Always glad to guide someone to tinplate. GOOD NEWS! You don't have to sell everything to go with tinplate. You can mix and match.
This is a Mike's Train House (MTH) Tinplate Traditions version of an Ives 1616 passenger set made by Lionel and illustrated in the last Ives catalog in 1932. Looks good! Now let's mix & match.
That's an IHC-style plastic enginehouse in the background. The set still looks good.
The set stops at a new MTH station and station platforms. Still looks good.
Here is a meet with MTH Premier Reading T-1 2102 pulling SGL Lines Reading 2000-series semistreamlined ("blimp") coaches. I'm a Reading fan. This meet REALLY looks good!
Mixing and matching is an art form on The Christmas Putz in The Lutheran Home at Topton. The Putz was constructed between 1909 and 1946 by Mrs. Ida Henry. For the full story, go to www.tinplatetimes.com. Click on "Archives." Scroll down to "A Tinplate Christmas Putz." Click on that. My Lionel 262E restored by Vic Panza heads my MTH Ives cars. They represent an uncataloged "Department Store Special" that could have run on the Putz in 1933. Dent fence encloses an Ives glass dome train shed, a Lionel 124 station, and an American Flyer station, all populated with figures from L & H Miniatures in Schuylkill Haven, PA. That Marx postwar Switchman Tower fits right in. The 3-ring circus in the background is the final part of the Putz handcrafted by Mrs. Henry before she retired in 1946.
On the left is a Bob Gale Super Classic model of Reading T-1 No. 2102. Still lookin' good!
Nothing appeals to imaginations of children of all ages like tinplate. Lyle H. Cain's Toonerville Trolley, based on an old floor toy, strikes just the right tone. Run something like this now and then for that special feeling of tinplate. Another option is to put a brightly lithographed Marx tunnel on a layout, either permanently or occasionally. To clear tall locomotives and cars, put a board or two under each side of that tunnel. Simple, merry, and colorful - that's tinplate!
- walt