Update; just added photos of three new acquisitions two to the die cast car section (again in trying to keep this stuff grouped as best as possible). A 506 “Beano” Box car and a 510 MP Stock car. Both of these cars are the die cast cars that were introduced early in the Prewar Gilbert line. They are all quite heavy. They are also a whole lot less common than the tinplate rolling stock. Also added a 581 crane (sheet metal construction) this pretty much completes the tinplate freight and the diecast freight cars.
For those that might need it here is a scan of the Whistling Express car and Remote Directional control wiring instructions.
Boxed sets… always a treat to find! Just picked these up today…
This is the No. 4022 N.Y. Central J-3a Hudson Passenger set with the deluxe diecast pullmans. These passenger cars are very often a victim of zinc pest so to find one that is straight and in excellent condition is a rarity indeed.
These cars are really quite heavy. Even after giving the cars a fresh lube the Hudson has a little wheel spin when first starting out. These cars are much better suited with the 4-8-4 as it’s extra weight and extra axle would help pull.
This car has a variation of the pickup. Both other Pullmans have the later style phenolic that mounts in slots on the truck.
Recently I was lucky enough to purchase this set. With a good cleaning the Loco runs nice. This run of American Flyer 3/16’’ O Gauge was for just a short amount of time and when sitting side by side with the pre-Gilbert era you can really see the difference “scaled” cars and those that aren’t.
Back on the previous page Northwoods posted his pics of Locomotive #553. Well here is Set No.4004 “Streamliner Freight Train” cataloged in 1940.
Locomotive #553
It’s Tender
Log car #482
Tanker #480
Caboose #484
And here it is doing what it does best.
Great find Ray, thanks for sharing. I just noticed the other day when looking at pictures of another 553… I see there is a hole in the motor casting between the two drive wheels. I wonder if they used the same casting on the Pacific engines but just moved the front hole to make it a two drive wheel loco (Atlantic Style)? Can you confirm a front hole in the casting that would match up to a Pacific wheel arrangement like the Royal Blue?
I don’t believe they used the same casting. I also have a 561 Locomotive and they appear to be different. Here are a few pics of the 553, what do you think. Hope they help.
After looking again and measuring the pre-drilled small holes, if you notice on my top picture there is a hole closer to the front wheel. I measured 1 1/2" towards the front and towards the back from that hole. Same distance on the 561.
So… Maybe they did start with the same casting, the bottoms are both 3 15/16" long also.
The 553 on top with the 561 on the bottom. It will look somewhat distorted since the 561 is a bit closer.
I just checked the motor casting on my 545 and it seems it too has the extra two hole in the positions for a Pacific type wheel configuration. I would guess that it’s safe to say Gilbert used the same castings to save money and offered the 545 and the 553 as budget versions of the Pennsylvania K5 561 and and Royal Blue 556… one less axle and set of wheels, I guess in Prewar America a set of wheels and an axle could shave a few dollars or cents off a train set?
I agree. According to the 1940 catalog the 553 was valued at $6.75 and the identical 556 (with the extra axle) was $11.00.
Ray that’s a huge savings! For a boy that wanted a scale model toy train the 553 is clearly the better value. I wonder what sales/production numbers would show if we could compare the 553 and 556 side by side. He or his dad could have gotten him the 553 and a few cars for the price of the 556.
It also seems upon closer inspection there are a few other cost saving differences. The 553 has stamped steel front that is attached to the motor frame with a single screw and stamped steel trailing trucks (early style?) where the 556 has diecast front truck and pilot assembly and elaborate diecast trailing truck frame.
Gray Cat,
Have you, or anyone else reading this, ever come across a #484 with S gauge trucks? I just picked on up off of eBay and discovered that it has the S gauge version of the link and pin trucks. It has white railings. I compared it to my other #484 caboose and the trucks are fastened in the same way and appear to be factory installed.
I can post some photos later. Any ideas?
Enjoying the World’s Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
I can only guess that perhaps there was some old prewar stock being used up at the beginning of the postwar Gilbert era and someone at the factory riveted those trucks on!. Gilbert did continue to sell prewar locomotives and rolling stock while it lasted after the war. Waste not want not. If I’m not mistaken the postwar rolling stock had no journals. I have a set like that. No journals on the cars or tender. NWF, does your tender have journals on the S gauge trucks?
Please do post pictures of it!
BTW I’m curious are the links plastic or metal? The earliest AF S links were plastic without weights if I’m not mistaken… a design that was quickly revised since they had a tendency to uncouple frequently. I’ll research a little to confirm this… but if your S gauge trucks have metal links as prewar, but in the S gauge sizes that would indeed be curious.
I picked up a post war 3/16ths on O gauge Atlantic set a few years back. The Atlantic had the fahnstock clip on the front of the tender. All cars had journal boxes but the box car was made with ends punched out to hold the brake wheel on both ends! As you said they were using up leftover parts
Gray Cat,
Maybe they used a tender base for this caboose.
If you are referring to my caboose that’s punched out for a chugger being a tender base. I don’t believe it’s the same size in length. But even if it is, I find it curious that it made it through the assembly line and got painted assembled the way it is. This is original not a repaint.
Grey Cat,
It doesn’t seem like they wasted anything when they were putting cars together.That caboose is a great convesation piece. I’m sure all kinds of intersting pieces made it out of the factory.
Grey Cat,
Measured my Royal Blue tender and compared it to caboose base measurements and they are the same.
Ok great! Thanks for doing that. Well we know where it came from then! Hey maybe I can take it apart and use it to make my RB a chugger… JK of course.