In 1989, a small but fanatical group of train gamers in Denver, CO, created a competition to determine the best train gamer in their group, which became the first Puffing Billy® Tournament. They presented their rules to the Denver Gamers Association who agreed to host a PBT at a local gaming convention. That same year, Dean Washburn took the PBT to Origins in L.A. where it drew the attention of Darwin Bromley from Mayfair Games, Inc., an avid train gamer and designer. Darwin immediately saw the potential for the PBT and agreed to support the formation of a club which became the nonprofit organization known as the Train Gamers Association (TGA). The TGA acquired all rights to the PBT from the original committee, and began offering the tournaments around the country.

The TGA was initially supported heavily by Mayfair, but we have always had a policy of running all train games which our members want to play, regardless of manufacturer. We are proud to have sponsor agreements with Rio Grande Games, Darwin’s Toys, Mayfair Games, Days of Wonder, Catan Studio, Z-Man Games, Plan B Games, R&R Games, LudiCreations, APE Games, and Nexus Game Fair.