| What do you collect? | Fashion + Jewelry | Watches + Clocks | Pottery + Glass | Furniture + Home | Art + Photos | Music + Movies | Toys + Games | Sports | Coins + Stamps | Paper + Books | Ads + Signs | Autos + Transport | Eras + Decades | Other » |
Most early model trains were made of tinplate. They were cheap, and relatively lightweight, allowing the clockwork mechanisms to work efficiently. And the lithography process, at the height of its use in the early 1900s, lent itself well to putting designs on tin. Tinplate train production stopped during WW2 and continued for a few years after, but was then phased out in favor of plastic for lower-end models. In addition to rarity, collectors look at the condition of the trains, and the intricacy of the lithography.

We’ve been operating Dan’s Train Depot, which is the parent company of BrassTrains.com, for about 11 year… [more]

The NMRA library’s original purpose was to focus on model railroading, but over time we’ve also received… [more]
Dave McCarthy's Airfix Model Railway treasure trove is an in-depth archive of the company's plastic railway kits fr… [read review or visit site]
This great reference site for model railroaders, from the Gateway (St. Louis) division of the NMRA (National Model … [read review or visit site]
This site is a treasure trove of HO scale model railroad manufacturer catalogs and other reference information, inv… [read review or visit site]
MIT's model railroad club, as one might expect, has one of the best websites for learning about how people play wit… [read review or visit site]
Got a site to suggest? Let us know.
Are we missing one? Tell us.
5 watchers