A big thank you in advance to the helpful experts who can identify my two train sets. I’ve been told the Empire Express train was made by American Flyer, and I’ve been told it wasn’t. The best quess so far on the black engine is a Hafner 110. I use them under my Christmas tree. I was told they might be valuable.
I hope you liked looking at my trains.
Erik , Not really an expert but have an interest in Hafner for the past few years . My Greenberg’s guide to Early American Trains has your black engine as the 110 . Made 1920 to 1930 , the guide is from '93 , 35 to 70 dollers price wise . More like 100 or so today . I have been collecting the passenger cars that came with the engines from that time . The Empire Express are American Flyer from what I 've seen . William Hafner worked with Flyer but split to start his own company in Chicago . You have a nice history of trains there. Tom
Your Empire Express is pictured on page 14 of the thread “Pre-War American Flyer Pictures - An Invitation” which is on this forum. The engine is American Flyer No. 37 and the tender should have a space in the bottom for the battery to power the engine headlight. The set was made 1933-34…and your Hafner has already been identified and confirmed. The cars were made for a much longer period of time 1925-34 and came in a number of different litho treatments (same pattern just different colors).