Found this picture of our old American Flyer layout

[ACY]

I found a whole album full of pictures of the ole layout, I don't know if they will look okay if I take pictures of the pictures.

[Doneldon]

ACY-

You can scan 'em.

           -- D

[Jim Banner]

Taking pictures of the pictures usually works well, particularly if you do not use flash.

Jim

[ACY]

ACY-
You can scan 'em.
           -- D

Not if you don't have a scanner. That is what I would do if I had one. I am having trouble getting them to come out becuase the pictures are faded because they are over 40 years old and the photo quality back then was not the greatest.

[ACY]

[ACY]

Right Click on the photo and go to view image then you can zoom in on the photos to get a better view. This may only work with Firefox though.

[WoundedBear]

Great old pics man

Love the line up of equipment on the walls. The wood panelling definitely "dates" the shots....lol.

Sid

[WTierce1]

I'm not a big fan of the S scale but I wanted to put this:
Lionel has Introduced S gauge Fast-Track for the American Flyer, Just look in their most resent catalogue.

[Jim Banner]

ACY

Great find.  Thanks for showing them.  Even though I was never into American Flyer, they still brings back old memories,

wtierce

Have to remember that most Lionel, MARX, etc. is 3/4 of full size 0-scale, making it 3/16" per foot or S-scale.

That in turn made the track SW78 or SW6.5 (S-scale, Wide gauge, 78" or 6-1/2 feet between the rails.)  S-scale at least had track of about the right scale. Having said that, I have to plead guilty to having cut my teeth on MARX 3/16 trains (tinplate trains built 3/16" per foot running on Lionel type track)

I love the oldies from the 40's, 50's and 60's.  At the museum where I volunteer, I have a standing offer to repair them free or for a minimal charge for parts.  I particularly enjoy it when a grandfather comes in with his childhood train that hasn't worked for years but wants to be able to set it up to run with his grandchildren.  When I can give it back cleaned up, oiled up, tuned up, or many times rebuilt from the ground up, I feel I have made the world just a slightly better place.

Jim

[Woody Elmore]

Jim - a buddy inherited his father in law's standard gauge Lionel set. I don't know the particulars but the engine's wheels spun after sitting for many years. The transformer looked like something out of a frankenstein movie! They should build autos like the old Lionel trains.

I used to make it my business when I was a kid to visit the Gilbert Hall of Science which was in Manhattan. It was about four blocks away from the Lionel display layout - which I also visited. The Lionel layout had all the cataloged stuff - all the operating cars and the latest diesels. I loved the DRG&W F-3 that they produced. My godfather had two sets of Madison cars - both pulled by GG-1s (His dad worked for the PRR).  The GG-1s had a horn that sounded nothing like a real GG-1!.

The American Flyer layout was nothing like the Lionel layout. It was more realistic - lots of scenery. I read years ago that Flyer couldn't match the Lionel show layout so they focused on the realism of two rail track.

Lionel finally got the rights to make American Flyer track. That will help get some people back into S gauge.

[ACY]

I have a ton of original American flyer track, I have all the track from the layout in the pictures. My father sold a lot of the locos and rolling stock and most of the Plasticville buildings. I have more photos, if I get the chance I'll try and get some more up.

[railsider]

Nobody seems to remember when American Flyer made O-scale 3-rail trains. I had one in the 1940's, bought, I believe, just before World War II. Memory is fuzzy, though, and it may have been 19946, right after the war.

At any rate, it was AF, and it was O. I had two Lionel turnouts for loop with a short-cut on a 4x8 piece of plywood in the basement. Nothing complex, but it was fun for a kid. The loco, I recall clearly, was a streamlined Hudson (Loewy?) with a series of tinplate freight cars and caboose.

Unfortunately all gone now.

Everybody talks about the AF S-scale two-rail stuff, but to me that's "Johnny-come-lately" new stuff.  Are there any AF catalogs around that show this stuff?

Railsider (now in HO, HOn3 and a little N)

[ACY]

Somewhere I have a bunch of old American Flyer Catalogs. American Flyer S gauge (not called so at the time) started by at least the early 1940's. The last year for American Flyer producing O gauge was 1945.