That is quite a transformation.
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Here is the last photo hint about the set in the box. It should be pretty obvious now.
I have to take a few photos tomorrow and then I will do the big reveal.
Enjoying the World’s Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
Greg
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That does not really help me guess what is in the set. We know Gilbert implemented a one year only 1100 series of uncataloged set numbers. There were at 56 different sets made in this series, some, like yours, remain undocumented. There was no factory list of set contents generated, so all documentation of set contents is by “field inspection.”
If I am forced to guess, the set is a 303 or 307 engine with five cars, enough track to make an over and under figure 8 plus the 747 cardboard trestle set.
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Unfortunately when I moved I had to make a lot of tough choices on what to take and what to sell. I had G, Standard, O, On30, S, HO and N gauge trains in my collection. I refused to give up my Standard Gauge and I knew I was keeping a limited amount of O Gauge but beyond setting up two circles of track under a Christmas tree I would have no idea what I could and could not do in an apartment.
I decided to sell all of my G, On30, S, HO and N plus about 90% of my O Gauge equipment. I found a new home for the Disneyland models I built but most of my other structures were destroyed.
Anyways I had a 300AC, 305(? Smoke and choo choo?) 312 and about a dozen freight cars in both link and knuckle couplers. Plus one Shell tank car with a link on one end and a knuckle on the other. Here are a “matched” pair of O and S Gauge trains I did one Superbowl Sunday just for fun. 
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Becky, nice pair of matching trains. I cannot read the cab number, but the Gilbert Atlantic would be a 303 with smoke and choo choo, a 307 without those two features. Gilbert cataloged a link coupler 305 in 1951 with a tender air chime whistle but it was cancelled and never made.
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Nice
Nifty concept there, Becky!
And I understand completely about the need to sell off at certain times. Ah, the poor choices I made!
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Your guess is very close to reality.
Here is the contents the box.
Notice the copyright date of 1956 on the box.
You provided some very valuable information about the documentation of uncataloged sets. I was given the set by a family member who found it at a garage sale here in Duluth. I hadn’t been actively collecting Flyer S Gauge for several years when it came into my possession but its hard not to add something to the collection when it practically falls into your lap.
What I know about this era of uncataloged sets by Flyer comes from this article in the October 2015 edition of CTT.
As you can see my train and the set in the article look very similar but mine has different cars and a different Whistle. I think the trestle set is missing from mine but it might have had it at one time because mine has enough track to make the over and under figure eight.
Tom,
What is a good resource to find out more about these uncataloged sets?
Enjoying the World’s Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
Greg
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I was pretty close Greg. Your set has 4 cars and a whistling billboard rather than 5 cars that other similar 1956 sets had. I had forgotten about the 2015 CTT article, I have it in my library. The sets in the article are 1955 sets that were renumbered for use as promotional sets. They have all blue and yellow boxes. Red/white boxes were first used in 1956, and is consistent with both the box manufacture date and the Gilbert packing dates of 1956. Your set was packed and shipped by Gilbert in October, 1956. It was not a leftover set, it was a new set made for the Christmas 1956 Speed Queen promotion. It uses the newer B2N059 box. The 1955 sets examined by Bob Tufts used the B1N882 which is a different size box.
The items in your set look like 1956 production. The whistle is the new 568, not the prior 566, not clear why there are two whistle buttons. All the sets used a 704 manual uncoupler.
You and I now know more about the 1126 set than is documented in the Gilbert literature. The CTT article was done in conjunction with Bob Tufts. Bob was the authority on Gilbert sets and published “The Almost Complete Guide To American Flyer S Gauge Sets.” Bob passed away before he could publish the second edition of the book. His daughter sold a “Second” edition through FlyerNut Publishing which was the First edition plus all of Bob’s draft update edits.
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I am, first and foremost, a Marx collector. My first electric train, which I received for Christmas when I was not quite 5, was a Marx. However, for Christmas 1952, my brother and I received an American Flyer freight set. (At the time, one of the big retail stores was giving away free AF sets with the purchase of a major appliance and, although I don’t know this for certain, this might be how our parents happened to get us that AF set.)
Here it is, viewed from trackside. (I recall that, as it got older, the locomotive was rather “cranky” and made buzzing and crackling noises.)
I recall that the caboose had an interior light.
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Great pictures,great set!
Paul
Nice train @Eric1946!
Man, those 633’s keep popping up on this thread. 
Eric1946, here is some information about your 1952 Gilbert set. The 315 K5 Pacific was only included in one set, the 5204W. As a result that engine is harder to find than many others. The last digit of “5” signifies it has an Air Chime steam whistle built into the tender. There is a controller, #708, with a vibrator tube to activate the whistle. Look closely at the tender pictures, there are sliding contacts between the wheels, one on each side. These were for better rail contact for the whistle. Note those trucks have three vertical spring stampings, these are long trucks, the 630 caboose also has the long trucks. The other cars have the two spring short trucks.
The buzzing and crackling noises you remember were likely coming from the tender whistle speaker. It happened if the track was not clean.
The set contents were the 315, 633, 625,632,630. Other items in the set were a 690 track clip, 706 remote uncoupler, 14-693 track locks, 708 whistle controller, 2-700 straight track, 12-702 curve track, 1-smoke capsule and 1-funnel.
The 5204W was a regular catalog set that sold for about $45, it was not a special promotion set. If a retailer gave it away with a purchase it was a very expensive deal. The 633 B&O box car could be either brown or red.
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AmFlyer Tom,
Many thanks for all this information. For all the years we had it, we never knew that our AF engine had an air chime steam whistle and therefore never took advantage of this feature. I do recall that the engine was a smoking model. We had some of the little plastic bags with the liquid smoke and which had built in snouts for loading the liquid. (We’d cut the end off the snout.) After Christmas the train set would be packed away in the attic and only used once or twice a year. I recall that my father found some used Marx 3/16-scale metal cars at a thrift store and changed the trucks to AF trucks. (They were a perfect visual match.)
Eric
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Here are some photos of the passenger cars that accompanied the 466 Comet that I posted earlier.
Enjoying the World’s Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
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Eric I remember seeing that photo of you and your brother before! 
. It was in more than one issue wasn’t it?
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Here is another popular Gilbert boxcar, the GAEX DF car assigned to the PRR. It was made as a 622 and a 922. The picture shows three 622’s. Note all of them have the long, three spring trucks. The bottom car is one of my link to knuckle transition cars.
The point of the picture was to show that the yellow DF decals were positioned somewhat randomly on the cars, each one is slightly different. This may be why Gilbert changed to a stamp rather than a decal after the 922 was released.
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It was in the Classic Toy Trains Special Issue CHRISTMAS AND ELECTRIC TRAINS which, I believe, came out in 2018
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That is in unusually good condition. For some reason many of these are beat up looking.
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