TINPLATE QUESTION – Darstaed VS ACE Trains London

I love them. This is my only set but the cars are Darstead and the engine is Ace I believe. The quality of the cars is very good. Very solid feel to them. The engine is basic conventional operaition and I have just recently put in a rectifier so it can operate on AC power.  It has all metal gears and made very well. The engine needs above 0-36 curves even thought doesn't look it. 

NICE!  :-)

Really depends upon what prototype you are looking for.  Both manufacturers are excellent.  Darstead has a US agent, but I'm not sure if Ace still does.  If you really want to have some fun at a very reasonable cost these days start collecting vintage Hornby O Gauge.

Lew Schneider

Darstaed does have a US distributor, Ed Cognazzo.  I don't have his email, but he does display in a booth in the Orange Hall at York.  He's not too far from Derek of Notch 6, Angela Trotta Thomas, etc.  I believe he's also somewhere on the Darstaed website.

ACE trains were formerly manufactured to be able to run on AC or DC, but I believe this stopped around 2004 and it's now DC only.  Darstaed advertises their equipment as "AC available on Request".

I have had good luck purchasing some ACE pieces from The Station Master's Room in the UK.  The proprietor is a nice guy who buys and sells new and used.  If you're looking for a particular older discontinued model, he'll email you if one wanders into his store.  The LNER Green ACE A4 I bought from him is a thing of beauty.

Beware, however, that regardless who you buy from, the shipping costs from there to here are a killer.  It might be more cost-efficient to get some pricing from the US Darstaed distributor.

Enjoy.

Steven J. Serenska

The ACE range is much larger than the Darstaed range, especially in locomotives. I do not think in quality, service or price there is a big difference. Indeed there is a Darstaed importer in the US  (eurovintagetrains)  I also can recommend The Station Master. And Darstaed and ACE can be combined as can be seen here:

Regards

Fred

Nice, colorful stuff.  Availability and shipping costs can be problematic.  It's not hard to convert the DC engine to AC with a reversing unit from Dallee for about $50.

Thank you, everyone, for your responses.  Right now I'm leaning towards an E/18 LMS Jubilee and I'll probably order direct from ACE.  Currently the Jubilee is in production and should be shipping by June according to Allen Levy at ACE.

Brian:

You've made a great choice.  That's a super-attractive loco.  I think the eccentric crank action is going to put on a great show.  If you pair that up with a nice, matching ACE passenger consist, you'll have a real treasure.

Have fun with it.

Steven J. Serenska, with one hand on his wallet and the other hand over his heart, pledging never to look at the ACE website again...

Thanks, Steven.  It was between that or the Darstaed Castle Class over at Raylo.  Once I take ownership in June (or thereabouts)  I'll post some photos.  I'm really excited as I never had an English train before.

Phoebe Snow Route posted:

I’m looking to purchase my first tinplate set from England and have narrowed it down between Darstaed and ACE Trains London.  I would like to know if anyone has any opinion on either one or both of these companies as to the quality of the trains, service, US distributors, etc.  I’ve never seen either of these manufacturers in person and have only been able to view Youtube videos.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks to all.

I own several Darstaed and Ace trains.  I have a Darstaed streamlined Pacific A-4, Sir Nigel Gresley and an ACE Evening Star 9f 2-10-0 along with two sets of Darstaed Gresley Teak passenger cars and a string of ACE goods wagons.  Both manufacturers produce a high quality tinplate product.  The locomotives are diecast with stamped sheet metal tenders.  All of the cars are lithographed tinplate, cut and folded with die cast trucks.  They have hook type couplers which are fiddly at best to connect with adult fingers.  Both makes have 20 or 24 volt DC motors with no bridge rectifier so you cannot run them with a Lionel transformer as they are all AC and will fry the motors instantly.  I have installed Electric RR (Lionel owned) TMCC boards in both of my locomotives so I can in fact run them in command mode.  You have to buy the DC Commander unit.  Anyone with the manual dexterity of an oyster or better can do the conversion in about 2 hours.  I did not install any sound cards in these locos, just TMCC.  The locos have great gear trains, are smooth runners but do tend to slip with long passenger trains as they do not have traction tires on the drivers.  I have purchased some from a distributor in the U.K.  Price wise, with shipping, etc. it is slightly cheaper to buy them from the UK with the dollar being so strong against the pound at present.  You can buy directly from ACE and they will deduct 16 1/2% value added tax from the listed price which will just about pay for shipping from the UK to the U.S. 

The freight and passenger cars don't have a lot of added on detail as they are built like toy trains were in the 1920's and 1930's, printed, tin plated steel.  The cars appear, in photographs to have ribs, angle iron and rivets, panels, etc.  but all of this is printed on and the car sides are flat.  These trains are 1/43rd scale as opposed to 1/48th scale used by American train makers, however even with the larger scale, the British locomotives look small compared to a Lionel Hudson or Big Boy.  I, personally like them and run them along side my semi scale Lionel equipment.  As with most toy trains, they are manufactured in China, Taiwan and some work is done in Thailand.  Quality is good and I have a pre-order in for the ACE Black 5 (LMS 4-6-0) which will be available later this year.  

You may want to check out thestationmastersrooms.uk for 360 degree photos of ACE and Darstaed equipment.  They have new and secondary market equipment that is no longer being manufactured.

 degree

Note to Fred:  I've seen your website and video.  It is extremely impressive.  Netherlands I presume?   What kind of track do you use outdoors and how high is the track off of the ground?  

Tinplate Tom

Note to Steven J Serenska:  I have bought trains from the U.S and the U.K.  Truth is that I was charged more for shipping by the U.S. distributor than buying direct from The Station Masters Rooms in the U.K.  Buying direct from ACE knocks the price down by 16 1/2% as they take off value added tax so this offsets some of the shipping costs.  An ACE 9f at the current exchange rate direct from ACE would cost $780 plus around $50 for shipping.  The U.S. distributor quoted me $950 including shipping which is $120 more than direct from ACE.

Tinplate Tom

Tinplate Tom posted:

Note to Fred:  I've seen your website and video.  It is extremely impressive.  Netherlands I presume?   What kind of track do you use outdoors and how high is the track off of the ground?  

 

Tinplate Tom

Tinplate Tom,

The track I use is Tenmille gauge 1 track to which I added extra rails to be able to run 2-rail and 3-rail 0 gauge in one loop and S gauge in the other loop. The track is at 75 cm from the ground, which was chosen to makes it very easy to run live steam trains. And it also proofs to be very handy for the other gauges since I can sit in the garden (whit a beer) and see the trains pass by.

Regards

Fred (from the Netherlands)

Thanks for the reply.  I worked in Rotterdam for, what was Resolution Plastics (they have changed names siince 2006), at the Shell Refinery near Pernis.  My main office was in Bergen op Zoom, which is an interesting town with a fantastic town square.  I always liked the Netherlands.  That looks like a terrific beer!

hartelijk bedankt

Tinplate Tom

My apologies in advance for somewhat deviating for the topic but how does Ace/ Darstead compare to mth British trains, esp the coaches? I am interested in the kitchen dining car LMS maroon as well as the sleepers. Also, does anyone make the rare British observation car?

I have both MTH and ACE and Darstaed British coaches. The MTH coaches are plastic and do not mix well with the ACE and Darstaed coaches. ACE made an observation car for the Coronation, see here http://www.acetrains.co.uk/c7-coaches.html, but I think that one is not available anymore. The also famous Pullman observation was not made by ACE or Darstaed but was made in fine scale 0 gauge by Golden Age Models (http://www.goldenagemodels.net...coaches-gallery.html).

Regards

Fred

MTH European trains are what I would call semi-scale.  Darstaed and ACE cars are true tinplate like Hornby, Marklin and others made in the early 20th century.  They are flat, tin plated steel, lithographed with windows, doors, door handles, rivets, etc. As Fred indicated, MTH are injection molded plastic and nice cars.  Depends on what you like.  One interesting feature of ACE and Darstaed is that only one coach in multiple sets will have pick up 'spoons' and you have to connect wires between cars to illuminate the interiors in a string of coaches.  Their locomotives on the other hand are die cast for the most part with folded sheet metal tenders.  I like them and run them along side Lionel Legacy big steam like the SP AC9, UP Big Boy, etc.  It is about having fun, after all.  From Fred's photo, I believe that beer and what appears to be a #1 gauge DB 01 Pacific must be more fun that a human can stand in one day.

There is a video floating around youtube that shows the lithography process for printing Darstaed coaches. 

So ace and Darstead coaches have no interiors?

No.  Darstaed do in fact have interiors.  They are stamped sheet metal, printed, folded and placed in the car by the manufacturer.  ACE cars have interior kits you can install, per information on their website.  I do not have any ACE passenger cars, but do have 13 Darstaed LNER teak coaches and they all have interiors except the full brake, which is the equivalent of a baggage car in the U.S.  Some early ACE cars have frosted windows as can be seen on several youtube videos of British tinplate.  Lights in the cars I have are all LED.

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

So ace and Darstead coaches have no interiors?

Yes, the current ones do have interior (See the Darstaed restaurant coach, which has illuminated table lights). There is a series of ACE coaches where an interior is supplied as a kind of kit; this seems not very easy to apply. Check the website of The Station Master for details (and lots of pictures)

Regards

Fred

I have just recently gotten interested in these English tinplate brands.   I have an older Darstaed engine from the bay coming my way.   I should be able to power it with an ho transformer I have leftover from the lionel mpc era.  After I play with it for a while I hope to add a US style headlight and definitely switch the rear coupler to a tinplate style latch coupler.

@jhz563 posted:

I have just recently gotten interested in these English tinplate brands.   I have an older Darstaed engine from the bay coming my way.   I should be able to power it with an ho transformer I have leftover from the lionel mpc era.  After I play with it for a while I hope to add a US style headlight and definitely switch the rear coupler to a tinplate style latch coupler.

I have a few.  Hope you enjoy it.  I'm not entirely clear regarding the difference between Ace and Darstaed - I think it's related to some interpersonal drama, but that's just my impression.  There are other threads which cover some experiences with British distributors.   

If you want to run it on AC, you can get a rectifier / e-unit from Dallee.  Easy to install.

The Darstaed website lists a US distributor - Edward Cognazzo.  He sets up in the Orange Hall at York, and I've purchased items from him.