Concerning Dorfan and Ives Steamers

I am very fond of Dorfan. I have several steamers and also electrics.  They are all original Dorfan not MTH. Most have bad castings but mine are perfect, I have had some of them restored mostly for painting . I also found a Dorfan 3920 wide gauge that needed nothing , I left it original except for a little cleaning. I don't know how the new MTH compare to the originals as I have never seen one up close.

i'm sure if you stopped 10 older guys on the street and asked them to name a toy train, 9 of them would have a hard time coming up with a brand besides Lionel.  the part i find strange is that with MTH making all these models, there shouldn't really be any difference in quality and from what little i've seen of any of these newer reproductions, they seem to be at least cosmetically (aside from liveries) true to the originals.  so although i have no desire to own any reproduction, if i had the choice, i would probably go with the off-brand copies.  the less popular models originally usually become the more desirable pieces in the long term.  look at something like the postwar Santa-Fe F3... how many of you wish your dad would have picked up the WP instead?

cheers...gary

I suspect that any "deals" reflect an overestimation of the market by MTH, possibly due to the nameplate not being Lionel. 

Please don't get hung up on what's "desirable" to others.  The MTH reproductions of non-Lionel tinplate are the same quality and functionality of the Lionel reproductions.  I have repros of Dorfan and Ives - they have some neat details which differ from Lionel, and I can run them without risking damage to an antique.  

If you're worried about resale value, don't buy trains.

I have a half dozen of the MTH Dorfan/Ives/Flyer 1134 style steamers. The biggest difference between the 3 will be the headlight, boiler front and of course the nameplate. MTH uses the same motors and electronics as they do in the other Std Gauge loco's. Takes only a minute to change the coupler to a Lionel latch coupler. They run, sound and smoke great and are quite impressive. Many more people have Lionel and Flyer so the Dorfan can be a bit of a slow seller. Great engines.

Steve

Mallard4468 posted:

I suspect that any "deals" reflect an overestimation of the market by MTH, possibly due to the nameplate not being Lionel. 

 

That's what I suspected but I was looking for some confirmation.  So many of the tinplate trains that I like aren't available.  When I saw the Dorfans readily available at multiple dealers, I began thinking maybe everyone knows something that I don't.

Mallard4468 posted:

If you're worried about resale value, don't buy trains.

Nope.

Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:

Many more people have Lionel and Flyer so the Dorfan can be a bit of a slow seller. Great engines.

Thanks, Steve.