Thomas Industries

Old time O scale Manufacturer  probably pre WWII   

Thomas was still producing trains into the late 50s, as late as 1960 maybe.    My dad and I found a Thomas ad in a magazine and he ordered me a "Shawnee Express" locomotive for Christmas around 1958-59.    That loco was their 1870s version of their 4-4-0.     The sold sets at the same time including passenger cars or freight cars.      

TCA article on Thomas Industries.

Rusty

Thomas made both two and three rail trains, starting early on with two rail kits and later moving to ready to run tinplate trains. Interestingly, their tinplate trains carry over features more common in two rail kits, such as flex trucks and rolled boilers.

Here's my two Thomas 0-4-0's. These are fairly accurate models of B&O C16a 99. They were made as kits in both two and three rail, these are both three rail examples.

And here's my two Thomas 4-4-0's. No specific prototype, but for their time they were the best looking three rail 4-4-0's available. The red one has been repainted at some point. Some of these came with beautiful blued boilers and fireboxes like the green one has. Unfortunately, the paint on these is prone to chipping, so many have been repainted or have very poor paint.

Thomas also made non-train related items, like this model aircraft fuel tank:

My Thomas 4-4-0. All metal. There was another version of this 4-4-0, following a later prototype. 1900 or so. Straight stack, more rounded domes, curved cab roof. Both types quite realistic "feeling", even though detailing is sparse - but, real locos in this time period were not very complex - no FWH, dynamos, front-end throttles, air pumps, complex outside valve gear.

Smooth runner, based on a very short test.

My 4-4-0 was like the above, but the paint was different.    My boiler was black, the cab was red, I think, and I pretty sure the tender was dark green.    It had a reversing unit that was always sticking.    My dad drilled a hole in the top of the boiler so we coiuld stick a small screwdriver or tooth pick in and push the revering unit to release it to the next step.     At some point replaced it with a Lionel E-unit that was too big for the boiler, so I put it in the tender.   I built a large not so prototypical wood load to cover it.    The loco was a good runner and a good puller.    It would have been great except for that revesing unit.  

@prrjim posted:

It had a reversing unit that was always sticking.    My dad drilled a hole in the top of the boiler so we coiuld stick a small screwdriver or tooth pick in and push the revering unit to release it to the next step.     At some point replaced it with a Lionel E-unit that was too big for the boiler, so I put it in the tender.   I built a large not so prototypical wood load to cover it.    The loco was a good runner and a good puller.    It would have been great except for that revesing unit. 

Yeah, Thomas reverse units can be pretty stubborn. I've worked on three so far, and with a little bit of work sanding the contacts, bending the pawl, and making sure everything moves freely, they can be pretty reliable. General Models reverse units are the same, they never work right initially, but with some work are very reliable. That's part of the charm of these for me, I like seeing how these small companies solved problems like reverse units.

Here's the reverse unit out of a parts 4-4-0 that I have:

Oh, I forgot about this. I worked on two of the straight stack 4-4-0's from a forum member, and put together one nice engine from the two. Here's a photo of all four engines together:

John

Between you and Carey Williams, I don't think there's an O scale item yet that you guys either don't have. The rest of us are fortunate that you are part of this group. Thanks. 👍

Mark in Oregon 🎄

You're welcome, I love sharing what I have. I think you'd be surprised at how small my collection actually is, I just share a lot of it.

I have the 2 rail version of the 4-4-0 with the straight stack.  It was originally a kit and has more more detail than the 3 rail version. It has since been partially modified into a B&M 4-4-0 but needs new paint when I get to it.