January 28 & 28, 2017 - LCCA Co Sponsors Weekend of Fun with Toy Trains
Co-sponsored by the Colorado Toy Train Group
and the Lionel Collectors Club of America
Hosted by Pinehurst Country Club Denver, Colorado
A cold January weekend in the Denver area, can cause the kids to stay indoors and can get trying at times. Well, here is a special opportunity to provide them an exciting experience: A Weekend of Fun with Toy Trains! This free entertaining event, which is co-sponsored by the Colorado Toy Train Group, LLC (CTTG), and the Lionel Collector’s Club of America (LCCA), is being held at Pinehurst Country Club, 6225 W. Quincy Ave., in south Denver, on January 28-29th, at 9:00 am – 3:00 pm, and there is plenty of free parking space. The Saturday session is limited to Pinehurst member families, CTTG and LCCA members and sponsors. Sunday is open to the general public. Each day the first 100 boys and girls, less than 12 years old, to come by, will receive a colorful backpack filled with all sorts of train related goodies.
The LCCA will have the Lionel mascot, Lennie the Lion, strolling through the displays and posing for photos with the youngsters. The highlight of the show will be the many operating layouts in all the popular gauges. There will be two Z gauge set-ups and 1 slightly larger N gauge pike. Five popular O gauge set-ups will include a lower level kid’s layout where they can be hands-on and run the trains and operate the various accessories. A unique trolley layout is sure to be a real crowd pleaser, and 2 sprawling scenic layouts, featuring amazing detail, are definitely fascinating. CTTG will be debuting the operating accessory portion of their LCCA standard, module layout, currently being developed. Here the youngsters will load logs on flatcars and operate several exciting pieces. The American Flyer S gauge layout also has lots of operating features. There is still more action with the popular Pinehurst large scale G gauge set-up. But, the largest train at the show, is the one the toddlers become the engineer on, riding it as it chugs around the room where the playful Brio layout is. Trains, trains, trains everywhere, with whistles blowing, bells ringing and children loving every minute of it.
If all this activity works up a hunger, head to the dining car – or actually, the dining area, that serves the purpose, with a breakfast buffet in the morning and another one for lunchtime (on a cash basis). The banquet buffet on Saturday night, is a highlight of the day with table prizes for everyone and entertainment by a blue-grass band playing railroad songs and more. The cost for this event is $45/adult and $25 for children under 12, for those who preregister, but space availability limits seating to 60, so interested diners should sign-up early.
There will be lots of opportunities for prizes with periodic door prizes awarded throughout the day. In addition, the LCCA is sponsoring a mini-membership campaign for their Kids Club, and will award the first 4 youngsters that sign-up to be a junior member (cost is $25/year), a special prize. This entire program is unusual, in that it is designed to entertain kids through watching and playing with toy trains. There are no sales tables and there is nothing to buy. The focus is on youngsters (and oldsters too), having FUN. There is no pre-registration(except for the banquet) or sign-up, just come and join the festivities. Watch the CTTG website at coloradotoytrain.org for further updates.