Research book on pre-war tin buildings

i love old tin more than just about anyone, but i'm not sure if i would draw the line at 1945.  if so, you'd have to exclude three classic Marx tin buildings, the Girard, Oak Park and Glendale Stations which were all postwar and made through the 50's.

I'm not aware of any book with a specific focus on tin litho buildings.  The various Greenberg guides have sections on accessories for Ives, Lionel, Flyer, and Marx. Since Greenberg printed multiple books for each manufacturer you will need to find out which volume covered structures. For American Flyer it is the book on Wide Gauge and for Marx it is the volume concerning the individual items and not the one on sets.

 As for other manufacturers there is a series of books in german which covers German manufactureres who exported to the U.S. Each book lists buildings and does have some pictures.

   If there is some building or some series of buildings you are wondering about why not post pictures/details here.  The forum has a number of individuals who are very knowledgeable with respect to pre-war anything and I'm sure they would be happy to comment on any building you might be interested in identifying.

Hi,

   Thank you for the advice.  I guess I will need to start checking out the different books to see if they have chapters that cover what I am looking for. 

    Kevin

I know of no book specific to pre-war tin. I have a book called Toy Buildings 1880-1980, by Patty Cooper and Dian Zillner (Schiffer Publishing), which has both pre-war and PW tin buildings, as well as buildings made of many other materials. I got it from collectorbookstore.com. There's also one available on Amazon, and several on E-Bay.

this is a great reference book, but just as a note, out of over 200 pages, only nine cover railroad stations and another few deal with some associated freight terminals.

since you mention it, prewar Marx is fairly easy.  i would dismiss the small Union Station as too far out of scale for O gauge even though it was listed in their accessory catalog.

the Marx Grand Central Station (lighted)...

and Glendale Depot (with accessories)...

are more suited to O scale.  both are prewar Marx.

cheers...gary

Hi,

   Thank you for the tip on the book.  I am also interested in houses, garages and such so hopefully I will get a bit more out of the book too.  Does it also cover Wyandotte?

I tend to take books like this to train shows and flea markets and leave then in the car, that way if I see something that I am not sure about I can run out to my car and look it up.

   Thank you,

      Kevin

The book is not sorted by manufacturer, but by type of building. It has Wyandotte items in it, IIRC, but lists at least one (a garage I happen to have) as "maker unknown". I found out it was Wyandotte through other sources.

If you want to spend $60.00, the catalogue from the Jerni Collection auction might be a great source on pre-war European tin buildings.

https://ogrforum.com/t...tion-to-be-auctioned

I don't believe that you'll find much lithographed material in the Jerni collection. Most of the stations and the like are handpainted items from the turn of the 20th Century, prior to WW1.

Ron M