The American Flyer model train

Although the American Flyer model trains were at their peak of popularity between 1940 and 1960, the company had a long history before that, and its popularity seems to be increasing again today. William Hafner, working as a toymaker in Chicago, has developed an engine for use rope in toy cars in the first part of the 19th century and in 1905 was building a toy train engine that uses a rope.

With a friend, William Coleman, and use a hardware manufacturing company known as the Edmonds-Metzel Hardware Company, Hafner began producing toy trains during 1906-7 string. These trains Edmond Metzel were sold successfully by some large retailers to the American Flyer brand has been adopted for marketing purposes, and in 1910 the company name material has been changed to American Flyer Manufacturing Company.

American Flyer trains proved very popular, partly because they were cheaper than other popular brands at the time, and also because the dealer for more realistic than other model trains on a budget.

Hafner left the partnership in 1913 to start your own business and Coleman's American Flyer train very well during World War because they had no competition in the United States of German companies. By 1918, the first American Flyer electric trains were in production and the business flourished in the 1920s, but fell sharply during the Great Depression.

In 1938, William Coleman, Jr. son of company founder, who took over the business after the death of his father in 1918, sold the American Flyer Gilbert CA Company. Gilbert had been manufacturing and selling a wide range of toys but not toy trains. He moved the company from Chicago to New Haven, Connecticut and immediately began redesigning the trains. Improvement to the American Flyer S scale in 1939, a scale change has been the popular model S-gauge trains, then on the market. The scale of S, which scales as the ratio of 1:64 and made them smaller than the S scale trains, there were a number of important advantages in terms of roads and tracks.

In 1946, Gilbert made another major change in American Flyer. Until then, the electric model trains had run in three lanes with the middle lane to carry the current. Gilbert developed a two monitor the management of American Flyer. This two-track railway, which had seven eighths inches between the rails, did the layout of the circuit and therefore the realization of being more realistic than the road now looked like "real railroad.

With the advent of television – to distract young people and older people in their regular hobbies – together with the rise of discount retailers to lower prices and demanded low price Wholesale AC Gilbert Company ran into trouble in 1962 and was sold to the Wrather Group. The new owners of the production lines of toys, including model trains, which were of very poor quality and sales dropped sharply in 1966 to American Flyer production ceased. In 1967, the company was in bankruptcy.

At that time, Lionel Corporation, which in turn is in trouble when he has been the leading manufacturer of model train for many decades, has purchased the rights to the American Flyer. However, in 1969, Lionel Corporation itself was bankrupt and sold the rights for the manufacture of model trains, including American Flyer, General Mills.

General Mills began selling some of the original Gilbert designed American Flyer trains in 1979, but in 1984 sold its section of the company to a Lionel toy manufacturer, Kenner, who sold the company to Richard Kughn in 1985.

Kughn has been very successfully for over 10 years with Lionel and American Flyer trains, but sold in 1996 in Spring partners who created the company Lionel LLC, which currently manages the sale of a range of models trains, including the American Flyer S scale. Initially Lionel LLC concentrated on promoting S & O27 trains scale model of its original lines, but since 2002 has been the release of more and more American Flyer models.

The American Flyer is now over 100 years, and it was if a number of properties and fluctuations its popularity. S-scale enthusiasts now believe that this package is a recognized model to make a resurgence again.

About the Author

John Vanse, a model train enthusiast, has a number of websites concerned with model trains. All these sites can be accessed through the hub site:
The Model Train Guide
For more specific information about American Flyers see:
American Flyer Model Trains