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Railroads: Model
Created
 01 Dec 2009 
Copyright © 2009-2014 by owner.
Modified
 22 Jan 2018 

MY "AMERICAN FLYER" EXPERIENCE
Boyhood: Real American Flyer
Adulthood: Nostalgia Sets In

Except where otherwise noted, American Flyer S-gauge items displayed on this page were photographed by the author at local model train shows.
We are grateful to other photographers and collectors whose work is also displayed here in reduced resolution.
We urge viewers to view the original works at their outstanding websites.

If you've come to this page hoping to find information about luggage or bicycle racing, sorry, it's not that kind of "American Flyer."  If you've wandered onto this page with no idea of what "American Flyer" has signified in the minds and hearts of American kids since the 1930s through the 1960s, even until well after these kids have grown old, think: "like Lionel trains—only different."

For more in-depth background, you might want to switch to the branch line to "Notes on American Flyer Trains" before proceeding.  But if you've heard of A. C. Gilbert, if you know what "S-scale" means, and if you can tell a Geep from a Hudson, you're clear and green to highball down the main!

However, if you're more interested in the result than in the process, click here to take the cutoff to the current Faux Flyer page.

Please wait for images to load!

Yes, I'm what you might call a serious modeler.
So what the heck am I doing with these toys?
Well, once upon a time I was a kid.
And more than half a century later, part of that kid is still living happily ever after.
It's like this...


ON THIS PAGE
I. The Fever Strikes at Yuletide
Real American Flyer, 1950-1960

Intermission

II. Circling the Tree Again
The "Hand-Me-Down" Phase, 2009-2010

III. The Yule Tree Vanishes
The "Prototypes" Phase, 2011-2012 (with video)

IV. A Shift of Perspective
The "Flyer Look-Alike" Phase, 2013

Sites for Those Who Demand Genuine American Flyer

Notes on American Flyer Trains


 

 Episode I: The Fever Strikes at Yuletide 

I get my first electric train set for Christmas in 1950, when I'm six, and still an only child.  It's a basic American Flyer S-gauge set-up, comprising a simple loop of track, a locomotive and tender, two freight cars, and a caboose.  "Wow, thanks, Santa!"  I'll probably get more mileage out of this than any other plaything (with the possible exception of my phonograph) until I get my first bike.

1950

My first electric train set includes the following...


#300 Reading "Atlantic" type (4-4-2) steam locomotive and tender
(Photo courtesy of The Gilbert Gallery)


#628 Chicago & Northwestern flat car with log load
(Photo by author at Dayton Train Show, 2014)

#633 Baltimore & Ohio box car
(Photo by author at Dayton Train Show, 2014)


#630 Reading illuminated caboose
(Photo courtesy of The Gilbert Gallery)

...plus a single loop of track and a 75-watt transformer.

The next year, the simple loop of track acquires two switches and a passing siding, made necessary by the addition of some passenger cars.

1951

Passenger service commences...



#651 New Haven baggage car and #650 New Haven illuminated coaches (3)
(Photos courtesy of The Gilbert Gallery)

To handle the increased electrical load of the switches and
illuminated cars, the transformer is upgraded to a 100-watt unit.

 

 

1952

Well-to-do passengers can now opt for Pullman service...


#654 Pullman illuminated observation car
(Photo courtesy of The Gilbert Gallery)

...and the freight fleet expands by three more cars...



#629 Missouri Pacific cattle car (#929 shown)
(Photo by author at Dayton Train Show, 2014)


#637 Missouri, Kansas & Texas box car (#937 shown)
(Photo by author at Dayton Train Show, 2014)

When he was doing his "Santa shopping," my grandfather apparently couldn't find a refrigerator car on the store shelf.  So, since I already have a box car, he presents this yellow "Katy" box car to me as a "refrigerator car."  Having just turned eight, I've never seen the icing hatches on refrigerator car roofs, so I don't yet know the difference between a yellow box car and a yellow reefer,  Everything's cool.

 



#631 Texas & Pacific gondola (#931 shown)
(Photo by author at Dayton Train Show, 2013)

The rapidly filling loop of track expands and moves to a permanent site in the basement.  When I get back from my summer vacation with my grandparents, Dad presents me with my first two-wheel bike.  That evening, I ride slowly up the street, with Dad jogging alongside and hanging onto the seat.  At the intersection, we stop to turn around and start back.  When I get back to our house, I suddenly realize Dad's no longer alongside, so I guide into the soft grass (there are no curbs here), hit the brake, and bail out.  (It's a 26-inch bike, and I'm still a bit small for it, so I'll have to ad-lib mounting and dismounting for a while.)  Well, it looks as though I have a warm-weather diversion from the railroad.  But as autumn takes hold, it turns chilly again, and it's back to the cellar. 

1953

For my birthday this year, Dad manages to acquire second-hand from a friend...
 ...a bigger locomotive...


#314 Pennsylvania "Pacific" type (4-6-2) steam locomotive and tender
(Photo courtesy of The Gilbert Gallery)

...along with a few more passenger cars...



#651 New Haven baggage car (#951 shown) and #650 New Haven illuminated coaches (2)
(Photos courtesy of The Gilbert Gallery)

...plus a boom tender car...


#645 work & boom car
(Photo courtesy of
The Gilbert Gallery)

...but no crane with a boom to tend!

Christmas is a bit lean for our family in 1954.  With a baby sister on the way, my parents have just made the down payment on a two-story house across town, and we move in just before Christmas.  I've been granted rights to roughly half the attic to re-establish my railroad empire, and I'm so busy tacking down and testing the new track (on the bare plank floor), that I don't even notice there are no new cars under the tree this year.

1955

This Christmas, two more freight cars appear under the tree...



#625 Gulf tank car

(Photo courtesy of The Gilbert Gallery)


#632 Lehigh & New England hopper car

(Photo courtesy of The Gilbert Gallery)


...thus rounding out my collection of the eight basic freight car types.

Since Flyer had discontinued production of link couplers after 1953, these two cars were either used or surplus.
I suspect the latter, since they were in mint condition upon arrival.

At age 11 or 12, I begin riding my bike to the local railroad yards to watch the real trains, and it occurs to me that my S-gauge toys are rather crude-looking.  Equipment available in smaller HO scale looks much more realistic, being both more accurately proportioned and better detailed.  So, in the late 1950s, I trade in the American Flyer and start over in HO.  I've been in that scale ever since.


 

 Intermission 

A four-year break in my model railroading pastime was imposed by my enlistment in the army, during which a certain young lady and I met and subsequently committed matrimony.  After my discharge from the service, we moved into an apartment for a few years until we'd saved enough to afford a down payment on a house.  The dwelling we chose was ideal.  It had a splendid 1,200-square-foot (110-square-meter) cellar, and was located just half a city block from my favorite hobby shop.  (The above-ground part wasn't bad either.)  In the years since, a few layouts have been planned, partially built, and then (except for the current layout) replaced when a new concept occurred to me.  A small, portable layout, also in HO scale, was built to run under the Yule tree, ostensibly for the amusement of our daughter and our cat, but also to satisfy my own nostalgic impulse.

Still, when I attended model train shows each fall, I felt drawn to the American Flyer swap tables and operating layouts.  There was still something about that clunky toy stuff that claimed some child's corner of my heart—and I'd like to think it wasn't just the sharp ozone smell from the old open-frame motors!  So, for a few years I entertained the idea of acquiring some used Flyer equipment to replace the HO under-tree layout.  But there was always some reason to put it off—not the least of which being the practical difficulty of locating parts for equipment that had been run to death by kids and then stored for years in damp basements or dusty attics.


 

 Episode II: Circling the Tree Again 

Then it struck me.  To get the American Flyer ambience, I needn't buy (and refurbish and maintain) antique equipment, or even switch the portable layout from HO to S gauge.  I could simply use HO models of the same engines and cars after which the Flyer toys had been patterned.  And when the little loop of track goes back into storage after the winter holidays, any equipment that conforms to "model" quality can continue in operation the rest of the year on the permanent layout in the cellar.  This being both the much less daunting and more affordable option, I took the plunge.

FF09: Xmas 2009
Hey, under the tree, this stuff could actually be mistaken for American Flyer (or Lionel)—if you don't look too closely!


2009-2010: The "Hand-Me-Down" Phase

The Faux Flyer project is initially conceived as a minimum-budget operation.  Where possible, I use equipment that I have on hand, or can obtain cheaply at auctions or swap meets, more or less as-is except for standardizing couplers.  I want to represent, in HO scale, each of the main types of freight and passenger cars made by American Flyer between 1950 and 1957.

In 2009, I concentrate on the freight fleet.  American Flyer's freight car line included eight basic types: box cars, flat cars, gondolas, hopper cars, refrigerator cars, stock cars, tank cars, and cabooses.  I'm able to scrounge HO representatives of most of these from my junk bin and from the previous Yule-tree collection.  These include toy-grade and low-model-grade cars from my own and my grandfather's collections, which is for various (mostly aesthetic) reasons unsuitable for operation on the scale-model layout in the cellar.  This satisfies requirements for a box car, a gondola, a hopper car, a refrigerator car, a stock car, and a caboose.  I purchase a new tank car and flat car to round out the freight fleet, and load the flat with a load of six pipes to achieve the general look of Flyer's "log car."  I check all equipment for proper rolling qualities and convert all couplers to Kadees.



Rivarossi-Lionel MP stock car
(redecorated from original MKT, from discard box)
 


Rivarossi-Lionel MCRR gondola
(original, from discard box))


Gilbert-HO SAL "Silver Meteor" box car
(original, from discard box)


Mantua SVX "Mobilgas" tank car
(original, from main fleet)


Athearn TMX "Snickers" refrigerator car
(original, from discard box)


Athearn C&NW flat car with pipe load
(relettered from CN, new kit)


Athearn B&O hopper car
(redecorated, from main fleet)


Varney caboose
(from discard box)


Except for the Gilbert-HO "Seaboard" box car and the Varney caboose, most of these cars don't look much like American Flyer cars, either in physical detail or in the road names they bear.  But for the time being, all I'm after is a general ambience, not details.

For motive power, I purchase a used Rivarossi NYC Hudson on eBay.  It's a sort of toy-model crossbreed with good detail, but with noticeably oversize ("pizza-cutter") wheel flanges typical of European models of the 1960s.  An HO model of New York Central's class J-3a Hudson, it closely resembles American Flyer's S-scale model of the same locomotive.  After a couple of minor repairs, a lube job, and a run-in, it's ready to go.  The only problem is that, behind this big engine, only seven of the freight cars will fit on the passing siding of the little under-tree layout.  So, I just swap a couple of cars every day or two for variety. 

FF09: freight train, front
The full freight train poses on the big cellar layout in 2009.
 


American Flyer had made standard-design passenger cars, available in either green or red, since the 1930s.  But in 1950, the company introduced a four-car streamlined set, comprising a baggage-club combine, a coach, a vista dome car, and a round-end observation car.  In 2010, continuing the "Hand-Me-Down" theme, I acquire a couple of Athearn streamliners: an r.p.o. (railway post office) car and an observation car, from an estate liquidation table at a swap meet.  The following year, a coach joins the set.  Unfortunately, only two of the streamliners will fit behind the Hudson on the tree layout, so the full passenger set can operate only on the main layout.

Since I now have two trains, I need another locomotive to haul one of them.  So, back to the discard box.  Here I find a GP-7 in Baltimore and Ohio's passenger colors.  Though it had still run well, this engine had been removed from service on the big layout when I acquired a more accurately proportioned Kato unit.

FF10: B&O GP-7
Athearn GP-7 in its original Baltimore and Ohio passenger scheme.
(As on some other railroads, B&O had its early Geeps configured to run long-hood forward.)

When new, this Athearn model had had a dynamic brake pod and a winterization hatch.  I'd removed these in order to install the roof-mounted "torpedo boat" air tanks and three-chime horn appropriate to B&O passenger-service Geeps.

Now, here's a matter of practical consideration.  As mentioned before, there isn't room on the tree layout to run the full eight-car freight train behind the Hudson.  But because the GP-7 is shorter by about the length of the Hudson's tender, the Geep can comfortably haul the full freight train without spilling over the bounds of the passing track.  Meanwhile, the Hudson looks mighty sharp heading up those silver streamliners, despite their two-car limit on the tree layout.  So that becomes the going plan.

FF10: Xmas 2010
The Yule-tree layout in 2010—with tracks already filled to capacity!

Since the Geep is shorter than the Hudson, I can now add the eighth car to the under-tree freight drag—with a centimeter or two to spare!  In passenger service, however, the big Hudson is limited to two cars—not because it can't haul more, but because more just won't fit on the siding!

As it stands, the little railroad appears to have reached its rolling-stock capacity.


 

 Episode III: The Yule Tree Vanishes 

In 2011, we acquire a new kitty, a bouncing boy named Tippy.  In one way this is good, because he's decidedly healthy, in contrast to his recently deceased predecessor, who had been puny for all of his 11 years and very sickly for the last two or three.  On the other hand, the new kitty is both far more active and far more massive (already weighing around 5 kilos [11 pounds] before his first birthday), and is a boisterous ball of kinetic energy.  Consequently, we've been unable to put up a Yule tree since we've had Tippy, and the Faux Flyer equipment must be confined to the cellar, from which he is banned.

FF12: Haydn Place (east)

The current arrangement (until, if ever, Tippy mellows out) is for the Faux Flyer equipment to be operated on the cellar layout during the winter holiday period, and stored the rest of the year.  Still, there's a positive opportunity inherent in all this.  So long as the cat never the train shall meet, I'm free to substitute somewhat more costly and delicate equipment more closely resembling items in the old American Flyer roster.


2011-2012: The "Prototypes" Phase

An upgraded fleet stretches its legs on the big cellar layout.

With the Faux Flyer equipment transplanted to an environment that's both less hazardous and more brightly illuminated, it occurs to me that this hodge-podge of cast-off cars might be replaced with better quality models of the specific prototypes of Flyer equipment.  I could, for example, replace the Lionel-HO toy Michigan Central gondola with a finely detailed Accurail model of the Texas and Pacific car modeled by Flyer, but in prototype black rather than Flyer's coach green.  And that composite "Snickers" reefer has got to go.  And I'd love to lay my hands on a gray LNE hopper car, if I can find one.  And, of course, that now lone toy Seaboard box car will be way out of place with model equipment.  So...

 

These "hand-me-downs"... ...are replaced by these models of "prototypes"... ...on which these S-gauge American Flyer cars were based.



Gilbert-HO #514 box car; "Silver Meteor" SAL


Roundhouse 40' box car; "Silver Comet" SAL 38575
(original, budget model, kit)



AF #642 / 942 Seaboard "Silver Meteor" box car


Athearn flat car, CN

I hadn't used or photographed the Athearn flat car kit in its original Canadian National livery.  I'd simply relettered portions of the car for a CNW prototype before building the kit, so, it was already in "prototypes" mode from the outset.



Athearn 40' flat car, CNW 200339
(relettered, budget model, kit)



AF #628 / 928 Chicago & Northwestern "log car" 42597



Lionel-Rivarossi gondola, MCRR 15317


Accurail 40' fixed-end gondola; T&P 17834
(original, high-grade model, kit)




AF #631 / 931 Texas & Pacific gondola



Athearn offset-side hopper, B&O 427971


Accurail 34' offset-side hopper, LNE 13328
(original, high-grade model, kit)


AF #632 Lehigh New England offset-side hopper car
(Photo: http://www.thegilbertgallery.org)



Athearn composite reefer, "Snickers" TMX 1068


Trainline 40' plug-door reefer, "Chief" SFRD 3468
(redecorated, budget model, used)



AF #647 / 947 Northern Pacific plug-door refrigerator car




Lionel-Rivarossi stock car; MP 53180

I hadn't photographed the Lionel-Rivarossi stock car in its original MKT "Katy" colors (yellow and black, as I recall).



Lionel-Rivarossi stock car; MP 53180
(redecorated, toy, r-t-r)

I currently know of no available model closely resembling Flyer's composite "cattle car" design.  But the Lionel-Rivarossi car at least has prototype paint and markings.




AF #629 / 929 Missouri Pacific "cattle car"



Mantua tank car, "Mobilgas" SVX 1443



Mantua tank car, "Mobilgas" SVX 1443

(original, toy, r-t-r)

So far unable to locate an HO car more closely resembling Flyer's Gulf tanker, I retain Mantua's Mobilgas car.




AF #629 / 929 Gulf tank car GRCX 5016
(Photo: http://www.thegilbertgallery.org)



Varney caboose



Varney caboose
(undecorated, budget model, used)

The Varney caboose is retained as a suitable prototype model, but remains unlettered for now.



AF #630 Reading caboose
(Photo: http://www.thegilbertgallery.org)

While Faux Flyer is in its "Prototypes" phase, it occurs to me that there are items in my existing model roster corresponding to other American Flyer equipment.  So, as long as it's being operated on the big cellar layout, any or all of these cars may be added to a Faux Flyer freight train if desired.

These HO models... ...roughly correspond to these American Flyer S items.
Accurail  Central of New Jersey PS-2 covered hopper car, CNJ 771 AF #624 / 924 CRP cement car
Bachmann  Erie 12-wheel depressed-center flat car, ERIE 7268 AF #636 ERIE 7210 depressed-center flat car with wire reel load
Athearn  Great Northern AAR box car, GN 50324 AF #913 GN "Glacier National Park" ARA box car

Athearn  Baltimore & Ohio AAR box car, B&O 467439 AF #980 B&O "Time-Saver" ARA box car
Athearn  Bangor & Aroostook AAR box car, BAR 5206 AF #982 BAR "State of Maine Products" ARA box car
Accurail  New Haven PS-1 box car, NH 36570 AF #984  NH (orange billboard) ARA box car
Athearn  Chicago & Northwestern swing-door reefer, NWX 751 AF #989 NWX "Northwestern Refrigerator" plug-door reefer

Below, an aerial view of Haydn Place on the cellar layout shows the westbound Flyer streamliner pausing at the depot to take on passengers while the freight rumbles eastward toward the bridge to New Bobhart.  Note the inclusion of a couple of cars—a depressed-center flat and a covered hopper—from the main roster to represent additional American Flyer car types.

FF12: Haydn Place (west)


 


 Episode IV: A Shift of Perspective 

After intermittently doing the Faux Flyer project over four years, I came to realize that what I really crave is not so much to model American Flyer's prototypes, but rather to replicate the S-gauge equipment itself in HO—right down to Gilbert's sometimes goofy, non-prototypical paint schemes—the more convincingly to recall the days of my budding passion six decades earlier, and my boyhood dreams of watching my own S-gauge equipment scaled-up and running through our town on real tracks.  So, the roster undergoes another revision.  In some cases, this entails only new paint and lettering, but in others it means acquiring equipment specifically to replicate Flyer's S-gauge cars in HO.  So, the plans to use hand-me-down equipment and real-world prototypes fade out, replaced by a march of materialized memories straight from my own past.


2013 to present: The "Flyer Look-Alike"
Phase

Let's try a little experiment.  See if you can identify the items in the following photos:

       

Well, it's easy to tell what they are not
[1] Prototype equipment from real railroads?  Obviously not!  They're too clean for that!
[2] Accurate models?  Any serious model railroader can see they are not.  The colors and numbers are all wrong. 
[3] American Flyer S-gauge cars?  At first glance, an enthusiast might recognize the freaky-but-familiar color schemes of American Flyer circa 1950.  But on closer inspection, he'd note the details and proportions are not as crude as those of Flyer's toy roster.
[4] If I tell you they're HO scale, you might guess they're Gilbert HO.  But that would still not be right. 
So, what's going on here?

What I had in 2013 was a collection of models of the same prototypes my childhood toys had represented six decades earlier.  What I really craved was the toys themselves!  Or at least something that looked very much like them, but would operate on the HO-gauge track I already had.  Hm.  That would take some imagination and research, many hours of tedious work, a few more purchases than I'd initially figured for this project, as well as an attitude overhaul about the value of "toys."  So...

Everything new is old again!

FF13: Side by side
It's getting to look more like the Flyer I remember!  But with some improvements.

Click here to go to the current Faux Flyer page!

 

But wait!  Are you wondering what happened to the equipment from the "Hand-Me-Down" and "Prototypes" phases?  If so, read on.

Long story short:  Most of the toy-quality items have been retired.  (But not trashed.  They can be restored to service if desired.)  The model-quality equipment is still in operation, either in the main model roster or in the Faux Flyer fleet, though some items have been—shall we say—"transfigured."

Short story long:  The toy-quality cars of the original "Hand-Me-Down" phase that have been removed from service include the Lionel-Rivarossi MCRR gondola and MP stock car, the Mantua "Mobilgas" tank car, and the veteran Gilbert-HO "Silver Meteor" box car.

Of the model-quality cars, most of the "Prototypes" phase equipment has returned to model status on the big layout—more or less permanently, but available for Faux Flyer service if desired.  The composite reefer bearing the toy-like "Snickers" banner has been redecorated as Santa Fe "Grand Canyon" reefer 31254, with the SF system map displayed on the reverse side, and is now promoted to the big layout's model roster.

 

The Trainline "Chief" reefer was replaced in the model fleet by a new Accurail SFRD "Super Chief" plug-door car.  So what happened to the Trainline car?  It migrated in the opposite direction, to the Faux Flyer fleet, where it's now doing a fairly convincing impersonation of American Flyer's #647 Northern Pacific reefer.  Along with certain other items that have been redecorated in Flyer colors.  Plus a few new items acquired with Faux Flyer service specifically in mind.  Want to see?

Click here to go to the current Faux Flyer page!




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