Founded in the 1950's by Jim Thomas in Wenonah, NJ to create a line of
'O' gauge scale and tinplate trains. Thomas was one of the founding partners, along with John Tyler, of
Mantua Metal Manufacturing, a maker of electric motors, toys and electric trains.
Thomas Industries succeeded in producing an 1860's era General type steam locomotive and set before
Lionel did. They had several 4-4-0 engines and the freight/passenger cars
in tinplate to go with these locos. The locos were generic in appearance. Offered were models with
the cabbage stack(wood burner) and the straight stack (they called it the Branchline) coal burner.
Their passenger cars and freight cars predated Lionel's offerings representing this time period by several years.
Some say Lionel got religon because of what Thomas made and sold. No whistle or smoke was offered but they
sold well and were noticeably less expensive then the Lionel offerings.
Thomas acquired Scale-Craft and Company's line of 'O' gauge cars and moved to a new facility
in Shawnee, OK. The 1952 catalog of Thomas Industries Trains was 12 pages and contained black and white photos of the trains being offered. Thomas continued to produce trains until 1959 when Jim Thomas died suddenly of a
heart attack. Other firms continued production until the dies were destroyed in a fire in 1964.
