Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Hi Jim - Here is a picture of the Kitmaster (Stirling) model.
It was unpowered, Kitmaster locos were all unpowered, but there was a motor
unit that fitted into certain rolling stock to push the loco and pull the rest
of the train.
Regards, Colin
April 1, 2008
Nice work, Colin! Well up to your usual great standard.
Cheers
Doug
Doug Harris
Auckland, New Zealand
April 1, 2008
Hi Jim - I have sent an email to Joe. The shed is a Hornby No.2
Engine Shed, this one was made in 1933. I have added a middle rail to electrify
it - it was made in both 3 rail and 2 rail (for clockwork locos) versions.
Colin
March 31, 2008
Dear Jim and Dan,
Congratulations on another lively issue of Tinplate Times! I enjoy your article
about Edobaud Machine Age trains. They have a certain rugged appeal, a bold
honesty, a pleasing harmonious combination of mechanical components. I hope
too see one or two along the way, now that I know what to look for.
Dave Argent can be proud of his Sterling Single. It is beautiful and well-balanced,
though it looks a bit fanciful to this American fan, who is accustomed to sheer
size and brute force. I can offer some comments about trains used for the Thomas
the Tank Engine series.
During a rail tour of England, our group rode from London to York and visited
the grand museum there. Some trains used in the TV show Shining Time Station
were on display, including Thomas. They were No. 1 gauge, approximately the
size of Lionel Standard Gauge, and electrically powered. I'm certain they were
scratchbuilt, because Thomas stories written by The Rev. Awdry were inspired
by trains on his family's HO scale layout. I think that British producer Britt
Allcraft was the first to win an international following for Thomas and create
a market for Thomas models.
The displays noted that Thomas stories were filmed on dioramas. I agree with
Mr. Argent about their extraordinary detail and workmanship. Also, railroad
operations were accurately depicted.
A recent thread at O G R On-Line Forum recounts the construction of a full-size
steam-powered replica of Thomas by Strasburg Rail Road shopmen, who modified
a Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal (B.E.D.T.) 0-6-0T from the Railroad Museum
of Pennsylvania across the street.
I am delighted to read about Colin Duthie's replica of Lionel/IVES No. 1694.
It is beautiful. Those Hornby drivers add a nice touch of massive grace like
that evident on the Standard Gauge counterpart, No. 1764.
When you email Mr. Duthie about the enginehouse in his 7th photo, I hope that
you also request some photos and a paragraph or two about the exhibition he
mentions under that photo. An exhibition that draws 7000 visitors and features
tinplate must be something to see!
Sincerely,
Phil Smith
March 31, 2008
Hello Jim,
Hope all is right for you at home. Congratulations on your article in Tinplate Times :-) It's better done with your english than mine. If you need more explanations don't hesitate to ask me. You can also use the pictures I sent you, especially the set with the "work train" rarest of the rarest Edobaud pieces, 1928-1932 only.
Your english is so better than mine. I think what you have done is really enjoyable and more easy to read by US collectors than mine.
I will be at the York show in two weeks and will stay four days in York for standard gauge trains....a little different from Edobaud ones....for a French Collector.
I have never seen so many Edobaud pieces on Ebay in France than in the last months....prices will go very high in the future.
Thanks for your great job. I am going to read the other articles in Tinplate Times, always a pleasure to look at :-)
Very best,
Daniel Chausseray
France
Daniel: Thank you for your nice comments and for your help with Edobaud pictures and explanations. There is no need to apologize for your English. I only wish my French was half as good! - Ed.
March 31, 2008
Dear Jim,
my thanks to you and Dan for another issue of Tinplate Times.
I would like to contribute some money to the fund. Please give me a mailing address and I will send you a check.
I am especially grateful for the construction emphasis. Among the things I would like to attempt is a home-made tinplate (brass?) locomotive. This April issue points the way.
Is it okay to print the articles for my own use?
Thanks,
Charlie
Charles Grover
Thanks Charlie. Yes, it's ok to print out a copy
of the Tinplate Times articles for your own use. - Ed.
March 30, 2008
Jim, I very much enjoyed the latest issue of Tinplate Times.
I am not well at the moment, and reading it was a pleasant interlude in my day.
I especially enjoyed the article on the Sterling.
Barb Jones
March 30, 2008
Jim,
Great issue of Tinplate Times! In the article by Colin Duthie, "A Homemade
IVES 1694 Locomotive", there is an interesting engine house in the 7th
photo. Is there any way to contact Colin and find out more about it?
Thanks.
Joe Lyons
Joe: I'll send your inquiry to Colin so that he can reply - Ed.
March 30, 2008
RE: David Argent's Stitling Single Article
In the other model comparison, I think David has overlooked the OO model produced by Kitmaster in the early 1960's. This was a detailed all plastic kit moulded in almost GNR green. I did buy a motorising kit with brass chassis for mine and it ran reasonably well. I sold it a couple of years ago to a Kitmaster enthusiast.
However David has produced a lovely model. Well done.
Owen Roberts
Berkshire UK
January 20, 2008
Hi
I have recently thought about making models in Meccano using 0 gauge track.
This came about through buying some track at a local auction. My first effort
can be seen on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfFrOEjJL2Y
I cheated a bit by making the wheels myself rather than using the Meccano flange
wheels. Having had a go I reckon that the ideal gauge for Meccano is actually
2 inches rather than the 1 1/4 of 0 gauge. In the UK it disappeared around WW1
being to close to gauge 1 at 1 3/4". G gauge, which is actually gauge 1
is a reasonable compromise. Maybe this explains why Hornby did not pursue the
project. Meccano does not fit to well with 0 gauge and the cost of providing
0 gauge track for meccano was probably not worth it.anyhow glad to find I am
not alone down this 'track'
All the best
David
January 22, 2008
Hi Jim - Latest issue of tinplate Times has solved a puzzle
for me! I had seen pictures of an Ives1694 with larger driving wheels, now I
realise that it was actually a 1764! I recently made a homemade loco based on
the Ives 1694, but my wheels were apparently oversize. Now I know it is a sort
of homemade hybrid, with features of both, but it looks fine on my tracks.
Colin Duthie
January 17, 2008
Very impressive layout-kinda makes me wish I would have gone-didn't
know it was going to be so much fun. Collect McCoy myself but it all looks good
to me!
Parker Higby
Lancaster, Ohio
November 25, 2007
Dear Tinplate Times,
Thank you so much for the wonderful job you do. You are far and away the best
news and information source available to those of us who love tinplate trains.
Though an American from Florida, my favorite trains are Ace Trains of London.
I think they make the finest, most beautiful tinplate around, and you do a superb
job covering their activities. Living in America, it is very difficult to keep
up with them, so you and their own website are my only links to their activities,
and I have found things on your site that I didn't even see on theirs.
Almost as much as Ace, I love MTH Standard Gauge, and I have both their 400E
and 381E locos, as well as Lionel's recent Standard Gauge Hiawatha. That huge,
gleaming Standard Gauge has the look and feel of a bygone time, when toys fit
for kings could be owned by average people. I'll never forget the first time
(2001) I saw a Standard Gauge train come roaring around a curve. It was MTH's
mighty 400E, and it suddenly seemed like 70 years ago and all the beauty and
mystery of a long ago Christmas was suddenly in the air. I felt the same when
I got my first glimpse of Ace's Flying Scotsman last year. I sent a letter to
Allen Levy saying so, and he published my letter in an Ace Trains ad on page
83 of this month's (December 2007) Classic Toy Train. That letter best expresses
just how much I love this tinplate hobby of ours, a hobby for the ages, but
very much for future ages as well as our own.
Your work is much superior to that of Classic Toy Trains. I feel that they don't
promote this as an active, very-much-alive hobby, but simply cater to the aging
Lionel collector segment, the market speculators among us. In so doing, they
treat the hobby as a mordant old museum piece with an R.I.P. headstone already
engraved for it. Your vibrant approach, however, honors Lionel's golden past
even as we look to the future. MTH and Ace Trains both look to tinplate's future
(indeed they are the hobby's future, a future as bright as the reflective glow
of the Standard Gauge and O Gauge locomotives each produces, which are better
trains than any even from the hobby's rich past.)
Last, you do something absolutely vital for us all: you make of us a community,
you bring us together as part of an extended family, whether we are in London,
New Zealand, Canada, or our own great country, through your newsletter's fascinating
reflections on Christmases past and our very first trains; through the informative
articles keeping us abreast as no one else does of all the tinplate world; and
through the stunning photos that help us share in seeing the beautiful tinplate
trains of others of this worldwide family. This kind of unity was something
Lionel helped us to feel in their Golden Age of the 40's and 50's, through their
colorful catalogs, department store displays, and high-profile presence then.
Your own superb newsletter can today confer much of that same unity of feeling,
spirit, and purpose in a way that nothing else now can. I think that feeling
is essential to the growth of the hobby, for it reminds us of how vibrant the
hobby is and, most importantly, that we are not alone
Keep up the wonderful work, and I hope you have great tinplate holidays!
Sincerely,
Mike Whitney
(Please let me know how and what to pay to bear my share of the cost of the
Tinplate Times.)
Hello Mike,
Thank you very much for your very kind email and the positive comments about Tinplate Times! It's readers like yourself that make the effort that goes into each issue of Tinplate Times all worthwhile. In fact, I'm working on the December issue currently and I hope to be able to release it just before Christmas. I like to try to give my fellow tinplate enthusiasts a present around the holidays!
Happy Holidays!
Jim Kelly
Tinplate Times
October 22, 2006
Hi guys:
I want thank you guys (The Standard Gauge Module Association - Ed.) for putting
on a great show. For the quick time and the hard work of putting the layout
together you guys did an awesome job and had a great layout. You will do great
in the future and you put standard gauge on the map.
Thanks, Bill Spanarelli
York Meet Chairman
November 10, 2005
Jim,
Enjoyed the latest number of the TIMES and your article on Dorfan.
New trucks do make a difference: the reputation of the repro Dorfan crock as
a "poor hauler" doesn't fit with my experience if your advice is followed
and the trucks replaced. Did you know that George Tebolt now offers a replacement
Dorfan truck that appears similar, if not identical, to the MTH product at a
slightly lower cost? I picked up a pair at York, as well as several pairs of
Mike's, and it's a pleasure to actually be able to run my Dorfan passenger set.
Good to talk with you at the Friday York breakfast; looking forward to
the April meet already. Thanks again for all your efforts at the web site and
with the Yahoo group.
Jon Hinderer
October 16, 2005
I enjoyed the article about the lithographic process. Maybe
some one of your readers could give us more insight into how these trains were
originally made. In particular, I'm thinking about my magnificent American Flyer
wide-gauge #4693 steam engine with its cast-iron boiler. This is the set I'd
keep if I had to give up all of my trains but one. But how was it made? Is the
boiler a sand casting or was the molten iron injected into a hard mold? Either
way, with the time necessary to prepare the mold and allow the castings to cool,
it seems that this process is poorly adapted to mass production. Just how many
of these things could Flyer have turned out in a given day, anyway? My guess
is not very many. When you compare the Flyer and Lionel catalogs it is apparent
that Lionel engines comparable in size and features were substantially less
expensive than the Flyer models. It's obvious that Lionel had mastered lower
production costs, probably through the use of metal stampings. Does anybody
out there have any insights into this?
Regards, Chas Seims
chasseims@hotmail.com
October 15, 2005
Thanks sir for the updates to tinplate times. I missed reading
the original ones, so being able to read the old articles is excellent.
Tom Deater Jr
Fellow Standard Gauger
January 2003
FROM THE UK - ABOUT THE TERM "TINPLATE" AND THE ORIGINS OF LITHOGRAPHY...
Hope you do not mind me writing to you out of the blue. I recently
saw a
reference to your new on-line magazine on the TCA E-group and have since
been both looking and thoroughly enjoying it. Thanks and I look forward to
the next one.
I would if I may like to add a couple of comments to the tinplate
and
lithography articles.
They say that the US and the UK are countries divided by a common
language.
Well in the use of the term tinplate I think this is somewhat so as well. As
far as toy trains are concerned we never had a 'strip rail era' in the UK,
toy trains were either very expensive steamers or German imports. Once
Bassett - Lowke got in on the act we had rather better quality models, still
largely German made in tinplate, but also Scale Model Permanent Way track,
using drawn brass or plated steel solid rail on wooden sleepers, plus many
cheaper imitations. Whether as a result of this I do not know but the term
tinplate became associated with the cheaper (and perceived poorer quality)
imported track and associated trains and acquired a rather more pejorative
tone than I think it does in the US. While collectors will now happily use
the word, model railway people more generally will I think only use it
almost as a term of abuse!
On lithography, in the UK the process of offset litho printing
was very much
connected with the printing of Biscuit tins and similar food containers. The
earliest UK patent seems to be from 1875 and once these expired (about 1890)
there was a great deal of development and competition among various
manufacturers. These same 'printers' seem to have been responsible for the
printing of toy train lithos on behalf of the UK manufacturers, rather than
these acquiring any in-house plant. Final pressing and assembly would be by
the toy maker (thought there are some cases where the printer may well have
pressed and assembled as well - they had the plant for this for biscuit-tin
making). Of course in Britain toy train manufacture really did not get going
until after WW1, but I would suspect that a similar story would hold in
other countries, as offset litho printing is a specialist trade. In Britain
access to the archives of some of these printers has generated some
fascinating insights as to what was actually made when, production
quantities, and so on. Happy New Year
Tony Stanford, Web Officer (and a founding member) Train Collectors
Society
(UK)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SGA RESURRECTED...
Tinplate toy train collectors in general, and Standard Gauge
collectors in
particular, owe you a great deal of gratitude for both the Standard
Gauge e-mail list and your new e-magazine "Tinplate Times." I am sure
there
are many like myself who look forward to checking their e-mail each day to
see the latest postings and who will now look forward to each issue of
"Tinplate Times." I think, in fact, you have indeed resurrected the
old
Standard Gauge Association, in everything except name.
Many thanks and Happy Holidays,
Kirk Lindvig (Ironhorse061252)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR FREE...
It is a very good piece of work. That kind of thing sells for
money but I am
especially pleased you have put it on the internet for free.
Al (Whiting,) K3BRS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTENDED TO BE A BREAK-AWAY?
Very nice effort with Tinplate Times first issue.
It seems intended to be a break-away from the TCA E Zine? Is
it?
Thanks,
Chip (Miller)
(Editors comment: we hope that our site can contribute to the
overall amount
of information about toy trains that is available online. We are not trying
to compete with other online sites and resources, rather we hope to add to
that which is already available especially in the area of true tinplate, the
focus of our effort.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FROM DOWN UNDER...
Congratulations on the new magazine! I have advised the TCS
egroup of its
URL.
Best wishes from New Zealand,
Colin Duthie
(http://www.geocities.com/tintracks )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WILL TINPLATE TIMES BE ARCHIVED?...
Enjoyed your premier issue...hope these will be archived so
people can go
back and review. Interesting that high tech is used to showcase low-tech.
Liked the 408 piece...am struggling with a blue comet that was oversprayed
with a not so clear material that has darkened. experimenting with all sorts
of potential solvents. Very slow going...and it's a big train....have two
portable layouts..nothing like your feature article. Mine both fit in a
sedan and are set up by the team of 3: me, myself, and I.
Thanks again, looking forward to future issues.
Steve Simon
(Editor's comment: We are planning to archive all of the issues
and articles
will be sorted by relevance so that visitors to the site will be able to
review earlier material.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BIG HITTERS...
A quick scan of your premiere issue yields a very nice looking
on line rag!
And, the opening salvo of articles boasts the names of some big hitters! I'm
glad that you've taken on this project and, thereby, have added to the
stable of publications available to toy train enthusiasts! Thanks!
Marty Cook
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CLASS ACT...
Let me be the first to congratulate you on a great inaugural
edition. This first issue shows me a lot of class and good things ahead!!
Glad to be a part of it!! Good Luck!
Frank Samaritano