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Update March 2024

As most all of you know, we are a very small company, and as such have not been as attentive to the accounting portion of our business as we should have. What we recently discovered was that all orders placed on our web site from March 2023 through February 2024 there was a major error in the payment portion of our site.  The situation was that if someone placed an order and paid for the order using the credit card option (not with pay pal) their order was processed and forwarded to our shipping department as being paid and to go ahead and ship. Due to an error somewhere, we never received the money for those transactions, and the customer was never charged for the sale on their credit cards.  If the customer ordered using Pay Pal, the funds from Pay Pal did go through to our account.

Once we discovered this, we sent Emails to all the customers we had addresses for, and many responded to us and arranged payment for the orders you received.  We are still short of many thousands of dollars which we have not been paid for. If you think that may have happened to you, and you have not been contacted by us, we would very much appreciate it if you would check to see if your purchase was not charged to your account.  The best way to do this is to call your credit card company with the number on the back of your card and ask them to check your records to confirm you were not charged. If that indeed did happen, we would very much appreciate it if you would contact us and make arrangements for payment. We can take credit card info over the phone now properly, or if you prefer can mail us a check. We will be offering you a future purchase discount to compensate you for your efforts.  The credit card company has requested we forward the information regarding the unpaid sales, so they can report this to the credit card bureau, which could cause a serious hit to your credit scores.   We do not wish to see that happen, in all fairness it was our error, not the customers.

We cannot say how grateful we are for those who have already responded to us.

We have eliminated the normal credit card payment but will reinstate it very shortly and have installed checks and balances to make sure this never happens again.

Enough of the bad, now for some neat stuff!

  • A customer called us and wanted to know why his KW did not have a power on light.  Could not answer him, so guess what, we now install a power on green LED on every KW we sell or recondition.
  • Regarding the toggle switches we use in most all our controllers.  Been searching for years for a manufacturer who would make the toggle switches we use with a longer, easier to operate handles. FOUND ONE! And…..
  • On our O27 switch controllers we have changed to longer handles, and added a center off position on them which enables the customer to change only one switch at a time or both.
  • Our RCS (remote control tracks) control was originally designed for O gauge switches. We now have a new model to work with the O27 RCS tracks.
  • All our transformers we recondition now have manual reset circuit breakers vs the original auto reset style. The idea is of course, when the breaker opens it gives you the time to fix whatever caused the short circuit, then reset the breaker. Unfortunately, there is not room in the ZW or KW transformers for the additional breakers.
  • Also, the transformers we now sell or recondition will have 3 wire power cords and 3 prong plugs included. We internally ground the exposed metal parts for additional safety. It also makes the phasing of transformers a thing of the past.
  • We have redesigned our O gauge switch controllers with new momentary switches, that work the same as the original flip lever switches. We then changed the center switch to a push on push off illuminated switch to be used for spur lines or anything else you may wish to turn on and off from your control section. This new system allows you to control each switch individually.
  • This one is GREAT!!!  If you have a ZW 2520 or 275 and have noticed that when you push the whistle control all the forward it shuts the power off to the track?  If so check out our new tech tip regarding this issue, the solution is so simple it is embarrassing.

Please check out our train stories on the site. Needs lots more! Email us with your own personal train story, and we will put it on the site. Will not reveal your personal info.

Been getting some calls from Train Clubs. These guys that participate in these clubs are fantastic, the ideas they come up and efforts they put into their layouts is incredible.  Got on3e yesterday from a club that has one layout 80” long. They pull 20 and 40 long cars and run multiple engines on each loop! The biggest plus is of course the friendships that develop from the      associations they have from other train nuts is great. Try googling train clubs near your home, and check um out!

Well Spring is fast approaching and with it comes time to spend outside!

JUST REMEMBER!

YOU DON’T GROW OLD FROM PLAYING WITH TRAINS. YOU GROW OLD WHEN YOU STOP PLAYING WITH TRAINS

 Our shipping address is: TinMan N7555 Hoffman Lane Gresham WI 54128

TinMan AKA Rich 262-914-0057  or MS Tinman(Christine) 262-417-4237 tinman@tinman3rail.com