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  • Old Toys

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...levant_count=1

    Somehow, we got on the subject of old toys at work the other day, which got me thinking. I know my Dad's old American Flyer trainset (he got it when he was just 8 years old in 1953) was in the basement somewhere, so on a whim I decided to see if I could find it.

    Not only did I find it, but after a little grease and a squirt of gun oil into the works, the old locomotive started right up. After going through a couple scattered boxes, it looks like all the rolling stock has been accounted for too, a little dusty, but nothing's broken.

    What you see there is pretty much the whole thing, the locomotive, tender, 4 freight cars, caboose. On the inner track is a baggage car and two coaches incase you want to run a "passenger" train instead.

    American Flyer was always the second banana to the more popular Lionel trains from the same era, but, they have a very loyal and devoted fanbase who appreciated the extra detail and realism AF put into their trains, including using real railroad names, correct scaling, and more-realistic 2 rail track instead of 3 rail.

    This particular engine, a 4-4-2 Atlantic, is painted for the Reading Lines, which was especially significant since my Grandfather worked for that very railroad as a boilermaker, and most likely either built or worked on the same engine the toy train is modeled after, so there's more than just a little family connection in that tiny little train.

    I think I'll clear out some space in a corner somewhere so it can stay up and running instead of going back into the box.

    The vast majority of AF stuff has survived from the same postwar period this one came from. You can find all kinds of engines/cars/goodies all over ebay for less than $50 a piece, some as little as $10.

    I may have to get a tank car, no freight train is complete without one!
    - They say nothing good happens at 2AM, they're right, I happen at 2AM.

  • #2
    Quoth Argabarga View Post
    I may have to get a tank car, no freight train is complete without one!
    Strange - I was under the impression that a unit coal train was a type of freight train.
    Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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    • #3
      Nice! My dad got me a Lionel in the 80's that looks just like that; same body type, coal car, milk tanker and caboose! Do you put the liquid in the smoke stack to get the steam?
      "If anyone wants this old box containing the broken bits of my former faith in humanity, I'll take your best offer now. You may be able to salvage a few of em' for parts..... " - Quote by Argabarga

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      • #4
        This one had the "real smoke" option as well, there was a watered-down oil based solution you could buy and put a few drops of it down the smokestack where there's a tiny electrical element that will heat it up and make it smoke. But I don't know if it works.

        I know the locomotive headlight is burned out, and from what Dad remembers, they run on the same circuit, I'll have to investigate that.

        Also, the automatic reverser doesn't work.

        AF trains had a feature where if you rapidly shut off the throttle and then opened it back up, the surge would flip a switch and reverse the direction the train was going, letting you do things like back up a train, drop off a car, and then go forward again all without having to touch anything.

        This one's stuck, it'll flip to reverse, but won't re-flip to forward again, probably just gummed up. The grease in the gears had broken down with age into that crumbly waxy like substance and that will foul up parts pretty quick if the motor accidentally ingests it, that's probably what happened.

        There is a little device inside the engine that shoots a little compressed air out with every cycle of the electric motor to make a "chugging" noise, and it still works.
        - They say nothing good happens at 2AM, they're right, I happen at 2AM.

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        • #5
          Quoth Argabarga View Post
          I know the locomotive headlight is burned out, and from what Dad remembers, they run on the same circuit, I'll have to investigate that.
          My brother had a cheap battery-operated "smoking" train, and the headlight and smoke heater were wired in series. If one burned out, the other wouldn't work.
          Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

          Comment


          • #6
            I saw the pastel colored Lionel "girl's train" from 1957 on the Antiques Road Show the other day. That set was worth about $7-9000.00.

            I still have my Marx train set from 1954. I don't think it has an value.
            "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

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            • #7
              I once went to an open house at an O/S gauge model railroad club, and I distinctly remember one of them was running around the layout. Being the only pink train there made it stand out.


              Like Lionel and American Flyer, there are a couple Marx pieces that are worth something, but the vast majority are worth about as much as other O and S stuff from the same era, not really a bad thing really, means you can obtain and play with it still!
              Last edited by Argabarga; 04-16-2014, 12:07 AM.
              - They say nothing good happens at 2AM, they're right, I happen at 2AM.

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              • #8
                Well, now I've done it, I just bought a lot of 6 extra freight cars off Ebay, and I'm bidding on some more.

                Trains aren't a hobby, they're a malignant disease! :P
                - They say nothing good happens at 2AM, they're right, I happen at 2AM.

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                • #9
                  Then Sheldon's spot is UP FOR GRABS!
                  My Guide to Oblivion

                  "I resent the implication that I've gone mad, Sprocket."

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                  • #10
                    Moved everything to the basement where there was room to put up the set and enlarge it a bit with extra track.

                    https://scontent-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/...03161123_n.jpg

                    Yes, I'm using old VHS tapes for roadbed, it's not like they're good for much else.

                    https://scontent-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/...eb&oe=53CE085E

                    I just won a whole bunch of "new" freight cars off eBay too. For about $40 apiece, you can get reasonably clean and running rolling stock like this. Now I have options when building a train.

                    Had to go through the assorted old bins and toy boxes down there to come up with things to load the gondolas with

                    https://scontent-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/...37184534_n.jpg

                    Most of those loads look at least plausible. This one, not so much.

                    https://scontent-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/...25236100_n.jpg
                    Last edited by Argabarga; 04-26-2014, 02:56 PM.
                    - They say nothing good happens at 2AM, they're right, I happen at 2AM.

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                    • #11
                      I use VHS tapes as a monitor stand. :3
                      Supporting the idiots charged with protecting your personal information.

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                      • #12
                        Quoth Argabarga View Post
                        Most of those loads look at least plausible. This one, not so much.

                        https://scontent-a-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/...25236100_n.jpg
                        I dunno. Given that Disney has announced that the Star Wars Expanded Universe is no longer canon...

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                        • #13
                          It never was in the first place. A new movie was never going to take the SWEU into account, although movie-fying Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy would've been awesome.
                          Supporting the idiots charged with protecting your personal information.

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                          • #14
                            Quoth Chromatix View Post
                            I dunno. Given that Disney has announced that the Star Wars Expanded Universe is no longer canon...
                            It never was. The people screaming about it are the ones who are trying to justify spending years making stuff up hoping it will be recognized.
                            I AM the evil bastard!
                            A+ Certified IT Technician

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                            • #15
                              Quoth Argabarga View Post
                              This one had the "real smoke" option as well, there was a watered-down oil based solution you could buy and put a few drops of it down the smokestack where there's a tiny electrical element that will heat it up and make it smoke. But I don't know if it works.
                              With my old Tyco locomotives, you didn't need the fluid. They'd generate their own smoke

                              But seriously, one of them was given to me by my grandfather. He worked for Johnson Wax as a salesman, and had received the set for Christmas one year. The set consisted of a Baldwin RF16 diesel, and a trio of boxcars advertising their various products--Glade, Shout, etc. Unfortunately, the locomotive no longer runs. It wasn't great when it was new, and when the motor went, I parked it. Attempts were made to cannibalize other units for parts, but even these were worn out.
                              Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

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