Wayne,That would be a interesting topic if you shared your photos…
As a thought maybe other members could post photos of their TM cars as well?
I thought the TM cars were nice when they came out.One interesting thing was the lower profile and the x29 style cars .They were different enough to make you understand that all box cars were not the same. I still have them and operate them today with Kadee couplers and Central valley trucks ,the standard in those days.
The FA 1/FB1 was the first decent model of the FA and first pretty good plastic body. The drive was terrible, a junk motor and gearing,smoked more than a few. I ended up using some of the shells and fuel tanks on Hobbytown drives agreat combination .I still have a set today of course there are better FA1s FB1s today .
Ron High
I have about a dozen of their Tobacco Road collection and they are really unique in the ‘Brand Names’ they carry; like Lucky Strike, Piciquene (?) and others I can’t remember without going to the storage closet where they are. I plan to build all of them and put Kadees and metal wheels on them. I think they are very well designed kits, but don’t have the level of detail as newer ‘high end’ RTR models are.
-Bob
I had some of those Tobacco Road cars, too, but bought them mainly because they were cheap. All of them were stripped, re-worked, and re-painted. I’m not positive, but I believe three of them were re-done like this:
Among the first TM cars that I re-worked, these were also low-height cars like most of the TM line. I filed/sanded the moulded-on sidesills flush with the cars’ sheathing, then scribed that area to match the board pattern. After adding new side sills (strip styrene), I had a car similar to the USRA doublesheathed boxcar. Doors and ends are from Tichy and the fishbelly underframe is simply sheet styrene cemented to the original frame. I scraped off all of the moulded-on grabirions and replaced them with wire parts - the grabiron-style ladders are what was used on this road’s cars. Lettering is C-D-S dry transfers, and with the herald applied, is too modern for my late '30s era layout…that’s not a great concern to me, though, as the real cars weren’t acquired until November of 1940, from parent NYC. This is my hometown road, so I can live with the anomaly.
Here’s another car of the same type under construction - The sidesill has already been scribed to match the car’s siding:
After adding new ends and doors and a bunch of other stuff (the floor/frame is from an Accurail car), I ended up with a fairly accurate representation of a 1918-built Michigan Central car:
[IMG]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/doctorwayne/Freight%20Cars%20-%20Part%20
Hi Wayne…I really like what you did with the Train Miniature cars…excellent work. The weathering and detail work is superb. The double door box cars are superb.
I found this Train Minature Spotter’s Guide web site on the net and it shows all the different cars that were issued during the 70’s & 80’s. This is an exellent resorce guide for those who are stlll interested in these cars. I now have about 200 of these cars and I still buy and sell them on ebay. If there is anyone out there willing to sell what they have I’d be more than glad to take them off your hands.
John
Thanks for your kind words, John. I have pretty-well all the freight cars required for my layout, but I still find it difficult to resist when I see TM cars on the used table at my LHS.
Wayne
I had quite a few T-M cars in the past, but most were replaced over the years by more accurate cars. The T-M cars were notable in their time because they introduced variety in the size and styles of cars, plus the variety of trucks. The only T-M car I have left is a M.I.N.X. (Minnesota Mining & Manufacturers) DS car that bore a resemblance to some old SS and DS cars that were stored near where I lived in the early 1960’s. I’m keeping it, if only for the logo. Maybe some day I’ll get enough info together to build a convincing 3-M car, but until then I have this one, and I suspecgt I’ll keep it around for a long time
Even more interesting with the link
In response to the list posted by alco_fan, I wonder whether TM ever actually released the Fairbanks Morse H16-44. I sure don’t remember it, and I think it’s an engine that would have grabbed my attention at the time. Does anybody know?
I presume from this from the HOseeker site that it was to be released October (72 ???). Prehaps it wasn’t.
http://hoseeker.net/TrainMiniatureslist/tmlist1971pg1.jpg
Cheers, the Bear.
Great info, thanks for posting it.
-Bob