Donating to TMRC

As part of MIT, the Tech Model Railroad Club is a non-profit organization and can accept tax-deductible donations of money or materials.

Monetary Donations

If you come visit our club, we can accept donations by cash or check. Or, you can send us a check by mail. Currently we are not able to accept donations by credit card. If you visit our online store, you can order a t-shirt or other TMRC memorabilia to show off your support of our club. Your donations help us build, operate, and improve our layout and continue our sixty-year tradition of providing a fun activity for MIT students!

Material Donations

From time to time, we receive inquiries about donations of materials from a supporter's model railroad. We are always willing to accept donations of any kind, though if the layout is outside the Boston area it may be difficult to arrange shipping. From past experience, here's a list from the most to least donate-able parts of a model railroad:

Tools

You can never have too many tools. Especially useful are tiny tools specialized for model building or big honking tools for constructing benchwork.

Rolling Stock

Locomotives and train cars are nice donations because they're relatively small and they survive a move well (if you pack them carefully). All the locomotives and cars on the Tech Nickel Plate have to meet strict standards for compatability and smooth operation, so the chances are not good that we'll be able to use donated rolling stock on our layout. However, we can raise funds by selling donated rolling stock. Those funds then help us build our layout. With that in mind, it's helpful to look for the original boxes for things like locomotives and train sets.

Buildings
- Model buildings are often surprisingly fragile. The nicer and more detailed they are, the more likely they are to be damaged when moved. On the TNP layout, many of our buildings are very odd shapes because they had to be built to fit in their oddly-shaped surroundings (not unlike many prototype buildings near railroad tracks). Our layout is set in Massachusetts in the present day, so we may be able to use buildings which are appropriate to New England in the last 50 years. Other buildings we may be able to sell, but in general this is more difficult than selling rolling stock.
Scenery and Track
- The problem with track and scenery is that it is usually glued or nailed or otherwise firmly attached to the layout. As we learned after our move from Building 20, if it takes a saw to take it out, you might never get it back into a model railroad again.
Benchwork
- This is practically part of the house that contains the model railroad.

How to Contact Us About Donations

Please see our contact page.

Tech Model Railroad Club of MIT Room N52-118 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139	+1 617 253-3269 Email: tmrc-web@mit.edu