So Long 2009!

Making a New Year's resolution to blog more often is risky because I'm not a fan of making promises that I can't keep, but I'm choosing to look at it as a challenge. Never could resist a good challenge.

I know that one of the first rules of blogging is to pick one subject and make it your focus. But I completely threw that out of the window to write entries on the stuff I find interesting. That just happens to be a wide variety of topics -- books, comics, art, music, percussion, teaching, old cars, collectible toys, and more. Thanks for reading, I'm having fun writing the entries and I hope you're having fun reading.

Best wishes for a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year!

Train Collectors Information

Around this time of the year, I receive lots of requests for information regarding toy trains. It seems that most families have at least one heirloom train or train set, and most folks aren't sure exactly what they have or how much it's worth. Fortunately, toy train collecting is a well-organized and well-populated hobby -- there are plenty of collectors in all corners of the country ready and willing to assist.

Your first task is to figure out what you have. It isn't enough to know that your train is a Lionel or an American Flyer, you also need to know its model number(s) to identify the train. And it helps if you know approximately how old the train is. Search your local yellow pages and you'll probably find a hobby shop that specializes in toy trains. The proprietor may be able to assist you, but a phone call is recommended before you visit a shop -- if no one there knows trains, you're better off searching elsewhere.

Enter your local library -- one of the most underutilized public structures in any town. There are several good reference guides with pictures that can assist you in identifying and assessing the value of your train, and the librarian can likely obtain any of these titles through Interlibrary loan.

These titles include pictures to help identify your trains:
The Standard Catalog of Lionel Trains 1900-1942 2nd Edition
The Standard Catalog of Lionel Trains 1945-69
The Standard Catalog of Lionel Trains 1970-present
The Standard Catalog of Lionel Train Sets 1945-69
The Standard Catalog of American Flyer Trains
O'Brien's Collecting Toy Trains

These guides are strictly price listings but updated yearly:
Greenberg's Pocket Price Guide to Lionel Trains 1901-2010
Greenberg's Pocket Price Guide to American Flyer Trains

Another great source of information are train collectors themselves. The Train Collectors Association is a train collecting club with chapters all over the continent. Their website contains a variety of links to put you in touch with knowledgable collectors in your area. Club chapters also hold train collecting events that bring buyers and sellers together, so check their site for shows in your area and keep an eye out for show dates in your local newspaper.

And if you're interested in learning more about train collecting, there are a variety of magazines serving the hobby. Start your search with Classic Toy Trains magazine.

Gift Subscriptions for Libraries

It's the end of the year and you're giving gifts and writing checks anyway, so why not give a gift that keeps on giving the whole year? No Clark Griswold, I'm not suggesting the "Jelly of the Month Club," but I am suggesting that you share your hobby interests with your whole town.

Give a subscription to your favorite hobby magazine to your local library.

Budgets are never high enough for libraries, and magazine subscriptions are among the first things cut in order to maintain other services. Opportunities to share our hobbies exist beyond specialty shows and events, and we rarely take advantage of them. Educating and informing others about your hobbies is the first step to attracting new enthusiasts, and that's a vital component to the health of every hobby from bass fishing to old cars to antiques to...you get the idea.

Take a moment to talk to your local librarian -- don't forget to bring in a copy of the magazine -- and explain that you'd like to give a gift subscription to the library. Once you get the green light from the librarian, it's pretty easy to add that extra subscription on to your existing account.

By the way, those gifts are tax deductible for you, and that's always a welcome thing this time of the year.

Art History Tutorial for Kids

I found a cool article in today's Chicago Tribune -- yes, the paper as printed on newsprint paper, not an e-article from the Trib's site -- and I decided to share it here. I'll save my lecture about how actual newspapers are still wonderful things for later.

From the Chicago Tribune, Monday, Decmber 14, 2009
by Vikki Ortiz Healy

Your 6-year-old may be all about Zhu Zhu pets and Hannah Montana this holiday season, but is he or she equally excited about Claude Monet and Norman Rockwell?

Kids should be, says Deb Herman, an associate professor of art and art education at Concordia University Chicago, who has just launched an ambitious online program that aims to make first through eighth graders as conversant about art history as they are about Bakugan.

"There are other countries that do a much better job of really totally embracing art," said Herman, who worked with the John and Frances Beck Foundation in Chicago to develop the free online lessons for teachers and parents to download at cuchicago.edu/artlessons.

The 10-lesson packets--Henri Rousseau and Vincent Van Gogh in second; Georges Deurat and Leonardo da Vinci in fourth--are designed to have kids recognizing 80 masterpieces by the eighty grade. Lessons through fifth grade already are posted. She says sixth grade will come by spring 2010, with seventh and eighth to follow in 2012.

Herman insists that once exposed to the stories behind the artwork, the children are engaged, fascinated and knowledgeable on several levels.

"What we're trying to do is to get the children to start using higher-level thinking skills," she said.

Click on the links above for more information. To expand on the information in the Trib's story, each grade level contains 10 lessons -- one lesson for a specific artist. As of this writing, not all of the links will work, but I'll update this post as more of them go active.

Farm Toy Shows, Dec. 12 & 13, 2009

Holiday shopping means something different for collectors. There are a few toy shows left before the big day. I'm listing this weekend's upcoming farm toy shows in this post.

Dec 11-12, Taylorsville, Kentucky

20th Annual Spencer Co. FFA farm toy show at the Spencer Co. High School.

Hours: Fri. 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm, Sat. 9:00 am to 3:00 pm.

For information call (502) 477-2781

Dec 11-12, Sikeston, Missouri

22nd Annual SEMO farm toy show at the Best Western Coach House Inn.

Hours: Fri. 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm, Sat. 8:00 am to 2:00 pm.

For information call (573) 628-3643

December 12, Corning Iowa

4th Annual Corning farm toy show at the Corning Community Building.

For information call (641) 344-2686

December 12, Fairfield, Ohio

20th Annual farm toy & die-cast collectible toy show at Treasure Grove Auctions, 4771 Dixie Hwy.

Hours: 9:00 am to 3:00 pm

For information call (513) 856-8160

December 12, St. Thomas, Pennsylvania

14th Annual P. Rodney Cover Memorial Christmas toy show at the St. Thomas Fire Co. at the intersection of Rt. 30 and School House Lane.

Hours: 8:00 am to 3:00 pm

For more information contact the Tri-State Farm Toy Collectors Club, (301) 790-2422

December 12 & 13, Fairmont, Minnesota

23rd Annual D & S farm toy show at the Five Lakes Center, 308 S. State St.

Hours: Sat. 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, Sun. 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

December 13, Effingham, Illinois

Annual National Trail Farm Toy Winter Show at the Effingham K of C Hall.

Hours: 9:00 am to 3:00 pm

For more information call (217) 844-2474

December 13, Portland Indiana

23rd Annual Jay County Farm Toy Show at the Green 4-H building on the Hay County Fairgrounds.

Hours: 9:00 am to 3:00 pm

For more information call (260) 726-6433

December 13, Gower, Missouri

East Buchanan FFA Alumni Toy Show at the East Buchanan High School gym.

Hours: 9:00 am to 3:00 pm

For more information call (816) 244-4036

Have fun!

Westchester Toy & Train Shows

With Christmas just around the corner, my mind turns to toy trains. Now that the Christmas tree is up and decorated, one last tree-related task remains for this weekend -- setting up the electric train that runs circles around the tree skirt.

As with farm toys, winter seems to be a good time of the year for toy train shows. These shows are usually run by a local club of train collectors, and they are more than happy to answer any questions about the hobby. In addition to dealers selling merchandise, many shows also feature train layouts on display, so be sure to bring the kids.

Now in its 26th year, the Westchester Toy & Train Associates, Inc. is hosting two upcoming toy and train shows. The first is on December 13 and the second is on January 31. Both shows will be held at the County Center in White Plains, New York (Rt. 100 & Tarrytown Rd.) For dealer and patron information click on the links above.

The Westchester shows feature trains and layouts, but also include toy soldiers, die-cast cars, books, and new and antique toys, as well. If you attend, take a few photos and I'll share them here.