Here it is spring around the corner again. We must thank many of you for a hugely successful season to the point where our inventory is almost completely gone. 1000's of pieces of track, hundreds of switches, remote control tracks, etc. Way beyond our wildest expectations.
Met a lot of incredible people, and was able to help many of them.
We will officially shut the business down within the next week or so. Thru the summer it is our plan to try to rebuild our inventory, including visiting some train shows, around the country. The inventory available for O gauge tinplate is rapidly declining. The newest made in China track is so thin, and poor quality plating. If you have purchased some of these, I advise you to get a bucket of transmission fluid, and dip every one of them in it before you store it, in a humid environment. I do not think it will last very long.
Our plans are to change directions and concentrate on producing the majority of our track inventories to "Tinman's Favorite" which is our painted track. We believe that this model of reconditioned track stands the best chance of lasting many generations to come. We also will be seeking as much of the Korean era track (that was galvanized) converting them to Tinman's favorite, and will be usable for outdoor layouts! In addition we will continue with our engineering team to come up with, in some cases modern replacements, for old style controllers, and switch mechanisms, as well as our brand new product which is a micro processor based remote switch control that will work with virtually any remote control switch. This new controller will not only have LED indicators to show the switch position, but will replace the now aging slide switches of the O22 style. And yes I do agree, the newer made in China variety, will not come close to aging as well as the original O22 designs.
Once again, if any of you have information on where we might go to acquire some additional stock of track, switches and transformers, please let us know.....tinman@tinman3rail.com. Also if you know of some summer train shows, that might be worth attending, that info would also be appreciated. In addition we will be spending a lot of time redoing our web site to include lots more tips and techniques that we have learned that we hope will help others.
Interesting post note, in some of our purchasing, we acquired quite a few pieces of atlas, car graves, Fastrack and some I have no idea who the manufacturer was. Sorry guys, but you better hope that these outfits continue to manufacture these, because my observations are they just do not hold up like the old tinplate. Not really interested in starting yet another debate, that just represents my own observations.
To all have a great spring and summer and remember:
"You don't grow old from playing with trains! You grow old when you stop playing with trains!"
