I really like the old kits made by Train Miniature(I suffer from reefer madness) and would like to know, is there a website that lists all the rolling stock made them? I think Im going to end up trying to collect all of them. Thanks
Take a look at this. Train Miniature
THANK YOU ,thats exactly what I was looking for.
I have never built one of their kits. But my wife just finished one that took second place in our modeling groups annual contest. I was very impressed, with the kit and her work .
The web site is interesting. I started to purchase the TM special reefers and other cars from a LHS in St. Louis when I lived there. They are still in the box unbuilt as new!
If I remember correctly, the TM was the follow on business to the Balboa brass models after that ended.
CZ
I like 'em because they’re great fodder for kitbashing and detailing. Most are useable for anyone modelling from the '20s to the late '50s.
Wayne
There is also some Train Miniature information on the invaluable HO Seeker website (scroll down)
http://www.hoseeker.net/otherhotrains2.html
The firm itself went through some changes – Train Miniature, Train Miniature of Illinois, etc. Some of us remember when the packaging was a hard (and rather brittle) plastic box – and that once you assembled the car and put on the couplers, it no longer fit in the box! Assuming you wanted what were then called “shake the box” kits (versus the “cut and file and squeeze and swear” kits), TM and TM of I offered a refreshing change of pace from Athearn and Model Die Casting. A choice, not an echo, to quote a political slogan of the 60s.
There have been other discussions over the years on these forums about their kits (and their structures, which I hardly recall at all). Walthers picked up some of the tooling, and some of it forms the basis of their Trainline brand of RTR trains. In some ways Train Miniature anticipated some things that MicroTrains has done in N in the way of creating collectible models, what with TM’s series of state bicentennial cars, cigar cars, cigarette brand cars, and so on.
Dave Nelson
I liked the old Walthers releases of the TM line. Improved finishes and easy to find, back in the 80’s! The only drag on the Walthers versions, were the put 'em together rust colored trucks. Later, normal trucks were included.
Here is a Walthers version.
!(http://i687.photobucket.com/albums/vv233/GrandFunkRR/Trains of Olyville/6f82df65.jpg)
I remember when Train Miniaturesfirstreleasedtheir kits–I thought I had stumbled onto the Mother Lode, LOL! They were just plu-perfect for the era I model and I collected a lot of them. Later, I found that they’d gotten a little ‘fanciful’ as to road-names for specific models of cars, but by that time I didn’t really care.
One real plus to the cars was their height–they tended to ‘break up’ the rather monotonous profile of a freight train. I still have all of mine (I think I bought out every PFE Western Pacific reefer at both of my local hobby shops), and still run them (with replacement wheel sets–what was Walthers THINKING when they released them with those perfectly awful ‘do it yourself’ trucks?).
Darned nice kits. Kind of the Accurail of their era, IMO.
Tom
Yeah, some collectors would be appalled at what I’ve done to TM tobacco and bicentennial boxcars and their line of beer reefers. [:-^]
At least two of the three cars which I rebuilt like this one were tobacco cars:
While these two weren’t originally lettered as tobacco cars, they used the same body casting:
Actually, the rust-coloured trucks were meant, I think, to represent ones which had been painted the same colour as the car, a more common practice in those earlier days than many realise. The CNR and its affiliates favoured painted sideframes, although the ones shown here are not the built-up type.
[quote user=“twhite”]
I remember when Train Miniaturesfirstreleasedtheir kits–I thought I had stumbled onto the Mother Lode, LOL! They were just plu-perfect for the era I model and I collected a lot of them. Later, I found that they’d gotten a little ‘fanciful’ as to road-names for specific models of cars, but by that time I di
Wayne:
That’s still one of my favorite videos–and they tell us we can’t use pusher engines in DC, LOL! Oh well, that’s another subject entirely. [:P]
I really admire what you’ve done with those TM cars!
Tom
Thanks, Tom. Your kind words are very much appreciated.
Wayne
Talk about trucks reminds me of an odd factoid of that era.
While the Train Miniature wheel sets were not very good and most modelers replaced them, by some odd chance the axle ends and size were the only ones I ever found that were drop in replacements for the old AHM/Rivarossi freight car trucks, which came with 30" wheels and flanges that were way too deep – yet the truck sideframes themselves were by no means shabby for that era. I found that if I wanted my AHM cars to look better and run OK I would take the Train Miniature wheel sets that I replaced on the TM cars and save them for my AHM freight cars.
Dave Nelson
You’re right, Dave, not all of the TM wheelsets were bad. Most of mine are still in use in the original TM sideframes, but there seemed to be one period where cars so-equipped would roll down the track like Walter Brennan playing Grampa McCoy. "Li’l Luke! Li’l Luke! Goldarn it, Li’l Luke wheredja go? [(-D]
Wayne
Nice models, Wayne.
Thank you, J.Rob, for your kind words. I just now looked back through what I had posted and hadn’t realised that there were so many photos - my apologies to those on dial-up. [:$]
Wayne