Grey Cat,
LOL!! Its always cool to have a neat factory variation in your collection.
Gray Cat,
As promised earlier, here are some photos of my 484 caboose variations.
Black railing variation with original box
White railing variation with original box
Both have diecast link and pin couplers
Thanks for sharing the wonderful pictures… Wow that S gauge trucked prewar caboose is sure a curiosity. I wonder now if any other cars were done this way? If this was a mistake? So many questions unanswered.
Hi to all,
If you need parts for your 3/16th AF check out Portlines Hobbies and Leventon Hobby Supply, they both have a large selection of prewar parts, also if you need parts for the tootsietoy armoured car especially the guns that are always missing check out Thomas Toys Inc. They specialze in prewar / post war diecast vehicle parts.
Grey Cat,
I have an AF 806 northern with the spur gear drive, it is the grandady of all northerns. It has the same remote directional control as the 534 worm drive versions.
Yes indeed that is the grandaddy… and quite a valuable piece if I’m not mistaken. Please post a few photo’s if you can. I’m sure everyone would love to see that rarity.
Interesting S-Gauge truck! However it looks to me like a previous owner carefully re-bent the original O-gauge trucks and put on S-scale wheel sets. That would explain the added height to the trucks.
Looks like you “might” have solved the mystery of the S gauge prewar caboose… we need verification from NWF now to let us know if after careful and close examination there is any evidence of the bend.
Major and Gray Cat,
Nice observation. I had not thought of that explanation. I went back and dug out the caboose and examined the trucks more carefully.
I think that the truck has indeed been re-bent from its original O gauge configuration to an S gauge one.
You can see there is still a faint line where the truck was originally bent.
And on one of the trucks there are some scratch marks on the inside of the truck, but only on one side at the line of the new bend.
Whoever made the alteration did a really careful and excellent job. If you go back to the first picture, notice how even the curve of the new bend is.
The truck has obviously been altered. I wonder if it was done by a previous owner, or if it was done by Flyer at the factory. There is no damage to the caboose and the rivets appear to be untouched. I wonder if the factory used up old O gauge trucks and re-manufactured them into S-gauge trucks at some point when there was a shortage of S gauge trucks.
I have one of the earliest plastic sets in my S gauge collection. This is when Gilbert was first experimenting with plastics… The caboose is all plastic and it is most certainly warped. I don’t think I’ve seen any of these very early S pieces that weren’t warped. I would be curious to know how quickly these pieces of rolling stock deformed… perhaps one season in the attic would be enough to do it. Now this might be a stretch but…
I could see where an enterprising operator of a seasonal express could put his old and no longer used O gauge caboose back in service on the S gauge line.
Of course there are a million speculations.
Another addition to the family… For some time I’ve been searching for a Tuscan baggage car to go with my passenger cars. It just seems to me that anything Tuscan is harder to find… that could be because the nice ones are already spoken for. In any case I’ve had a devil of a time finding a Tuscan Baggage car until I saw this little fellow for sale. Consider my good fortune in not only finding a Tuscan Baggage car, but one with mail pickup, special track section and it’s original mail bag. Based on what I have witnessed so far the Tuscan mail car is a hard find. If anyone has any input on this please chime in. Regardless, I am glad to have this one!
Gray Cat - Nice catch on the Tuscan mail pick-up! I have only the Green #492. After a closer look at my 492 there are 4 spots where they placed the decals on and none of the have the number, just “American Flyer Lines”. I see no mention in my Greenberg book about this. It all looks original on the car.
I’m trying to acquire the 400 series freight cars and I’m more than half way complete. The 500 series will be next. As these were only made barely for three years it’s not an easy task. Patience…
Ray, collecting these trains is an exercise in patience for sure. But well worth the wait when we find a coveted piece. As to the decals it’s like so many other things we see. Perhaps on the day they finished your car they ran out of number decals or the person putting them in place didn’t know any better? We just don’t know. But it is neat to see the variations.
Gray Cat,
You have been doing a great job of documenting Gilbert’s 3/16" O gauge line. So good in fact that you have tempted me to start adding a few pieces to my collection. Like AF53 I have been adding one piece at a time. I’ve been trying to put together a passenger train of the 400 series cars; but mine are in green. Those Tuscan cars are indeed a difficult set to find. Here is what I have so far.
The 561 and tender
That’s all I need, more competition, UGH!!!
All kidding aside Northwoods, good luck.
HaHa that’s what I was thinking too! (of course I’m kidding too! There’s still plenty of this stuff around)
Northwoods, as I am finding out it is no easy task to collect these trains or is it easy to keep a thread on them going and interesting. They were manufactured for such a short time. Fortunately with continued support here on the forum we are keeping it going. As we have noted the side effect of keeping up or renewing interest is that they become “interesting”… [:D]
Here are a few more shots of my Tuscan Mail car. It does indeed have a number and American Flyer Lines on each side. Luckily the number/letter size and font match my other passenger cars and the condition is very close. This essentially “looks” like a set now.
Another recent find is an upgrade to my Royal Blue passenger set. I was able to find this beautiful Royal Blue “Chugger” with box. These chugger tenders add a whole new level of play value to the toy trains. Imagine being a boy running his locomotive down the rails and being able to hear it chugging along. The “Chugger” unit that came with was not working, luckily I had one all serviced and ready to install to replace the bad one. I’d be curious to learn if this chugger tender was offered in sets or for separate sale only? I’ll have to see if I can read up on it.
Gray Cat - This indeed could be a variation to the Mail Car. All the decals look original with slight wear.
