictures from the party are up at TCALAKESANDPINES.COM. If anyone took any additional photos they want to share email them to me at mpspeltz@juno.com and I will upload them to our website. We signed up a few new members that joined. I appreciate the efforts with new member recruitment. When you see a new face at one of our meets please take some time and introduce yourself and find out their interests and match them up with fellow members with like interests. The display tables turned out great. I was amazed how many items we were able to accumulate and discuss as a group. The historical documents provided by our club historian Dale Ferguson were amazing. The hand written lists and meet flyers were incredible. Thanks Dale for storing, maintaining and accumulating our archives. Picture of the display items are on our website as well.

I want to thank John and Susan Ellingson, Marlowe Koch, Rick Krenske, Al Schuweiler, Dale Ferguson and Ralph Reiners for the never ending efforts that keep this Division strong and moving forward. Many thanks to all the members that pitched in to make the party one to remember as well. Our next meet is on Sunday, October 13th. As always – you never know what or who is going to show up so you don’t want to miss it. Many a rare train has wondered into Murzyn Hall. It still happens all of the time. But if you are at home watching football you may miss out. The coffee will be hot and the cookies will be plentiful.

There will be a brief board of directors meeting after the October meet to discuss the remainder of the 2019 meets. Looking ahead to the open meet in November we will be doing an orange bag event sponsored by National. Each paying guest will receive an orange bag complete with a National and Lake and Pines application along with a current TCA brochure. The bag will come in handy as they fill it with trains from our member’s tables. If they like what they see, they may decide to join. These events have been successful elsewhere so we will see what happens.

See you on the 13th,

Mike Speltz

President, Lakes and Pines