MELGAR posted:Silver Lake posted:I won another C16a in a surprise eBay winI ... found markings for Thomas Industries. So it was first offered in 1950 as a very simple kit
it is very heavy being all cast
The drivers are even sprung
Very interesting, Andy. Die cast with sprung drivers!
Even back in 1950, it must have been costly to make a set of dies to cast this model. There cannot have been many produced, so how did the manufacturer think this would be a profitable venture? Especially as a kit. And they were competing against Lionel, who dominated the market and made similar engines ready to run. I guess this is indicative of the manufacturing environment in the USA after WW2. People thought they could achieve anything. It's too bad that no one makes products like this in the US today.
MELGAR
The Thomas 0-4-0 was priced rather competitively as this ad from 1948 shows:
Granted, in 1948, 40 bucks was a good piece of change, but how much were equivalent Lionel trains going for? Even HO wasn't cheap, witness the MDC HO 0-6-0 kit from the same year:
(By 1976, the price of the MDC 0-6-0 dropped to $19.98...)
Plus, the Thomas 0-4-0 was also available with scale wheels and also shared some its components with the later 2-8-0.
A brief history of Thomas Industries can be found HERE.
Rusty
