Pine Creek Railroad posted:Ron M,
I do not know who taught you about Tin Plate Trains, I do know however who taught me, he owned the Iron Horse Hobby Shop here outside of Pittsburgh, Pa and his name was Frank Hare. When talking about Lionel Tin Plate Trains he taught us to talk in Train sizes & series with different type couplers, in this manner you could pick what ever rolling stock you wanted when purchasing, because the rollings stock would then always match your train size correctly. The train stores here sold lots of different rollings stock that was not even in the Lionel Catalogues, and we were able to pick the rolling stock we most wanted when we put together a Train set. You could if you wanted to, purchase a catalogue set also, most of the Iron Horse Train Club members did not want the Catalogue sets. Granted only the bigger stores like Bill & Walts and the Iron Horse were able to sell Lionel trains in this manner, they had the inventory & influence with Lionel to make it happen. Further the 655 Box car in the 2600 series was the add on Car to what ever set you purchased, and is just exactly as I described. So you see I am not giving out any incomplete or irresponsible erroneous information, when you get to heaven you can argue with Frank Hare, I acquired my Tin Plate knowledge directly from him.
PCRR/Dave
PCRR/Dave,
Let's say I grew up in the '30s and looked forward to Christmas and going thru Marshall Fields, Mandel Bros., Carson, Pires, Scott, Wiebolt's, Goldberg Bros., plus a few others, toy departments in the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That was my learning of tinplate trains. Got my first train, Lionel Outfit 295, in 1929. Purchased my 1929 Lionel catalog in 1939 for $1 via mail from Ben Smith. Got back into toy trains in 1965. Joined the TCA in 1970. Knew Frank Hare quite well. Been very active in TCA's National Toy Library since 1984. Need any more background info?
Ron M
