Well I had a chance to go to the TCA meet in Raleigh NC today. There among a few other things I found a tank car from a Thomas Trains/ Thomas Industries of Shawnee OK. I found this doubly interesting as my Grandfather owned an ANderson Prichard (APCO) station and it was made in Shawnee OK about an hour from where I grew up. Has anyone ever found any info on this company? I saw some tiny ads for one in Plano TX in old MR's and there was a thomas Industries that made O scale(I don't think that was related). HO seeker has only instruction sheets on two tank cars.
drgwcsHas anyone ever found any info on this company?
Not until just now when I checked HOSeeker.
Click on the Thomas Industries Information drop down and find more info. on a lot of cars and locos.
Mike.
My You Tube
OK I was having some trouble with the HOseeker site earlier- working better but gallery is down. It appears they were in several locations over time then- Wonder when they were in Shawnee? I also wonder how much of the catalog was actually produced?
Back in the 1930s, James Thomas, an "in-law" of John Tyler joined him in designing HO locomotives for the Mantua Metal Products Company (ready-to-run equipment was later sold as "Tyco," for "Tyler Company"). Thomas was an innovator, coming up with ingenious ways of building what the "O-gaugers" called the "Flea Gauge" motive power. I don't know how much involvement he had with the design of rolling stock, so I can't comment on that. After WWII, Thomas and Tyler parted company, with Thomas signing an agreement that he wouldn't produce HO under his own name, so late in the 1940s, Thomas started producing 2-rail O scale, starting with an 0-4-0 switcher with a sloped back tender, modeled after two of the four B&O C16 saddle-tankers that had been converted to regular locos. Then, using stock parts (drivers, cabs, domes, etc.) from the switcher he produced a freelance 2-8-0 with a B&O look and later offered an 0-8-0 version of it. Both sizes of loco were powered by specially designed Pitman motors, available in both permag and wound fields and both featured Thomas's innovations. His next offering was a choice of single, two, or 3-dome tank cars. (MR, after reviewing the single-dome car in Trade Topics, called it one of the finest "O gauge" kits available at the time.) In 1951 Thomas acquired the Scale-Craft line of cars after producing a model of the Reading RR's famous "Bobber" caboose. He also produced a line of shorty old-time passenger and freight cars to go with a balloon or straight stacked 4-4-0. (Note: all of the Thomas equipment was available with "Tinplate" style flanges and couplers to match.)
Thomas's agreement with Tyler ran out in 1955 and he began manufacturing HO cars, starting with the famous 6-dome wine cars, lettered for Roma or Ambrose wine companies. I don't know how extensive his HO line was, as I had fallen in love with his O scale Consolidations and never had any intereest in his HO line because I modeled early 20th Century. (I now have three complete Consols and parts to build several more--with my own boilers and cabs.) An internet search might turn up more information. Have fun!
Deano
Thanks so much for your post- that ties it all together. I was wondering if the NJ company and the one I had were related- logos different location etc- but this answers it. The first ad that was ran in the Jan 1948 MR "Although our name may sound new to you we are old friends and for the past 15 years have designed and manufactured model railroads in a small gauge under another trade name" Interesting to find out it was Mantua- there is somewhat of a "Mantua" design simularity although I have not assembled one of Mantua's tank cars. At first Thomas was in NJ (Wenonah)- where Mantua was. I started digging (It helps when you try a couple of different search terms) and I found a tiny little ad where they were now Shawnee OK in Jan 1952 MR. I actually found an ad for the HO tank cars in the May 1957 MR. It sounds like the tanks were the only HO cars he did. They did some period figures too in HO. I wonder if the new location inspired some of this too? The tank cars made (besides the 6 dome wine car) were APCO/ Anderson Prichard headquarted in nearby OK City, DX petroleum of Tulsa, Philgas- (Phillips Petroleum) Bartlesville OK and the lone non- Oklahoma prototype Magnolia of Galveston TX. Interesting that they created mostly OK prototypes. I found one little blurb in the Nov 1961 that the "Thomas Industries O scale and tinplate and HO scale tank car lines have been sold to Battley & Associates- .....Dallas TX" The new owners just seem to have run tiny ads that showed no product. It appeared that the original owner retained the period HO civil war figures and still did them for at least severl years. Neat to find hisstory of these little companies. Thanks for the -Jim