I am getting tired of looking at gorgeous photos of Lionel, MPC, Marx and Ives locomotives and rolling stock.
Where’s the balance? Have we no American Flyer enthusiasts om this forum?
I need you American Flyer guys and gals to join in with your photos of the greatest of all Classic Toy Trains - - American Flyer.
I will start us off with my vintage AF trains, and I mean vintage. I will show you untouched, unrestored examples of locomotives and freight cars that have withstood the test of time, having been abused by two pre-teens, my brother and myself.
If nothing else, these other pre-war, post-war and during-the-war (LOL) beauties posted by others have inspired me to pull my AF trains out of storage once again and fix them up a little more. We shall see.
A bit of background on this beast. When I pulled it out of storage after remaining boxed for 45 years, it would only run forwards and would not produce smoke. I replaced the reversing unit and rehabbed the smoke unit.
A bit of background on this work horse. When I pulled it out of storage after remaining boxed for 45 years, it would round not move one bit. So, removed the shell and saw a beat up motor held together by twine. I wound up replacing the innards with a Dallee electronic circuit board. I also replaced a few parts of the shell which I will detail in a later post.
Rich,
This is a great start. Just a suggestion, if you are hoping to draw out more photos of S gauge perhaps you could add “S Gauge” to the thread title.
Flyer S gauge, in my opinion, is a nicely proportioned model, and a great in- between size that seems just right for an indoor layout. No disrespect to any other scale, just my view.
Paul
I have been a lifelong operator and collector of S gauge trains. The previous thread was for pre-war American Flyer only so I was not posting in it.
I will start with a picture of the Hudson engine that was part of my first train set. It is a 1950 engine included in a 1950 4611A set. I will do a separate post about the set since it is undocumented in all the publications but a few were made.
The engine is staged on the turntable on my layout. These Gilbert engines look right at home in a scale environment.
The PRR K5, posted above, is also a great engine. I was always frustrated that Gilbert never made any PRR passenger cars and only one or two freight cars and no caboose to run behind the K5 Pacific. One of the many good things Lionel did was make a whole fleet of freight cars in PRR livery along with a six car set of PRR heavyweights. Lionel also made PRR streamlined passenger cars.
Below are two pictures of one of my K5’s pulling the PRR heavyweight set. This 312AC was mint, unused until I put it on the tracks for these pictures. That Gilbert engine looks perfect at the head of this set.
That’s why I like smaller O27 Marx and the like, they are more 3/16ish if that’s a word. I have decided to make the upper level of my under construction layout to be S gauge
I owned American Flyer trains as a kid. Then, they fell into disuse while I went away to college and grad school. After I got married, my parents dropped by one day and brought my boxed up trains with them. I kept them in boxes on a shelf until 2010 when I decided to set up a layout and rehab the locomotives. Right now, I am solidly into HO but with a soft spot in my heart for S gauge.
I put a lot of time into my S gauge collection. I focused on the 3 digit items for the most part, There are a few exceptions. When Lionel began reproducing the streamlined passenger sets I collected those too, figuring that I would never be able to collect the originals.
I might have to dig out some that equipment to photograph.
I also focused on three digit link coupler items, until I did not.
Below is a picture that shows my two original Gilbert trains and some of my original accessories in their native element, On Gilbert track at Christmas. The buildings are Dept. 56 Snow Village, the trucks are AHL and the cars are Racing Champions.
First up is a Lehigh New England (LNE) hopper car. It looks like it has been shot up in a war zone. Just out of curiosity, do fellow modelers repaint these cars or just leave them in their current condition?
