The Story Of The American Flyer Model Train Series
The American Flyer is probably the most famous of all model train series. They did achieve their peaks around the 40′s and another peak in the 60′s, they are around longer than that. Their popularity is also very popular today too and they are, I feel they are going to be hanging around another 100 years!
A toy maker in Chicago called 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 however he made up his mind to put them into use in model trains too. Luckily he did, the model cars sold no where near as well as the trains.
William Hafner share the exact same name as his best friend, William Coleman approached a small manufacturer of hardware, Edmonds-Metzel. They used this organization to start producing trains in 1907.
They were first marketed under the name of Edmond Metzel trains, but because they were selling so fast and so well they required a entirely new name and they came up with the name of the American Flyer. This occur around 1910. Even the name of the hardware company they were using had also changed it’s name to incorporate the American Flyer name in it.
They were really famous and there are numerous reasons for it. 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 left the organisation around 1913. He used the cash he had already made and built 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 right before the break out of the second world war, the founders son with the same name,took over the business after his father died in 1918 sold the American Flyer to a firm called A C Gilbert Company. Gilbert already had experience in producing toys, but he has no idea anything about trains.
At the same time he also moved the enterprise from Chicago where it was made to New Haven in Connecticut where he lived. He also began 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 smaller then the O-scale and this made it more popular with enthusiasts as it needed less room to setup a proper track. The scale is 1:64, considerably smaller then the O-scale yet still very detailed and accurate.
He also made some other change in 1946 that amended the realisticness of the American flyer more so. Model trains, electric model trains at that time had been run on 3 rail tracks. Not practical. He adjusted 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 function better as well.
However, television was starting to take hold at this time too. This distracted many from their hobbies they would commonly spend their spare time on. Likewise at this time, discount chain shops came into play, discounting train sets that enterprises like A C Gilbert could not compete with. in 1962, Gilbert traded the American Flyer to Wrather Group. This enterprise made toys as well, but most of the time on a large scale and tended to make poor quality as well. Sales of course fell through the floor and in 1967 the firm went bankrupt.
A better toy train maker and the market leader at time, Lionel Corporation bought the American Flyer. This enterprise itself was having difficulty with finances too and they also went bankrupt in 1969, so they sold off the rights to the American Flyer to some other manufacturer, General Mills.
This organisation, General Mills, started trading numerous of the designs of the original designed Gilbert American Flyer, it how ever sell everything it purchased from at that time Lionel Corporation to Kenner, who then in turn sold the enterprise to a man named Richard Kughn. This happened in 1985.
Mr Richard Kughn had good success with the corporation and design for 11 years, but he sold out in 1996 to a corporation called Wellspring Partners, who then took on the original name of Lionel and named themselves Lionel LLC, which still functions today.
They sell the S-scale American Flyer still. They were initially concentrating on selling several others scale models, but in 2002 they begin selling more and more of the American Flyer.
The American Flyer now is more then 100 years old and has gone through many extraordinary hands. This model train will not be going anywhere as it’s popularity is still strong.
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