Scratch built tinplate.

great stuff!

    Talk about a blast from the past.  For many years I lived in the area the real Bellefonte Central railroad serviced in central Pennsylvania.  When I was a teenager I knew of an adult in the area who ran a three rail train layout that was a mix of off-the-shelf toy trains, kitbashed toy trains and tinplate kits like the Walther's shorty Pullman standard cars.

   I got to visit his layout in his home on the outskirts of Port Matilda, Pa. During the visit the owner (I've forgotten his name) mentioned there were others in the surrounding area who had done the same thing with their trains...and one of the owners had named his railroad The Bellefonte Central. 

  I don't know anything about that setup or where it was located and there's no guarantee that only one person built kitbashed tinplate trains and put the name Bellefonte Central on the side but I do find the name connection between that long ago model railroad and your trains interesting.

  If you are interested there have been other posts about kitbashed tinplate. For example back on the 11-24-17 weekend tinplate photos and videos thread I posted some pictures of a single kitbashed car I had purchased and had brought back to life (I also included pictures from the auction for a couple of other kitbashed cars from the same dealer).  In that same thread Dennis Holler posted some pictures of a couple of kitbashed hoppers he had acquired.  The thread link is below.

https://ogrforum.com/...66#76326080027085866

Some day in the next several months, I'll dig out the rest of that collection and put the whole thing on eBay.  I'll psot a note on this topic when I do that.

I have no interest in having it for myself.  It was one of those interesting surprises that you get at a club that is a dumping site for old toy trains that owners want to have find a new home.

Wow is that club in Wakefield still active? If so do they have open houses and who is the contact? That stuff that was "dumped" has some real character and is a great find.

If interested in other examples, this was my favorite: 

https://ogrforum.com/.../home-made-bing-cars

Tom 

ChooChoo1972 posted:

Wow is that club in Wakefield still active? If so do they have open houses and who is the contact? That stuff that was "dumped" has some real character and is a great find.

Our url is nsmrc.org.  Shows are listed.  This year it is 10/21-10/22.  I'm as good a contact as any.

We have monthly operating sessions at which we try to replicate prototype operations using a car card and waybill system.  We don't run trains around loops.   Visitors with serious model railroad interst are always welcome to observe and can partcipate as train operators.  

After posting those photos, I thought about the passenger cars that were not in that box.  And I recalled that there had been some cabooses, so I looked around and found the other box.  Here they are.  Note the pair of home built trucks with Lionel wheels.  Also the Marx passenger trucks under the JPC box car.

And here is the diesel motive power that came with the collection.  Two Marx No. 21 Santa Fe units and a Marx 6000 A-A pair, formerly painted SP.  They're in the shop now waiting for me to get the motors working well before I put them up for auction.

Are there resources where I can find out about tinplate kitbashing? I collect standard gauge, and bought a "one and a half" "joined" passenger car at York TCA (Lionel 428) that looked like a Doodlebug project that stalled. I have always wanted to know where to start, what tools are needed? Acid core solder? Some kind of shaping tools or forms? Any suggestions?  I live close enough to Wakefield MA to visit that club if it exists.

Thanks,
Ed

     I am embarrassed to admit that in order for my Marx tinplate cars to be pulled by my lobster claw locos, I needed to make a transition car that has a lobster claw in front and a tab/slot coupler in the back.  The car had to be really heavy as well, so that the stiff lobster claw coupler on the back of my loco would not derail it.

     So, I had to take the frame from a damaged Post War Lionel log car, cut it in half, slide the two halves together (one over the top of the other and bolt them together, to shorten the frame), add a tab coupler to the back, screw a Marx tinplate gondola on top (taken from a bent frame), and put some weight in the gondola. 

     I must admit that it is weird looking, but using it as the lead car, it does not derail and it works just fine to pull the Marx cars.

     Does this count?   (If so, I'll post a picture.)

     Is there a difference between butchering existing old rail cars and sewing pieces of them back together to make a franken-car, as opposed to kit-bashing or scratch building?  :-)

Mannyrock

@GirderandPanel posted:

Are there resources where I can find out about tinplate kitbashing? I collect standard gauge, and bought a "one and a half" "joined" passenger car at York TCA (Lionel 428) that looked like a Doodlebug project that stalled. I have always wanted to know where to start, what tools are needed? Acid core solder? Some kind of shaping tools or forms? Any suggestions?

Ed, for the basics of working with tinplate, I would suggest looking at the videos that Tinplate Girl has on Youtube.  I had the pleasure of meeting her a few years back at an event I attended in Colorado.

Mannyrock, my opinion (and you know what they say about those...) is that "butchering... and sewing pieces back together" and "kit-bashing" are the same thing, but perhaps with different levels of refinement.  Scratchbuilding is creating something using base materials as opposed to modifying existing trains.  In the tinplate train world, both processes need some of the same talents.  I can appreciate both kitbashing and scratchbuilding projects!

I guess I'm more of a kitbasher/butcher than a scratchbuilder when it comes to tinplate... 

Thanks for the clarification Windup.