Whatever happened to Tenshodo

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Question, Whatever happened to Tenshodo. Did thier low quality and high pricing finally do them in?

[3railguy]

Vastly improved mass production die casting technology pretty much put the brass builders out of buisiness. The only real demand for brass these days is from old school modelers and odd ball models that aren't feasible to mass produce.

[jsoderq]

They took their technology out of the lousy train market and went into parts for electronics gear

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I hope the electronic gear is better than thier locos were. I'll never buy another of those again, unless it's had all the bugs worked out.

[tatans]

Wasn't tenshodo a pretty good model line for the time ? ? or not ? ? I have a CPR end dome car from the 50's and was it well done for the age, the interior actually had wooden seats, and not a lot of detail. Who would have been a better builder in the equivalent time frame??? thanks

[coborn35]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 3railguy

Vastly improved mass production die casting technology pretty much put the brass builders out of buisiness. The only real demand for brass these days is from old school modelers and odd ball models that aren't feasible to mass produce.

Not really. Brass is still superior to most all models and brass has alot of models not available in plastic.

[marknewton]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeffrey-wimberly

Question, Whatever happened to Tenshodo?

They're still in business, and still producing models for the Japanese domestic market.

http://www.tenshodo.co.jp/railroad/index.html

I can't comment about their US-prototype models, having never seen one, but their Japanese models are absolutely excellent. Expensive, too, but you get what you pay for.

As an aside, it amazes me the number of people who post information here that is flat out wrong.[}:)]

All the best,

Mark.

[jrbernier]

The Tenshodo line imported by PFM were very good engines. They usually were factory painted and ran good. A lot of them were GN prototypes. Just about anything imported by PFM in the 60's were excellent running models, though higher priced than other brass imports.

Jim Bernier

[BRAKIE]

Those Tenshodo locomotives was top of the line and the best of the best..Of course United was just as good as was Sunset,Westside and Balboa.
I wish I could go back in time..I would pickup several steam engines since the average price was around $45.00.[:D]

[Anonymous]

The last Tenshodo models were imported in the early 1990's, but not by PFM. They were great models with equalization and twin motors in the UP and NP Challengers, but they were priced at $2900 dollars.

This was over ten years ago so they are priced out of the market, but were very nice. They also made the UP 4-12-2, which was about two thousand dollars wholesale.

[Don Gibson]

Tenshodo was / is a train store in Tokyo that made models for the Japanese market. US servicemen stationed in Japan, plus inexpensive labor in post-war japan, created a market for US style engines.

One particular serviceman started up an importing business called 'Pacific Fast Mail when he returned home, using Tenshodo's products and those supplied by Atlas Trading Co of Japan which were sold under the brand name 'United'. With hand crafted brass products selling for $39 - $79 US retail, brass was very popular with the HO crowd. Then as now, some modelers gripe'd about the ''high prices''.

The Japanese recovery, cost of labor, and decline of the dollar priced the Japanese out of the US market. PFM's ATSF 4-8-4 went from $79 to $700. They also went to can motors and more detail. The US post-war dollar was worth $52 per oz of gold. Today it's dropped by almost 15 times . The $39 2-8-0 would cost almost $600 today - without the can motor. It's called INFLATION.

If you feel strongly about the dollars decline, just remember to turn down your next pay raise.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

What pay raise? I'm on Social Security. The governments spending all mine.

[SPFan]

Jeff, What Tenshodo model made you think they are poorly made? As has been stated by others they were considered among the best in their time. That said, I have never had brass engine run as smoothly as most of the modern locos do at least out of the box.

Pete

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I must have had a Friday engine. It was a piece of junk right out of the box, Never ran well and finally short-circuited, bringing it's life to a close.

[Don Gibson]

Jeffrey:

Tenshodo had some early 'F' diesels that were 'growlers'. They pulled well, but were just noisy. It was their brass gears. PFM was almost exclusively steam.

Kumata (KMT) of Japan was the main DIESEL maker (Alco, Trains Unltd.,Hallmark) Check out 'The Art of Brass' Vol.I). those were also noisy but lousy drives with 1 amp motors. Later Korean diesel drives went to Nylon gears.

Kumata was an early deciple of Akane - also poor drives. KMT should not be confused with Katsumi (KTM) who made superior products (Max Gray, Balboa, Westside) - all steam.

In General: Korean diesels and Japanese Steam were the best. NOW, what Tenshodo do you have?

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The one I had was a steamer that my father bought for me back in '69. I don't know the model, but it was a 2-8-2 Mikado. I remember that it only lasted a week before it went up in smoke. My dad took it back to the shop and brought back a Mantua diesel that worked well. He nor I have ever gotten anything made by Tenshodo again. That experience left us both with a very bad taste for thier products. Once burned, twice shy.

[csmith9474]

Didn't Tenshodo make some "shorty" passenger cars. Those are of inferior quality.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I don't know. I never bought any of thier products after that experience in '69.

[Anonymous]

This brand is not bad. I have about 10 in my collection and run 4 of them regularily. Alot of brands come and go or change names or change focus. The Brass Market is almost gone though now except for the very rich guys.

[caldreamer]

The BEST brass engines EVER made were the Akane steam engines. The detail was not as good as todays models but that could be fixed by adding piping, etc. The were the quietest, smoothest running of all the brass engines. Ran forever. If I was in HO these would be the only steam I would ever buy.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

QUOTE: The BEST brass engines EVER made were the Akane steam engines. The detail was not as good as todays models but that could be fixed by adding piping, etc. The were the quietest, smoothest running of all the brass engines. Ran forever. If I was in HO these would be the only steam I would ever buy.

I have to agree.

[Don Gibson]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeffrey-wimberly

The one I had was a steamer that my father bought for me back in '69. I don't know the model, but it was a 2-8-2 Mikado. I remember that it only lasted a week before it went up in smoke. .... Once burned, twice shy.

Too bad. Those early Tenshodo 2-8-2' were made by TOBY and were bringing $400 on the used market when I sold mine. You probably fried the O.F. motor from lack of lubrication. in '69 those would have been used. Those motors ran on 2 amps with a stall current of double that.

Try running your car with no oil sometime. Poof!

[BRAKIE]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csmith9474

Didn't Tenshodo make some "shorty" passenger cars. Those are of inferior quality.

Smitty,No..Those passenger cars was consider to be among the best and very popular.As a side note there was several"full length" cars on the market but the "shorties" was by far the most popular.At the Columbus(Oh) HO club the Walthers passenger cars was second only to Tenshodo passenger cars.

[dinwitty]

I owned a tenshodo 0-8-0 and I believe I sold it, wasn't in my modeling line. IE details wrong for NKP/N&W.

nice engine tho.

[Berk-fan284]

My one and only Tenshodo GN 4-8-4 S-1 only problem was from a previous owner's attempt to update it with a can motor that was poorly mounted (it broke loose and pulled it's own wiring apart). Otherwise I find it's detail and quality comparable to the other older brass locomotives from that time period.

[canazar]

I will kick in my thoughts. While I havent had much expeirence with brass, and admittly, not enough expeirence of steam engines to know how much detail is good, lacking or bad. But I have quite a few of Tenshodo engines passed down from my late Uncle. One thing I will give them is durabilty. A couple of them, being over 40 years old atleast, after being packed in boxes and surviving 30 years of hot summers in the Arizona garage, still work. Which, amazed me. granted, they are noisy and when they start moveing, the lights in the kitchen dim ... but they move.

I admit, I havent used them much. Granted they run, but they need alot of work. Since getting passed on to me, they now stay in the house in the AC. Eventuually, they will be converted to DCC with sound decoders. They are just too beautiful to sit in boxes.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

QUOTE: A couple of them, being over 40 years old atleast, after being packed in boxes and surviving 30 years of hot summers in the Arizona garage, still work. Which, amazed me. granted, they are noisy and when they start moveing, the lights in the kitchen dim

If they make the lights dim, they need servicing badly. At that rate, the motors will burn out from overheating.

[ragnar]

Well for my 2 bits I have 4 Great Northern Tenshodo steamers from the 60s
including the N3 class 2-8-8-0 and the R2 class 2-8-8-2 and have been running them sparingly over the past 15 years,with proper lubrication and maintenence thou a tad noisy they are as fine piece of brass equipment you'll ever find.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Sounds great. The one I had (a 2-8-2 Mikado) must have been an absolute lemon. That burned me on them.

[ragnar]

I have to admit the old open frame motors on those old brass engines were pretty poor quality,upgraded with can motors and if need be NWSL gear towers made a world of difference...even then some of the older brass, KTM , LMB built some engines that were poor performers,remember coming across a few that the main problem was keeping the drivers quartered correctly.
That was enough to make you give up and throw them on a shelf someplace or sell them off.