Why do we call the old trains "tinplate" ?

In Making Your Model Railroad (1954), Louis Hertz wrote about sectional track:

Such track is known as tinplate track and the trains of this type are called tinplate trains. The name comes from the fact that much of the track for trains of this type was at one time made of steel plated with a coating of tin to retard rust.

I had a Lionel Standard gauge baggage car that I stripped bare and it was thin plate with a coating of tin.

The Hertz definitiion posted above sounds good to me, but I had once thought it was applied to lithographed sheet metal trains such as the Marx six inch, and earlier, which seem like they are made of tin can metal.

The definition provided by CW tallies with what I remember reading in hobby publications 20+ years ago. "Tinplate" was anything which was designed to run on tubular track. Prewar, Postwar, MPC, LTI, Marx, K-Line, Williams... it was all tinplate.

The use of "tinplate" to describe trains made of pressed metal has been a pet peeve of mine for quite some time.

Why do we do it? Guessing here: If tinplate was used (somewhat derisively) to describe track and trains which were much less realistic than scale trains, then I suppose the transfer of the term was made easier by the "scaling" of 3 rail trains...the creation of scale sized and scale-detailed trains which nonetheless run on tinplate track. Once that began happening, I guess it was natural enough to shift the word "tinplate" over to the unabashedly toy-like prewar reissues. But who started it, I don't know.

C W Burfle posted:

In Making Your Model Railroad (1954), Louis Hertz wrote about sectional track:

Such track is known as tinplate track and the trains of this type are called tinplate trains. The name comes from the fact that much of the track for trains of this type was at one time made of steel plated with a coating of tin to retard rust.

CW,

I had stumbled upon the Louis Hertz definition in the past, too and had quoted it in another thread. I actually like it and it is good enough for me.

Tom 

I would guess that because the gauge of the metal is so small (read thin here) that there are/were a limited number of rolling mills to supply it...and that Lionel and others resorted to using the same stuff as the can rollers are/were using. Because steel is priced by the ton due in part to the economy of scale, the train/toy manufacturers would piggy-back onto another hi volume user... yes, I know Lionel used tons and tons, but compared to other users, it was considered small potatoes.  That tinplate prevented oxidation and worked as a lubricant for the die work was a real bonus!

Among 2-railers the term "tinplate" is used to refer to 3-rail equipment,   It is not meant to be derogatory.    I think it is a carry over from when most 3 rail trains pre-war were stamped metal.

The term "tinplate" is also used, according to the TCA website, to define trains that were mass-produced and sold to the masses, as opposed to more detailed scale models that were scratch-built. 

Also has to do with the limits of the detail of the era, combined with the metals used, we still call aluminum foil at times tin foil to this day, and it is not tin, yet the name remians.

Several years ago,  I found this online from the TCA, originally written in 2002, which also mentions Louis Hertz. 

http://tcaetrain.org/articles/.../tinplate/index.html

Tom 

Louis Hertz is considered by many to be a pioneer in Toy Train Collecting. Some folks have even called him the father of toy train collecting.
He wrote a number of books on collecting trains, collecting toys, and collecting mechanical banks. He also wrote several model railroading books, mostly using "tinplate" trains. There were also books about slot cars, and model boats. He wrote columns for one of the Train Magazines, and even published his own for a very brief time.

IMHO, one of his most interesting books is "The Toy Collector".
Another often mentioned book is Messrs. Ives of Bridgeport, although I personally did not care for that one.