Chipping Paint Inevitable?

It seems to be inevitable on an articulated electric like a Brute or Super 381, and on State cars and suchlike with the hinged or removable roof to show off the interior. On other items it's a question of handling - but how much kid-glove treatment can you give a tinplate toy train? I do my best and live with the occasional scratch, chip, or rub. 

I do my best to keep my tinplate trains (all are recent vintage) as pristine as I possibly can, and really do tend to handle them with kid's gloves.  I haven't had to contend with any chips or scratches yet, but if they do occur I imagine I'll seek a way to touch them up.  Again, these are all contemporary models and not vintage/original tinplate items.  If they were original items I probably would be content to leave them alone.

I must be careful along with lucky. My trains and bigger accessories are as pristne as the day I bought them. They have seen an over exposure too potential harm. Many have seen SGMA shows and all are changed out and run on my home layout on a regular basis.

I would agree with Allan in that vintage examples should be allowed to show their "history", i.e. no touching up.

By that logic, new items should be allowed to take on signs of their own "history" as they age.  This is not an excuse to be careless, but my attitude to the accumulation of normal "play wear" is that it should be no different now than it was in the 1930's.

50 years from now, do you think your new-in-2012 Lionel tinplate will be worth more in original condition with play wear, or touched up?

50 years from now, I won't be around to care.  But as long as I am around, I'll keep things in the best condition I possibly can, while still enjoying them for their "play value."

Don't think it's going to matter much either way, play wear or touched up, but if I went to the future, looking for tinplate from this era, I'd say I would not bother with buying any piece with play wear or touched up pieces. There will be enough shelf queens that you would be able to get a "mint in the box" piece fairly easily.

The modern stuff are all adult "collectibles" today, and that's based on who can afford them. No one today is going to buy a $1200 repro 400E blue comet and give it to their grandchildren to play with without supervision, and it wouldn't be the kids' train anyway. So, almost all this stuff will always be in better condition than the originals, a lot never run, and almost all of it never played with by kids, with the exception of supervised operation.

I doubt you'll see a great appreciation in value for any of the modern era repro stuff. Although the really cool items like the Lionel SG Hiawatha, and Commodore, as well as the Brute, and most likely the Super 381 would be better bets for modern tinplate that will gain value over time.

Rarity and condition determine value, so a rare Brute with some scuffs on the articulating sections would be a better bet than a 2012 sealed box MTH 318E or 400E.  Of course this is only my opinion.

Many of the Brutes came out-of-the-box with some scratches on the articulated sections. When I move mine for service, my wife helps me and I put some foam between the movable sections to prevent damage.

On some of them ,they do not prime them=Bad paint adheasion.  If Id had to ever own one and had to restore one here what id would do?  There 2-3 ways.. One if its one color you could have it poudercoat paint them..Or epoxy paint, can take a real beating.. trust me.. I race Nitro&race boats..They have to withstand fuel spilling on them and can take being rubbed on by other boats..Also used automotive urethanes too... you can first get it to bear metal.then used metal prep with stealwool,wash it off with acidtone and a red scotch bright pad.. then get prime it with etch primer then use gray or red oxided primer then paint it.. after that bake your train shells in you oven for 20-30mins in your oven at 150.  thats how some of your body shops do it,for faster paint cure and makes the paint more durable....been painting cars for 33+ years...If your good at bushtouching your paint then your fine.My grandpa used to wrap his trains and cars in news papers with no proublem.  If he was still alive he would be 90 years old and proubley would drop his jaws to see how advance model trains are now... When I was 6 years old he'd restored a old lionel tin electric.. He primed it and sprayed painted it krylon paint and man it looked good and never had any paint chipping or pealing at all.  He used to spray paint alot in his basement and was a goodtime too.. thats how I got into painting..

I guess everybody's different. I like my tinplate scratched and a little rusty. Old looking. Even though replicas are just that, I like to "bang up" my runners. Now I do want my motors perfect. But the rest I don't worry about if I'm planning on keeping it. If I have a replica that I might sell, then it doesn't even get run. And I keep it perfect and maybe display it for a while to admire. I recently disassembled my prestine blue 400E loco & tender, put the motor aside. I used a drywall sanding block to sand typical looking original rubs. Like all the rivets got the paint knocked off. And all corners and edges got the paint removed. Then soaked all the shiney plastic looking copper & brass trim in lacquer thinner to strip the clear coat, then took those parts and everything else but the motor, including all wheels rods etc. and put them in a bucket of water with a whole box of salt and some fertilizer. I let them sit in that solution for a week. Then in dug a hole in our garden and put everything in the hole, dumped the salt-fertilizer in and buried it. I dug it up 3 weeks later and hosed everything off, let them dry and dunked them in oil. Then wiped everything off and re-assembled. Now I have a beautiful blue 400E! It's amazing how different and alike we are. Here we all love tinplate, but still have different tastes. That's what's wonderful about being individiuals. Think how boring society would be if we all were exact duplicates of each other.

the only chips I have encountered is when running

my standard gauge on the floor at shows, I wasnt watching

and knocked over the locomotive with my boot. You really have to look

to find the ding, so they are very resilient and can take a

little bit of abuse.

Ok I never ever heard of that prosses before...like I said I do my prepping and painting prosses like you do a real car or real locomotive..all have metal and plastics to them..lol..works out the same..now for customizing and making my stuff look different..