Those cars definitely have a few stories to tell. I love them
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While The Potomac set cars
that I posted a while back are relatively easy to find. There are variations of the 318x cars that are a bit more difficult to find. They are the same size as the Potomac cars but they are tagged for Golden State and have the color scheme of the The Jeffersonian.
These are an uncataloged department store set sold through Montgomery Ward about 1930 according to Schuweiler.
They were pulled by several different engines.
The 3190 paired with either of the tenders shown.
There are also examples where the set is pulled by a 3116 or a 3186
Donât ask me why this set is being pulled by the 3185, all I know is that this is the way it came to me.
Enjoying the Worldâs Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
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Todayâs pic: a #4017 sand car. This is my only â6 millionâ car. All the rest that are marked are â8 millionâ cars.
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This is the American Flyer Hiawatha Freight from 1937. I assembled this set piece by piece from ebay purchases.
Enjoying the Worldâs Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
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And here is the 1937 American Flyer Hiawatha Passenger set. I bought the engine first and then I bought the passenger cars from Tom Macomas.
Enjoying the Worldâs Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
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Wow, an absolute beauty!
Rich
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Now thatâs a really neat set!
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fantastic shape, sheâs a beauty.
Chuck
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How about a pic of a somewhat rough 4018 Automobile Car.
Flyer made beautiful rolling stock, but their nomenclature was a little odd: other makers called similar cars Box Cars. Many Box Cars were, in fact, used for hauling automobiles, but those usually had wide, double doors for ease of loading and unloading. What most manufacturers simply called Gondolas were Sand Cars on the American Flyer Lines, and the common Flat Car was either a Machinery Car or a Lumber Car. I suppose Flyer was trying to be distinctive, setting themselves apart from what they considered more pedestrian product lines.
Their line was, in fact, distinctive. Their freight cars, especially, were better proportioned than Lionelâs and IVESâ. I love them all, but I have come to put Flyer at the top of my list.
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It really is hard not to fall in love with American Flyer Wide Gauge equipment both freight and passenger.
Here is set #1464 The Lone Scout
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Northwoods Flyer
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The Lone Scout has a really attractive color scheme, and the brass sets off the colors well.
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Best I can do is a Lionel #8 painted like the Jeffersonian and President Special 
It has matching 35 & 36 passenger cars by the way.
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Its always nice to see how people make Flyer equipment their own. Nice job.
Northwoods Flyer
Here are two Wide Gauge sets that came to me through my family. Both sets are what I would call entry level sets.
The passenger set was purchased second hand from a neighbor as a Christmas present for my older bother before I was born.
The freight set came from my wifeâs family and originally belonged to her uncle. Notice the orange sand car. I wouldnât call it rare but it is more difficult to find.
Enjoying the Worldâs Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
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Hereâs another essential freight car: the stock car. Flyer painted most (all?) of these in there attractive, two-tone âRolls Royceâ blue scheme. I was wrong about my sand car above: this one has a 6 Million plate, too.
Again, this car is kinda rough, which only means that it has seen a lot of play and use. Thatâs OK with me: Iâm not after mint trains. I know some collectors are, but I have no inclination to join them. Itâs not about the money: itâs about having trains that were loved and played with by their owners. Each scratch has a story to tell, if only we could understand the language. But we know that the overall narrative is one of exploration and enjoyment.
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Great car palallin. My collection is mostly made up of âoperator qualityâ cars. I spend pleasant time imagining where these toys have spent their lives.
One aspect of the hobby that I enjoy is collecting variations. Some of the most common and long running freight cars have a number of variations. You can add to a collection without spending a lot of money.
As an example take the Wide Gauge #4017 Sand car.
It looks like just about every other #4017 until you start looking at a few of the details.
8 Million plates
âMade Byâ tag with a brass background and black lettering that was only used up until 1927.
And the real plum The Commander tag used on the Presidents Special electric outline engine.
Here is some information that helps to understand how these variations take place.
Now go check your #4017s and see if you can find 2 alike.
Enjoying the Worldâs Greatest Hobby
Northwoods Flyer
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I only have one of each kind of car (so far) and not all of them though my wife bought me an addition tot he fleet for our anniversary (pic to come). I do like to compare with pics I see, however.
Your eye for detail is sharp! Flyer seems to have had a wide selection of plates to choose from as the cars were assembled.
If you look at the automobile car I posted, there is a very realistic data plate giving weights and dimensions. Somebody must have had fun coming up with all of those plates.
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Thatâs the one I was going for. I had the tender, gondola, boxcar and caboose.
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Today is my wifeâs and my wedding anniversary. I gave her a Roseâthat is, she has been wanting a lap dog for years, and so she adopted a Maltese from the rescue shelter; she was named named Rose. My wife changed her name to Snowball, because Rose didnât really fit her and had just been used by the shelter to identify a dog that had spent its life in cages at a âbreeder.â Hereâs a PSA: get your pets spayed and neutered, and do not deal with âbreeders.â If you need a pet, adopt or rescue!
Anyway, to get back on topic, my wife gave me a #4006 hopper in really good shape. it would be a solid EX+ except for some scrapes and one patch of paint loss about the size of the tip of my finger.
It has â6 Millionâ plates on it, The bright metal mechanism underneath is in perfect shape.
Hereâs a pic of my wife and Snowball the day we picked her up.
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