NEW Tin-Plate at York???

You'll have no problem finding LCT sets (new MTH/Lionel Corporation Tinplate) at York.  Might want to check the Orange Hall and Purple Hall dealers first.

Side-Track hobbies had tons of new stuff in the Orange hall in April. There prices were low. Contact them now and see if they have a fall York price list.

Walt......if there is an item you're interested in, call SideTrack hobbies as said above. They will bring it gladly. Their prices are hard to beat. They're having a big sale right now. They are fabulous people to deal with. I've been buying stuff from them for over 20 years and have ALWAYS been satisfied.

Peter

We (wife & I) agree...Al & Libby run a first class operation at Sidetrack.  Our experience is that they have the largest concentration of new tinplate at York (Orange Hall) in the last few meets.  But the above advice is solid...if you have a set or two in mind, have checked their website for availability, let them know NOW and I'm sure they'd make arrangement with you for P/U at York.

KD

I too recommend Sidetrack Hobbies.   My wife has purchased several gifts from them (for me) and they've been great to deal with.

--Greg

Thanks for the comments giving me confidence that I'll find a lot to choose from.

I don't have specific sets in mind yet.

I run with O27 track (27, 42, 54, and 72 curves) and K-Line O27 switches (27 and 42).  As I mentioned once before a fellow forumite brought some of his pieces to my house and we tried running them thru a temp layout.  Some made it thru the switches OK and others didn't.

I'm going to take a printout of the email with comments that he made to me to see if the dealer is willing to agree to comment on what I am buying.  I am a bit concerned in that regard.

I'll check with Sidetrack ahead of time.

Walt,

Another vote for Sidetrack Hobbies in the Orange hall. They usually have a nice selection of new tinplate. There are other dealers who will have some tinplate too so you'll get what you need.

I’ll add my vote for Sidetrack. It’s usually my first stop at York. In the Orange Hall doors, turn right and they are down towards the end.

There are other vendors/dealers with tin, but Sidetrack probably has the best overall selection.

Call Al and tell him to bring one the Christmas train sets with him and you’re in business.

Not quite sure I understand what you might be looking for in this regard, Walt.

Chances are good that most dealers are not going to be able to provide specifics regarding what type of switches their O gauge tinplate items will or will not perform well on (most all of the smaller O gauge tinplate will do just fine on any brand of switch).  You likely received more useful/reliable info right here in this thread.

I got a T3, I got a T3, I got a T3. I'm picking it up at YORK.

Yes, Sidetrack Hobbies, usually in the front right-hand side of the Orange Hall, is the place to go for new tinplate sets. Mostly Standard Gauge with some O gauge tin.

Allan: my friend said things like (and I'll have the exact numbering wrong here since I don't have the email right now): "Any of the 600 series cars will be comparable to the one we just ran.".

So I'm hoping that a KNOWLEDGABLE dealer can take comments like that to help me pick the right sets.  he made comments like that about engines too.

Bill: yeah, one thing I'm starting to notice, and it might be just bad luck based on the little that I've browsed around, that standard gauge tin-plate seems to be more popular that 'O' tin.

I know exactly which booth you guys are describing.  Walked thru it many times but with no interest - that WILL change this time!!!!!!

- walt

Walt,

I would strongly advise looking through the last couple of Lionel Corp. tinplate catalogs online to see what is available and to perhaps select a few possibilities before York week. There's lots of other info online about recent tinplate.

If you educate yourself first, there will be less reliance on a dealer's advice.

You also will want to decide if you want proto2 engines or traditional open frame motors. Watch out also for those earlier proto1 tinplate offerings under the MTH brand. They can be as troublesome as all the other premier/Railking proto1s out there with 10 year old batteries.

An old dealer at a train show ages ago noticed my indecision about an item on his table. He just said, "If you don't know @#$%^& about what you are looking at, don't buy it!" Best train show advice I ever got. 

Jim

Two nice sets are the Baby Blue Comet and the Red Comet.  The Christmas set is also nice.

The red 249e in the Christmas set is very versatile.  The red engine says "Lionel Lines" on the tender not Christmas lines or any other holiday theme.  Also, the traditional motor is really smooth and the air whistle is nice and loud. Just a great little engine.

Sunrise

I would definitely recommend following Jim's advice!  All of the catalogs are available online at the MTH website, so take the time to explore the options before you go to the meet.

As others have noted, the Christmas set, Baby Blue Comet, and Red Comet are all fine sets, and there are a number of others as well.  I have yet to buy one that I didn't really like (all of mine are PS2/3), and the collection keeps growing.

A RTR starter set is the best value in O or STG. They come with track, transformer and remote commander. Instant DCS lite if you do not have full blown DCS already. 

Walt,

Here are two nice Christmas tinplate RTR sets. Both O gauge.

1) This is the first tinplate set I ever bought and still set it up for Christmas. It may be harder to find as it was released several years ago. 

http://www.mthtrains.com/content/11-5501-1

2) This is more recent. Fun set.

http://www.mthtrains.com/content/11-5505-1

One caveat, when buying tinplate be it O or STG watch the size. The 2 sets posted above are both very nice sets. However, those white passengers cars in reality are smaller than the freight cars in the other set.

When buying look at the cars next to each other.

Yes, the 249 locomotives and cars are smaller than the 263 locomotives and cars.  That is one thing you may want to watch out for when buying tinplate O gauge, particularly if you eventually want to buy several sets and/or have all rolling stock match in terms of size.

The original tinplate had no particular scale, and neither do the repros.  Sizes range from relatively small (264 and 249) to large (260, 263) and very large (256).  I have some of all these sizes, but tend to keep trains of just one relative size on the layout at any one time.

But these are toys, and so long as you can couple things together properly, it makes little difference how you mix-and-match.

Right, they are just toys.  I doubt Walt dumped everything he had to go into tinplate expecting Proto-48 products.  I'm guessing he just want to have some fun. 

The Blue Streak set is also nice.

Captured my attitude perfectly Bill !!!

Yes, the engines MUST be PS2 or PS3.  I already have DCS components.

Smaller is OK with me as long as I like the look of the set.  I kinda am hoping to find sets without track, trannie, etc, since I don't need any of those components.  I want at least one passenger set for sure and the other one is up for grabs.  Definitely, no doubt about it, stopping at two sets.  May add a car or 2 down the line but no more engines.

BTW: I have looked on-line but I can't really tell much about whether I think they will handle my switches.  I also have a printed catalogue that my forum buddy gave to me and will take it, with his comments included, to York with me.

I do appreciate all of the helpful comments that you guys have made.

thanks again - walt

Here is an email that he sent to me.  I'm hoping that the information is transferable to current day sets.

2600 freight cars go with 1666, 224E also.

Without a doubt... take some time and do some research PRIOR to your trip to York.  Then call SideTrack Hobbies and/or visit them in the Orange Hall at York. 

While most other dealers are battling for everyday O-Gauge train dollars, SideTrack Hobbies leaves most of their O-Gauge stuff back at the ranch (except for perhaps a stack of MTH Z-4000 transformers) and loads their York truck to the hilt with Standard Gauge tinplate trains and accessories.    They're pretty much the "mother lode" when it comes to NEW Standard Gauge tinplate trains at York!!!    Great prices too.

David

Please take David's (Rocky Mountaineer) advice!  You'll be glad you did.

If SideTrack does not bring any 'O' stuff to York, how does this help out Walt?  Does he need to call SideTrack and ask them to bring sets to York?  Just confused with the mention of Standard Gauge.

I was thinking the exact same thing when I read David's comments.  I'm not expecting that everyone will read thru an entire post so he probably just missed where I said I wanted NEW 'O', not standard gauge.

I will look at what's available on-line ahead of time to try to make some sort of sense of it all.  I over-plan everything I do so why not this, right?  Like I said tho' I tried already and got discouraged because I couldn't tell what might, no, make that 'will', work

- walt

Just to clarify,

Sidetrack brings lots of O Gauge TINPLATE, but not O Gauge regular trains.  So Walt, there will be plenty of O Gauge Tinplate at Sidetrack at York!  I've gotten most of my tinplate at Sidetrack at York.

Ed

ps. as you shop for Tinplate, be very careful to look for the O Gauge part... I've almost picked a few items that looked great, only to find (runs on STD-42 track) at the bottom of the listing.

For the purposes of this discussion, forget about Standard Gauge. 

Walt is not looking for Standard Gauge tin; he's looking for O gauge tinplate and wants NEW tinplate with PS2/3.

Since he plans to buy this at York, he definitely needs to consider Sidetrack Hobbies.  They are the folks who have what is likely the largest assortment of new tinplate at York.  I have bought a number of items from them in the past, both online and at York, and I can assure you they are fine folks to deal with.

I tried emailing Sidetrack this morning but my email got returned undeliverable.  I used the address on their "contact" page.

I am getting some awesome advice, both here and via email.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate the helpful comments.

Ed: NOW I can match a face to an email !!!!!

walt

I have their September sale circular sitting right  in front if me. Give them a call.

Phone:  301-475-5381

Walt,

Sorry if I threw you a curve ball mentioning Standard Gauge...  I missed your comment about the O track you plan to use.  

Have no fear though... Sidetrack Hobbies is still your best ticket at York!  They have a very large space at York filled with just about everything in "new tinplate" you might conjure up.  And if you need something special, give them a call ahead of time so they can bring it along.

David

Thanks David for clarifying.  Like I said, I don't expect that everyone will read every posting in a thread, especially when it starts to grow like this one, so it made sense that you didn't know my "requirements".

I will get serious looking on-line at different vendors and also the tin-plate Lionel catalogue (or will it come from MTH? I have to check it out) starting this week.  I do want to take advice as mentioned by many above about getting edumacated ahead of time.

thank s- walt

Walt,

You can view the Lionel Corporation Tinplate catalogs on MTH's web site.

Take notes, and keep in mind that some of the stuff in the most recent catalogs has not yet shipped.  You can check whether individual items have shipped by plugging their full item number into the search box on almost any of the pages on MTH's site.

Andy

I put up a 'thank you for helping' me thread on this sub-forum Friday but the OGR brass moved it to the tin-plate forum.  I wanted it on both but especially this one since more people have offered advice on this forum than the tin-plate one.

I did pre-order the Baby Blue Comet engine and tender (PS2 or PS3) and the matching 4-car set of passenger cars from Sidetrack Hobbies.  I will pick it up and pay for it at York on Thursday.

I still want one more train. 

BTW: I have a hard-copy of the 2013 tin-plate catalogue.

- walt

JusTrains (purple hall) usually has new tinplate with good prices.