I recently was given an American Flyer MR set plus some extras (circa 1950s). I don’t want to keep it as it does not fit into my MR modelling activity. In checking internet sites it appears that there is a glut of AF equipment out there that people are trying to unload and my impression is that this interest is mainly in the US.
Does anyone have any idea if AF is of interest in Canada (ie Ontario, Toronto, GTA)?
May I suggest that you will get a quicker response to your inquiry by posting it in the Classic & Toy Trains forum. That’s where the American Flyer guys hang out most of the time. As for the “glut” of AF on the market, like everything else it depends on what you have, and what condition it’s in. Lowly 4-4-2 Atlantics tend to be a dime-a-dozen. OTOH a 4-8-4 Northern, or just about any diesel locomotive in good running condition, can easily command 3-figure prices on eBay.
stebbycentral …Thanx for that info … I never thought about the Classic & Toy Trains forum - actually have never used it. Have now posted my note in that forum.
By the by, the engine is a 4-4-2 - nothing special here except possibly for some extra special cars.
Thanx again … iwonder
Is it HO or S gauge
One of the most common American Flyer locomotives. 2nd place would be the 4-6-2. Metal or Plastic body? Does it have the knuckle couplers or the long pointy ones.
Common, but they clean up well. We sometimes forget that these were considered scale model trains back in their day.
A very nice example. Were they going for a Reading look? I see a Wooten firebox and arched cab windows.
Flyer always was more ‘scale’ than Lionel - 2 rail track, and the proportions for S scale were much nicer. I always loved the Flyer PA’s.
–Randy
I happened to grow up on American Flyer and finally got the HO bug (more like a wasp sting!). I purchased a lot of AF on Ebay over the past 6-7 years to fulfill my childhood desires that I could never afford. I just started selling them back to Ebay and both of the 4-6-2 hudsons got $120 each. As for the other stuff, I don’t expect much but this is needed to fund my HO purchases. Flyer was more to scale than Lionel and they did make HO for a few years.
Bob
I still have some Flyer HO, it was a small set my Dad won in a block shoot, with the little blue 4 wheel industrial switcher, a couple of cars, and a caboose. That little switcher could pull a house, and there were no traction tires, just a die-cast body with all that weight on 4 small wheels. It was a great slow speed runner, too.
–Randy
I believe the answer is yes. Reading is one of the prototype names they would put on their loco’s.
I believe one of the ones I had was lettered Reading. I had a lighted caboose to match too.
I’ve always regretted selling those - of course my mother dictated I “get rid of the trains”. Then when I did I got yelled at for selling them for less than I paid. Get rid of vs sell at a profit - Go figure. A double standard I never really learned to deal with growing up.
I’m going with “yes” – if you look at the upper front corner of the tender, there’s a “Reading Lines” logo [swg]
American Flyer trains were the first models I was exposed to when my dad broke out his collection and set it up when I was about 5 or 6. Later we (okay, well mostly he [swg]) built an HO layout. Still, I’ve never lost my love for Flyer, and have amassed a small collection. Stebby, that’s a great example of their Reading Atlantic with the metal boiler and separate handrails. The boiler was later changed to plastic with cast-on details. With what amounted to a small appliance motor as a prime mover and the best smoke and chug unit on the market, you couldn’t beat them for reliability. As with all old AC trains, the reverse units were their most problematic part, but they can be tweaked to operate reliably.
It’s interesting to note that they were actually amongst the early HO pioneers, and produced HO much longer than their S scale stuff, although everyone associates them with S. In spite of their early start in HO, the only steam locos they ever produced in that scale were the Hudson and a Pennsy 0-6-0, aside from a rebranded Mantua General that was sold in Frontiersman sets. There’s always been scant info on their HO line on the web, but someone recently started an AF HO site with info on all of their HO offerings.
Thanks, I got this at a swap meet and have put a lot of work into it. It does have a metal shell, and it did have cast on handrails. I ground them off and fabricated wire replacements. The maker-lights and the trailing truck are also aftermarket additions. And yes the reverse unit was an issue, no matter how much I played with it I could only get the locomotive to run in one direction. I wound up replacing it with a reversing circuit unit from Dalee Electronics.
I remember the first time I opened one of the chug units. Contained nichrome wire to heat the fluid in a bed of either angle hair fiber glass or asbestos. The smoke was ejected from the unit with air driven from a piston connected directly to the drive train so it was syncronized. It puffed and made the chug sound with the same unit. I don’t remember if the piston was on a 1/2 gear ratio so it got two puffs per rotation of the drivers or if it only did the left side.
Sorry for not responding sooner - have been busy. The set is S gauge.
Sorry for not responding sooner - have been busy. The engine has a plastic body and the tender has a knuckle coupler.
I didn’t think I’d seen an Atlantic with separate handrails, but you did such a good job of it that I thought they were original. They changes you made really improve the appearance, especially the trailing truck. I really dislike the exposed trailing wheels they used on these and some of their Pacifics.