just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Discuss park gauge trains and large scale miniature railways having track gauges from 8" to 24" gauge and designed at scales of 2" to the foot or greater - whether modeled for personal use, or purpose built for amusement park operation or private railroading.

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Topics may include: antique park gauge train restoration, preservation, and history; building new grand scale equipment from scratch; large scale miniature railway construction, maintenance, and safe operation; fallen flags; track, gauge, and equipment standards; grand scale vendor offerings; and, compiling an on-line motive power roster.
stuartpoage
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Joined: Sat Dec 23, 2017 6:02 pm

just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Post by stuartpoage »

I am the proud owner of i believe to be a 15 guage mtc train It has a 10 hp gas engine driving a pump driving a chain to a square shaft to two trucks and all eight wheels are powered. there is no badging to be fouynd on the train has been repainted and my son believes the engine and pump to be replaced . Would trhe original engine have been deisel? thankyou for any and all forthcoming coments
LIALLEGHENY
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Re: just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Post by LIALLEGHENY »

stuartpoage, Welcome to the forum!

Please post some pictures when you get a chance.

Nyle
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Steggy
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Re: just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Post by Steggy »

Sounds like a real find.
stuartpoage wrote:Would trhe original engine have been deisel?
No. From what I recall about MTC's trains, their prime movers were Wisconsin V4 gas engines—an excellent engine for running a train (cool noises. among other things). A Diesel engine small enough to fit one of these trains probably didn't exist in the days when MTC was in business.
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Music isn’t at all difficult.  All you gotta do is play the right notes at the right time!  :D
Glenn Brooks
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Re: just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Stuartpoage,

Yes, welcome to the Grand Scale Forum. Glad you joined us! By all means post some photos. We have a tongue-in-cheek saying: no photos, it didn’t happen! :D

The original MTC product line included 16”, 12”, and 10” gauge trains. If yours now is 15” ga, it’s likely a prior owner regauged it at some point. Which is fine. 15” gauge is the most popular of the modern park gauge trains these days.

If you would like to post your continuing adventures with your find, you can make a continuing thread out of this one. Or post individual questions/adventures seeking advice, replies, etc. for things as they occur. Your choice entirely.

Where did you find the train? E.g. what part of the country? Also it would be very interesting to other members to know where you are located. I would encourage you to post your location in the small left column. Always seems to enhance the reading of posts to know where people are located - often helps people identify appropriate vendors, parts suppliers, other enthusiasts that can help out as needed.

Thanks much, these size trains are great fun. look forward to your participation on the forum.

Regards
Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
stuartpoage
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Re: just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Post by stuartpoage »

I live in Bothell washington found the train at maltby antiques it came with only 2 cars and the engine the nose of the engine is made of heavy cast aluminum rest of the bodies are sheet metal . came with around 400 feet of track mostley strait sections . I hope to be able to bend some to make an oval track
stuartpoage
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Re: just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Post by stuartpoage »

When measuring for guage is the corect method to the inside of the wheels? I really no very little about this train world but am anxious to learn
Glenn Brooks
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Re: just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Aaarrrgh. I feel stabbing.... pains.... through.... my..... chest. I’ve been watching that very loco for a looong to long of a time. Purposely staying away from the antique store so I wouldn’t go rush in and buy it.

All I can say is: Well Done!

What you have there is a very rare Tom Thumb 16” train set. Similar to the MTC 16” but a more physically scaled down version. More like a 2.5” or 3” scale loco body. Around 1/4 scale, whereas MTC 16’s were around 1/3 scale -4” scale builds. Frankly I don’t think the antique guy realized what he had. You will see some criptic markings cast into the trucks and/or wheels to confirm it’s a Tom Thumb.

I measured the gauge last summer and remember it as being 16” gauge. Run a tape from outer edge of the wheel flange to the other flange to determine gauge. Should be 16”. The wheel flanges sit just inside the edges of the rail, so measuring flange to flange, gives you the proximite gauge of the track e.g. distance between the head of the rails. The inside measure between the wheels is an important measurement, mostly for standardizing wheel thickness to ensure the flanges will pass through frogs and points in switches. But do not constitute gauge per see. The gauge is actually the width between the inside of the rails.

You are correct, the prior owner had the train set completely restored-new paint, new motive power etc. The only two things I saw out of place where one or two wheels being worn beyond usable service and possibly one riding car missing. You should have one extra set of bogies-trucks- that would connect an additional car. Not unusual to have one car get lost along the way, after 60 years of service.

Also not a big deal to turn some new steel tires on a lathe and sweat them onto the existing wheels to achieve new wheel profiles. So you should be good to go, maybe with a new battery and changing out the oils and hydrolic fluid.

I thought long and hard about buying this trainset - many times actually - and converting to 12” gauge for my back yard RR, or even converting to 7.5” gauge so it could be run down at Train Mountain and out at Kitsap Live Steamers

Iam in Woodinville, out by cottage lake. I’d be happy to come over and take a look if you wish. Or you could stop by and visit my 12” RR in the making.

Great to have another park gauge railroad nearby!

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
stuartpoage
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Joined: Sat Dec 23, 2017 6:02 pm

Re: just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Post by stuartpoage »

i did see tom thumb stamped on the wheels My son has already got the motor running and allthe fluids and filters changed seems to run just fine I did look up tom thumb on the net and came up with nothing, the style of the nose is very similar to mtc no extra trucks just enough for the existing cars. I live on maltby road the thrashers corner end have a number of carnival rides u might have seen one or two from the road. are there any resourses on the tom thumb trains that you know of?
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ALCOSTEAM
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Re: just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Post by ALCOSTEAM »

Do a search on youtube for the Little Toot Railroad, its in Flora IL located at the Charlie Brown park. The owner of the railroad there bought a Tom Thumb train off a guy here locally and they restored it and its now painted in an Illinois Central passenger style paint job.
Glenn Brooks
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Re: just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Good to hear the engine is running. I was unable to find much on line regarding the Tom Thumb series last summer. I did look back over an earlier post and indeed misspoke above concerning gauge. Apparently these trains sets were actually 15”ga. I remembered I did measure gauge, and see they were actually 15”. So that’s a plus, as I believe 15”gauge is more versatile these days than 16”. I did hear that Tom Thumb was manufactured by several different people or organizations over the years and that fewer loco’s were produced than the MTC line. Hence the paucity of background information. Might be worth contacting the Little Toot RR owners to see if they have any uncovered any additional information.

Also, There are a few people on the forum who are famaliar with the Tom Thumb line. Maybe one or more will comment. Still, all in all, you have a nice set up.

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
stuartpoage
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Dec 23, 2017 6:02 pm

Re: just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Post by stuartpoage »

any info on how to bend the track also how tight of a bend is accepitable
Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: just purchased i believe a 15 guage rehabed mtc

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Depends on what size rail lengths you have. Usually one uses a rail bender - a U shaped device with a large acme thread screw shank in the center. Similar to pic below.
0D1CE158-528B-4772-BA46-4596F4EA01CF.jpeg
Harmon Steel in Portland sells them, I think. Although it pays to shop on line. These things also come with a small hydrolic ram in lieu of the threaded shank. A bit easier, but more expensive. I have a 12# manual rail bender you are welcome to borrow.

Minimum Radius of curves for your train set maybe around 30’. 40’ or greater is better.

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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