I'm Tom and I'm a tinplater. There, I admit it. Even if I operate my Lionel prewar semi-scale steam switchers, but use Lionel tinplate tubular track and pull colorful prewar gondolas under my prewar Standard Gauge signal bridge, I guess I show all the signs!
I know there was a topic a few years ago where folks went back and forth on the definition of what is the definition of tinplate. Since then, I found an interesting TCA article, by Joseph Lechner, entitled "Scale or Tinplate." Here are some blurbs:
"The tubular track used for O gauge, S gauge and standard gauge trains is still made of tinplate today. Postwar trains that run on those tracks are called tinplate too, although nearly all of them are made of die-cast metal and plastic."
"Louis H. Hertz, who is better known for his books on toy train collecting, also wrote "The Complete Book of Model Railroading" (1951: Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation). In it, he distinguished between scale and tinplate, but not in the same way most hobbyists do today. Tinplate for Hertz meant ready-made equipment sold by companies that were primarily engaged in the toy business (even if a significant portion of their products were used by adults). Scale meant a model that was assembled from a kit or built from scratch. While the original motivation for building a scale model was to achieve greater realism than possible with tinplate, the boundaries soon became blurred. Hertz contended that much of the tinplate available at mid-century was as well proportioned as scale equipment."
"Louis Hertz regarded tinplate operators and scale enthusiasts alike as "model railroaders". He wrote, "There is no onus associated with operating a system with tinplate equipment rather than… scale models... Tinplate and tinplaters, far from being terms of disparagement... are honored words in model railroad phraseology."
Here is the whole article:
http://tcaetrain.org/articles/.../tinplate/index.html
So, what do you think?
Tom
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