The Lionel Collectors Club of America (LCCA) was founded in Des Moines, Iowa on August 1, 1970. It was a simple idea—collectors and operators of Lionel® trains had long needed an organization dedicated solely to their hobby interest. Organizer Jim Gates placed ads in railroading magazines and invited others with similar interests to establish a Lionel-oriented train club. By July 1, 1971, 83 charter members had signed on. Since then, our membership has continued to increase to where today, there are about 8,000 LCCA members worldwide.
The purpose of LCCA is to promote the enjoyment of and information-sharing about toy trains with an emphasis on Lionel electric trains and continuing education of toy train operators and collectors. The motto of the club is "A lifetime of happiness collecting Lionel trains," and our club emblem is the legendary Lionel 700E Hudson locomotive.
If you are an owner of Lionel trains that were a part of your childhood experience and want to find out about their value today, visit our webpage for frequently asked questions about toy trains as collectibles.
Non-members of the LCCA can benefit from the free services that this website provides. Keep abreast of news and events in the toy train collecting hobby. Visit our downloads page to receive free computer wallpapers and screensavers. Read a brief summary of membership benefits as a prelude to joining the club.
The first Annual Convention of the LCCA was held in 1971 in Des Moines. Our annual Conventions are one of the highlights of club membership. Held in major cities across the nation each July, these events are filled with family-oriented fun and train-related activities. Along with the business and membership meetings, there are tours of local sites and attractions; a Get Acquainted Party; a festive Banquet on Saturday night with gifts for all; as well as a Trading Hall packed with tables filled with toy trains to buy, sell, and trade.
At the second convention in 1972, the club began the practice of offering a souvenir Convention car to the members. These cars represent the locale of the Convention. These cars have been offered each year since and are manufactured by Lionel exclusively for the club. Each is distinctively decorated with a discreet notation on it. The LCCA has expanded its Convention car program to include other unique Lionel items available to members only.
For the last 54 years, the LCCA has held its conventions where hundreds of members take part in events, tours, meetings, trains, and most of all catching up on old friends and meeting new friends. The Covid delayed convention scheduled for 2020 has been rescheduled for July 2024. There is so much to do during this exciting week that members can hardly wait for convention registration to open every February,
Picture to Left is Howard Hitchcock Speaking to Members at the LCCA 2023 Concord Convention.
To share information about Lionel trains and collectibles, the club publishes an award-winning four-color magazine five times annually devoted to all aspects of Lionel collecting and operating, entitled The Lion Roars.
In addition, the club publishes buy/sell/trade newsletter, the Interchange Track four times a year. This newsletter contains thousands of train-related items all sorted by era and manufacturer, all in numerical order, so it only takes seconds to find that special item you're seeking!
The club presents three online publications: this website, an online Membership Roster, and the eTrak online marketplace. The renown eTrak online marketplace is a real time digital listing of thousands of member offerings to buy and to sell,
Members can shop at the LCCA Store and transact club business online.
The LCCA hosts a number of Special Events and Train Shows each year. The entire listing of CURRENT SHOWS and EVENTS is available on this website. A Special Event is a function where the LCCA will host or partner to offer a train related activity. It can be a tour, a railtrip, a member layout visit, or just a get together. They can be big or small, but all of them center around the LCCA, its members and trains.
The LCCA also hosts various train shows, always a special event, where members can meet to buy, sell, and trade trains. These shows are always open to all active members and usually to the public.
LCCA presents a train show within its annual Convention, and members may bring their shopping lists to the event and cruise the Trading Hall looking for trains, accessories, parts, and collectibles not likely to be found elsewhere. Shoppers in pursuit of an item meet knowledgeable sellers that may have that piece on their table. This train show is a great opportunity to do some comparison shopping based on condition and price. This event is opened exclusively to members on Friday evening and early Saturday morning of the Convention; then the train show is opened at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning to the public paying an admission fee.
The club was founded in 1970 by Jim Gates. Jim founded the club with a small group of friends in Iowa. The club took root and started to grow and in the first year there were 83 members. It was decided that these 83 members would become Charter Members of the club. Members joining after the first year are recorded as Regular members.
The club did issue newsletters which quickly become the club magazine 'THE LION ROARS'. The club also published its member-to-member trading magazine, the 'INTERCHAGE TRACK'. A third magazine, 'THE LION CUB' was first published in 2011 and continues today as a digital on line magazine for Junior Members (LCCA members under 18 years of age).
In keeping with the digital age, early in the 2000's, the LCCA created an electric version of the 'INTERCHANGE TRACK', eTrack. eTrack was the first club sponsored trading magazine and was an immediate success. It soon was improved as the first digital club trading magazine which listed items by their part number rather than by seller, making pricing and grading comparisons easier to review. A newer version of this digital magazine become known as eTrak, an improved easier to use version in 2022,
in 2014, the LCCA merged with the Lionel LLC company train club, the Lionel Railroader Club. The Lionel Railroader Club magazine, the 'INSIDE TRACK' was incorporated into THE LION ROARS with monthly articles by Lionel LLC. Many of the members of the Lionel Railroader Club remained as members of the LCCA.
The LCCA continues today as the premier Lionel club and is considered to be 'The Best Toy Train Club on the Planet'!
More can be read about Jim and how he started the LCCA by reading it in a reprint from 'The Lion Roars' Image is Jim Gates receiving a 2023 Convention car with his picture on the side.
The LCCA Founder, Jim Gates HCM1, talks about his reasons for starting the LCCA and discusses his early experiences in the LCCA. Here about the early years of the LCCA direct from the club founder.
