I remember when Walthers began releasing the TM cars under their own banner, that the trucks provided–though seemingly correct for the type of car–were also in kit form and extremely tricky to put together. In more than one instance, it took me about 45 minutes to assemble the car and 3 days to get the trucks right. [:P] And even then, the rolling qualities were not that good. I finally ended up purchasing separate trucks for every TM kit I bought. But I sure liked the kits.
Tom [:)]
Folks:
Some of the TM structure kits are still available from Life-Like. The factory/warehouse/office is actually a set of 3 variations of the Mt. Vernon Mfg. Co kit, which before TM had it, was sold by Ulrich. It’s a modular design and can be kitbashed or varied quite easily with multiple kits. The hotel was also Ulrich’s, and is now LL’s Belvedere, and is also modular. The shanty, windmill, and water tank are now grouped as LL’s “Western Homestead” kit.
That’s right, I had forgotten about that. [D)] They had springs and everything. I guess in a way they were very realistic but wow!! I think I got one together and working (sort of). Luckily right about the time I started into HO Walthers came out with “normal” style plastic trucks (where you just put the wheelsets in) and I bought a set of those for any Walthers kits that came with the other type. After a while the Walthers kits of the old TM type cars came with the one-piece trucks.
I sure did like those cars though, I must have bought 20 or more back when Walthers made them.
Stix:
One of the things I remember about the TM trucks is that the supplied springs from Walthers were not of the same consistency, or even the same length, sometimes. Fitting them was a nightmare, and after they were together, the trucks themselves rode very unevenly. And God forbid that you coupled the cars together with too much force, because the shock would make the springs pop out of the bolsters. Even running, you weren’t sure that they wouldn’t come loose and collapse the truck. I had several derailments in the middle of the train because the truck on my TM car just gave out.
Not one of Walthers’ smarter moves, IMO.
While this thread has been going on, I’ve been looking at some of my older TM cars. It seems that I replaced the trucks with either Kadees or Athearn truck frames with Kadee wheels. They’re still rolling along quite nicely.
And the cars themselves still look darn good!
Tom
My father bought a set of 3 of the old beer reefers for me, so they were probably the first car kits I ever put together. Dknelson, I forgot about the axle length on those cars being a perfect fit for AHM rolling stock, because I replaced some of my AHM wheels with Train Miniatures as well.
At some point they offered a set of those reefers decorated for all 50 states, probably during the Bicentennial. The last time I was at the LHS, he was selling a complete set of them secondhand in what appeared to be in perfect condition.
CNJ831, I’m surprised to hear the FA’s were good performers. I read somewhere that they were problematic, due to a high RPM motor, and insufficient gear reduction that caused it to run hot. I didn’t know they existed until I saw one on eBay a while back, which got me curious.
Steamlocomotive.com has a cars spotter’s guide, and Tony Cook is in the process of adding TM to his site.
The re-motored Walthers Train Line version of the FA-1s were good runners. I really can’t say just how good/bad the original TM examples were.
CNJ831
The original FA ran like a non Flywheel Athearn since they used the old Athearn drive.
Then they had the old Athearn Jet 600 motor and cast GE B trucks, and should have been as reliable as any Athearn from that time. They could run a little hot sometimes, but it sure doesn’t sound like the description I read, unless there was an earlier run with the larger Athearn motor. Thanks for the info.
The Train Miniature cars are among my favourites, and I often find them on the “used” table at the LHS for under $5.00.
I modify them with wire grabs, new paint and lettering and updated underframes, and they make into decent-looking cars that are perfect for my mid-to-late '30s era layout. All of the cars shown were lettered with either Champ decals or C-D-S dry transfers.
Here are a few:
This one was one of my first efforts, involving new ends, rebuilt sides and floor, and lots of wire grabirons:
Here’s the TM version of a Pennsy X-29:
And, for comparison, the Red Caboose X-29:
If you have some time, here’s a link to a roll-by featuring many upgraded TM cars.
Wayne
Wow, Wayne. [:P][tup] Remind me to go “fishing” with you sometime. [bow]
Wayne:
Beautiful, just beautiful! [bow] And I see that you kept the original sprung trucks. Now THAT’S patience! [:P]
Tom [;)]
Thanks for the kind words, guys.
Actually, those sprung trucks aren’t too bad to assemble if you clean the flash from around the ends of the bolster and from the opening in the sideframes, in which the bolster seats. This also lets the wheels move vertically more easily around the axis of the bolster, useful if your track is especially rough. [swg]
Wayne
Train Miniatures first FA-1 Freight Diesel was made in Japan by Micro Cast (Mizuno)
Released and distributed in America by Train Miniature of Illinois in late 1970 and reviewed in the October 1970 edition of Model Railroader.
The September release was a powered FA-1 dummy FB-1 retailing at $17.98 for the A-B set.
The Company was acquired by Walthers in 1984 and the original Micro Cast FA-1 FB-1 Locomotive shell casts with updated shell modifications and new chassis and drive mechanisms became the basis for Walthers FA-FB-1 locomotives under the Train Line Series.
The original Train Miniature FA1 FB1 release in 1970 had a really nice shell for the period, but the drive was an abomination, the frame was formed sheet steel, not sure what the gear ratio was, but the motor was a 1/32 Strombecker (Hemi) slot car motor, no flywheels, slot cars which are extremly light and normally run like 30:1 high RPM’s
The TM Loco drive ratio didn’t permit the motor to get anywhere near it’s power curve.
As a result the TM FA-1 ran really smooth and quite more so than any other HO diesel on the market at the time. It had a top speed of about 15 MPH, and that was reduced dramatically to 6 MPH with a 5 car freight train behind it and then to zero quickly once the motor then overheated.
Believe it or not the motor got hot enough to burn the skin right of your fingertips.
Many removed or never installed the screw in block weights that came with the Train Miniature FA-1 as the Loco would tilt that way, or this way depending on it’s direction.
The drivers were about 46" tall, not 40" the frames were hard to work with. The whole Loco was made by Micro Cast (Muzino) of Tokyo Japan. The nylon gears were also prone to cracking.
Train Miniature in 1979 did a clone of Athearns F7 cast metal chassis which was fitted with Athearns non Flywheel Jet 400 motor Athearn Part 4001 and Athearn Trucks from Athea
kingsway3030 - Welcome to trains.com! [C):-)]
Why was a three year old thread brought forward, the posting could easily stand on its own, as a brief history of the FA Walthers Trainline
Train Minature cars are my favorite of all the brands. Of course they are not manufactured anymore except for a few that Walther’s offers but if you can aquire them on ebay, you should be very happy with their simplicity of building them. The printing is not always the best quality (Walthers improved that when they bought out TM’s tooling back in the eightes. And the 8000 series spotters cars that were offered by TM had better graphics plus some of them came with assembled strung trucks. The thing that I never liked was the way the supplied plastic wheel sets performed. The car would often wobble slightly when running on the track so I replaced the wheelsets with intermountain 33" brass wheels and they run so smootly and never de-rail. I am always on the lookout for TM’s at the train shows but they are getting harder to find these days. Some of the tobacco and beer cars are very collectable and some have fetched as high as $75.00 on ebay. Todays models that are available are far too expensive compared to the Train Miniatures cars that you can find at show or on the net.
John
Hi John, and [#welcome] to the MR Forums.
I was surprised to see this old thread come up, so I’m guessing that you’re here as the result of an on-line search regarding Train Miniature cars. They’re still among my favourites, and it’s with some difficulty that I’m resisting adding photos of more recent efforts. [swg]
Wayne
It’s his first post… give him a break.
Start a new thread when an old one already exists on a topic you’d like to chat about, and you will be chastised by some. Revive that old thread to chat about your topic rather than start a new one, and you will be chastised by others.
To me it makes more sense to revive the old thread since its contents did not literally answer the original 2009 question but it did contain a good amount of on-topic discussion.
I’d only add to it that while I liked the look of Train Miniature freight cars, I never did care much for their all-plastic wheels.
Dave Nelson
Wayne,
Please don’t resist any longer. Your work deserves to be seen. I like the way you paint, detail and weather your cars and structures.
[bow]