My love affair with American Flyer trains became official at Chanukah time: December, 1954.  I know that it was ’54 because I vividly recall that I was 6 when I received THE  set from my parents.  I clearly remember setting it up with my father in the upstairs hallway, next to the banister.  Looking at some 8 mm films my dad shot a few years later, and having had “only”  two engines, one being the great S gauge Hudson, I’m certain (with benefit of a 1954 catalog) that the set was either # K5412T, “The Arrow” or #K5423T “The Mountaineer“. The difference between the two sets is two cars which I had.  So, I don’t know if I was given the smaller set that was later supplemented, or the bigger one.

  It listed for $27.95 then, and for my parents, even getting it wholesale must have been a tough stretch.  I assume that they obtained it at wholesale because they owned and operated a small neighborhood variety store in Kew Garden Hills, Queens, New York City.  I used to work at the store and clearly recall making visits with my Dad to one of their housewares distributors (Greenman Brothers or Star Trading---one bought the other, or changed the name) that was an AC Gilbert distributor.  Our layout wasn’t a great empire.  I knew some kids who had much larger layouts.  Those of us who had Flyer often debated and defended its merits to the Lionel kids, who always seemed to be from more prosperous families.  Lionel trains were bigger and heavier.  They had “Magnetraction”.  But, they ran on very unrealistic 3 rail track, and that was always the trump card in our arguments.  Neither group seriously regarded the less costly Marx trains, which were sold in my parents’ “Towne 5 & 10”.

By about 1961 I was under the erroneous impression that I was “growing up”, so I decided to turn the trains into cash.  My dad sold the trains to another storekeeper from the block on which their store was located.

Twenty years later our son Peter was 4 ½. In the intervening years I’d occasionally encountered toy and model trains and felt nostalgic about them, but never acted on the feelings.  But Chanukah was again approaching and I decided to make the event of 1954 a tradition.  I hadn’t yet discovered the netherworld of train collecting, so I didn’t know about the relative ease with which I could have bought the same kinds of trains I’d had.  So, I decided to buy then currently made Lionel trains because they were readily available & seemed sufficiently large and robust to be played with.  I certainly didn’t want to hover over Peter, ruining his fun with concern about the stuff.  It turned out that I’d made a good decision: he reveled in running trains filled with Smurfs. 

Having the trains around almost immediately re-ignited my interest in them.  I began to read magazines, hang around train stores & meet others who shared the interest.  That led to my discovering train meets.  Peter and I shared the hobby from our two different perspectives.   The 3 rail layout  had become relatively large and complex, so I’d resisted the temptation to dispose of it once I’d learned that I could obtain original old Flyer . It took a long time, but circa 1993  I eventually stumbled into the esoteric, very short lived 3 rail predecessors to the S gauge trains that I had when I was a kid.  Because they’re so similar to my childhood trains yet could run on Lionel type 3 rail track, I immediately fell for them. 

For those of you reading this who know very little about these matters, let me divert briefly to a discussion of scales, gauges, toys and models.   A scale  is the ratio of size of the model as compared to its prototype.  It can be expressed mathematically.  It also often has alpha and alpha-numeric designations. For example, the scale of the American Flyer trains that I had in the 50’s was 1:64.  The model was nominally 1/64^th the size of the actual piece it represented.  Another way to express this is 3/16s: 3/16s of an inch on the model represents one foot on the original.  

Gauge represents the track width, the number of rails, and sometimes, the scale.  So, “O” gauge as Lionel and other companies defined it entailed 3 rails measuring 1 3/8” center to center of the two outside rails.  They rarely made trains scaled to gauge. Having the ratio of 1:48 (1/4” to the foot), such trains required curved track with extremely large radii  (36”).  Most of their “O” gauge trains therefore had creatively distorted perspective: nominally scale height & width, but disproportionately short lengths.  

Models are essentially scale correct  miniature replicas.  Toys have some degree of simplified features and or compromised scales. 

The Flyer trains of my youth were “S” gauge: 3/16s scale with two rail track measuring 7/8” center to center.  In my opinion, they’re more models than toys because of their relatively accurate proportions. 

So, how could trains made for 2 rail track 7/8” wide  have been the same size as those made for 3 rail track 1 3/8” wide ?  And, why did they change? 

World War Two is an oversimplified answer.  The Hybrid Predecessor of “S” gauge was made only from late 1938 to July, 1942, and even more briefly in 1945 and ’46.    This is why they’re so difficult to find and so unknown even to most collectors.

A.C. Gilbert, a former Olympic Champion had, by 1938 been very successful for about 25 years with the company that bore his name.  Their primary product line was the deservedly famous Erector© set.  Aside from offering a now very rare Erector© set in the 30’s (because it was so costly then) that had parts to create a massive, non powered “Hudson” steam locomotive, his company had previously made no toy nor model trains.

The American Flyer Manufacturing Company, located in Chicago had, along with many other toy manufacturers been seriously financially damaged by The Great Depression.  At least, by 1937 it was still in business.  Ives, a great toy and train manufacturer from Connecticut, had failed and was jointly bought out by Lionel and American Flyer a few years before.  William Coleman had decided to sell his company and found a willing buyer in Gilbert, who wanted to get into the model / toy train market.  The company’s tooling and inventory were moved to Gilbert’s plant in New Haven, Connecticut.  The first American Flyer catalog issued under Gilbert’s ownership was for the 1938 toy season (for sales commencing in late fall, 1937).

The “Tru Model” trains heralded on the cover were the first HO trains offered in fully manufactured form (but also offered as less costly kits).  Prior to this. the small scale (named such because it’s half the size of O scale, with a ratio of 1:96) was used only in kits by other manufacturers.

 

  Most of the product line was comprised of slightly modified versions of the previous 3 rail O gauge trains and their related accessories.  Two new substantial O gauge steam engines  (scale sized but not scale detailed---semi scale) were introduced: the 4-4-2 “Atlantic” and 4-6-2 “Pacific”.  However, neither new freight nor passenger cars commensurate in quality were offered with them.

One year later, the HO trains had been relegated to the back of the catalog. Their sales had been extremely disappointing, but at least they weren’t discontinued.  Minor improvements would be made to them during the next 3 years.  Additional refinements were added to the older trains, which had remained substantially unchanged since 1935. The improvements included fully automatic couplers for the freight cars enabling them to be detached by electrical remote control if located on a special uncoupling track section.  The scarcely detailed, smooth sided  12 wheel diecast aluminum tenders for the “Atlantic" and “Pacific” were replaced by much more highly detailed and scaled “USRA” tenders.  These were available in two versions: one with a freight coupler and the other, for their streamlined passenger cars.  

However, the stars of the 1939 catalog were the new, superbly detailed, rather costly, 3 rail 3/16s scale trains and properly scaled accessories.

This scale had been promulgated by a small company, Cleveland models.  They’d offered non operational kits by 1937.   The new Flyer trains were  made of heavy diecast metal.  Because of limitations in the designs of the engines, and weight of the cars, only relatively short trains could be pulled.   This troublesome material would in later years, be the bane of collectors due to metallurgical instabilities, which could have been avoided.  The freight and passenger cars had the same automatic couplers used on the older style O gauge cars that year.  This enabled much more prototypical mixed trains to be run.  And, it eliminated the need for otherwise duplicate tenders with different couplers.  Spare tenders were not offered in the previous catalogs.  I’m assuming that special orders were happily accommodated in those sales-anemic days.   

Two steam engines were offered.  One was of the New York Central’s great “Hudson” (4-6-4 wheel configuration).  The other was an even larger one of the “Northern” type, which Flyer erroneously named for even more massive steamers then running on the Union Pacific.  All of these engines and cars were offered as fully manufactured and as kits.

unused caboose kit!

The next catalog (1940)  significantly augmented the selection of 3/16s trains and their accessories.  Less costly 3/16 tinplate (steel plated with tin to retard rusting, and then painted) cars were introduced.  Another engine with a diecast tender (with Pennsylvania RR markings) debuted.  Smaller, lower cost diecast engines with cheaper tinplate tenders were added to the line.  Very few of the “Chicago Flyer" items remained.

In the next (1941) catalog, none of the Chicago –originated products were left in the line.   Yet another high end diecast engine / tender was added (the Nickel Plate 0-8-0 switcher a.k.a. “yard goat”. This is the rarest of this genre.  Of the few shipped and sold, all seem to be afflicted with severe “metal rot”.  Due to impurities in the cast metal used in toys, models and other consumer products of the time, such pieces crack, crumble & warp. 

(badly warped base)

(a pathetically decayed 574)

Resultantly they started to decay just a few years after they were made.  Another innovative and costly development was the chugging tender.  These contained motors that drove pistons that compressed air in a manner whose resulting sound resembled the chuffing of steam engine.  This development evolved into the smoking engines introduced in 1946.

 

the 1941 front and rear catalog covers