Several years ago I got a trunk and some boxes from my parents with stuff they were cleaning out before down sizing. My kids got curious recently and decided to open them up and see what it was. Most of the stuff I’m scratching my head as to why they saved it in the first place. There are a few items though that seem pretty cool… several straight razors, a bunch of state pendants, an old Monopoly game, and a model train.
The model train I thought would be one of the easiest to figure out since they all have numbers on them. I’m not really concerned with the price as much as just what it all is. I’ve tried some searches and think I have some info. It appears to be pre-WWII, American Flyer. I think I found some of the cars but not the engine/coal hopper. The engine is marked 565 and I think it is O gauge. There is also a box car numbered 478, a shell oil tanker numbered 480, and a caboose numbered 484. I found a few of the cars and mine appear to be in much better condition than the ones I found, but I don’t have any boxes. Anyone with better Google foo or actual expertise care to give it a stab?
What you are asking for is, frankly, rather unclear, but it seems that you are saying you have an ‘O’ gauge American Flyer locomotive, but not its tender (the car that carries coal for the locomotive) and some freight cars. No box (the entire train probably came a set), and no track or power supply.
Pre-war, American Flyer, Lionel and Ives were the big three manufacturerers of toy trains in the US, with offerings in a larger (so-called standard-gauge) and smaller (0, and later H0) gauges. The Depression hit all of them to some extent and all actually became part of the Lionel empire for some time, although Lionel dropped the Ives line in the '30s, and American Flyer later split off under the ownershp of the A. C. Gilbert company, who also manufactured the Erector Set line of construction toys. Brief history of American Flyer here. Although AF had an extensive 0 gauge line before the war, Lionel 0 gauge was, and remains, much more well-known. AF is best-known today for its post-war S gauge line, which was contructed to a smaller scale and was much more realistic in appearance than Lionel’s 0 gauge offerings of the same period.
If the cars are in nice shape, you’ve got a few not-so-common vintage toys which have a bit of value; more if you can locate the locomotive tender to complete the set.
Sorry I wasn’t clear… yes I have the tender (but there is no number on it) as well, but no there is no track nor power supply. I was just trying to figure out if I was right in them being pre-war, if it is rare/collectible, and any other details that may be interesting. I’m not even positive about the gauge, but I measured the distance between the wheels and it is about 1.25 inches which appears to be O-gauge.
I assume it was my Dad’s and he was born in 1933. His dad was fairly well to do, but conservative (he had nice toys but not over the top). I will probably just display it in the basement/game room along with several vintage toy trucks, but it is always nice to be able to know a little about what it is (and I know nothing about toy trains)
Yes, it is pre-war; as mentioned previously, AF produced mainly S gauge models after the war. Also collectible, but probably not worth vast amounts of money.
Aside from the info I linked to, I made a quick check and typing something like “American Flyer XXX (XXX=model number of item)” into Google will turn up quite a lot of information, and you should be able to get a notion of the relative worth of the items by following the links you find.
The tender won’t have a separate catalog number because it is part of the locomotive.
Thanks for the info. I did Google exactly like you recommend, but for the engine I kept finding things like e-Bay searches, and when I clicked on the link it said zero results returned… similar items are… type of things. I found most of the cars, but the prices were all over the place, and many had boxes, but the condition looked much worse. I have no idea which is better.
What you have told me is probably all I need. Just wanted to know roughly what it is, and make sure I’m not displaying my kid’s college tuition as a knick-knack in the basement.
You wouldn’t happen to know anything about an apparent Benito Mussolini commemorative straight razor would you (found in the same trunk)
