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Home  Articles Lionel Trains What You Must Know About The American Flyer Lionel Trains
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What You Must Know About The American Flyer Lionel Trains |
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Written by BoyRichardson
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Wednesday, 14 January 2009 |
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The American Flyer is in all likelihood the most well known of all model train series. They did achieve their peaks around the 40's and some other peak in the 60's, they are around longer than that. Their popularity is also well known nowadays as well and they are,i personally reckons that they will be still here another 100 years!
by BoyRichardson
The American Flyer is in all likelihood the most well known of all model train series. They did achieve their peaks around the 40's and some other peak in the 60's, they are around longer than that. Their popularity is also well known nowadays as well and they are,i personally reckons that they will be still here another 100 years!
A toy maker in Chicago addressed as William Hafner, in the very early 20th century built a model train developed on a clockwork motor, actually for the use in toy cars. By about 1905 how ever he made up his mind to put them into use in model trains as well. Luckily he did, the model cars sold no where near as well as the trains.
William Hafner and his good friend had the same name, William Coleman approached a small manufacturer of hardware, Edmonds-Metzel. They used this organization to start making trains in 1907.
They were first marketed under the name of Edmond Metzel trains, because they were so hot on demand they required a new name and they came up with the name of the American Flyer. This occur around 1910. Even the name of the hardware enterprise they were using had likewise changed it's name to incorporate the American Flyer name in it.
They started selling like hot cakes for some reasons. They were quite cheaper then some other popular makes of model trains at the time and because they were also quite a bit more practical then more budget style model trains of the time.
Mr William Hafner draw out from the corporation around 1913. He used the money he had already made and built up his own organisation. Colemans American Flyer Trains. It did well for quite some time around the first world war. There were no competition because of the war. In 1938, the founders son with the exact name, who was in charge of the business after his dad pass on in 1918 sold the American Flyer to a organisation called A C Gilbert Company. Gilbert already had experience in manufacturing toys, but he is clueless about trains.
At the same time he also moved the corporation from Chicago where it was created to New Haven in Connecticut where he lived. He also started to drastically re design the American Flyer and turned it into an S-scale model train in 1939. This scale is a modification of the popular O scale or model which was then the leader on the market.
The S-scale was much tinier then the O-scale and this made it more popular with enthusiasts as it required less room to setup a decent track. The scale is 1:64, considerably smaller then the O-scale yet still very detailed and precise.
He too made some other change in 1946 that improved the realisticness of the American flyer more so. Model trains, electric model trains at that time had been run on 3 rail tracks. Not virtual. He modified it so they ran on 2 rail tracks, much like their huge counterparts. These tracks had 7/8th inches 'tween each rail. This made the trains operate better as well.
How ever, television was beginning to take hold at this time as well. This distracted many from their hobbies they would normally spend their spare time on. Likewise at this time, discount chain shops came into play, discounting train sets that corporations like A C Gilbert could not compete with. in 1962, Gilbert traded the American Flyer to Wrather Group. This company made toys as well, but normally on a large scale and tended to make poor quality as well. Sales of course fell through the floor and in 1967 the organization went bankrupt.
A better toy train maker and the market leader at time, Lionel Corporation purchased the American Flyer. This company itself was having trouble with finances also and they too went bankrupt in 1969, so they sold off the rights to the American Flyer to other maker, General Mills.
This firm, General Mills, started trading some of the designs of the original designed Gilbert American Flyer, it however sell everything it bought from then Lionel Corp to Kenner, who then in turn sold the firm to a man named Richard Kughn. This happened in 1985.
Mr Richard Kughn had great success with the corporation and design for 11 years, but he sold out in 1996 to a enterprise also known as Wellspring Partners, who then took on the first name of Lionel and called themselves Lionel LLC, which still operates now.
They sell the S-scale American Flyer still. They were initially focusing on selling other scale models, but they begin selling more of American Flyer in 2002.
The American Flyer nowadays is more then one hundred years old and has gone through many different hands. This model train will not be going anyplace as it's popularity is still strong.
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