One of my regular customers brought an old (1950s?) toy train into my shop today and just gave it to me. I've never seen anything quite like it, so I thought I'd ask everyone here if they knew anything about it, or, if not, where I might go to find out.
The loco is a built-up brass (not cast) 0-4-0 switcher with a sloped- back tender; possibly a Pennsylvania prototype. It shows no identification of any sort, anywhere, and since the laws back then required Japanese-made stuff to be stamped "Made in Japan" -and the motor and gears appear to be American in origin- I suspect it was made over here in the US. (OTOH, I've never before seen an American-made built-up brass toy train locomotive before, so maybe it *is* Japanese.)
There's also a flat car, a (working) crane car, a gondola, and a built- up brass caboose in the set.
The caboose and two of the other cars say "Thomas" on the underside in rather small letters, so I suspect that that's the name of the set's maker; but Google only shows me Thomas The Tank Engine stuff when I search for "Thomas 0-27", and this stuff predates Thomas The Tank Engine by probably 50 years, so I'm currently stuck.
BTW, if anyone would like a closer look for identification purposes I could take a few photos and stick 'em up on Flicker for you to peer at.
Thanx,
~Pete