American Flyer O Scale Model Railroads

Some of the most sought after antique American Flyer trains featured cast iron clockwork windup #10 steam locomotives with #120 Coal Tender cars and tinplate passenger cars, gondolas, boxcars, and cabooses. Wind up the spring with the key, and the little train would roll. Some of these were later converted to the earliest electric versions by replacing the wind-up spring mechanism with a small motor. During this early period, company founder William Hafner developed his own "Overland Flyer" line of trains, and you can find some hybrids here, combining for example a Hafner engine with Overland Flyer Lines Union Pacific or Santa Fe passenger cars. There are also some great prewar trains from the 1920's and 1930's, like the Comet and Zephyr 5 piece sets, featuring twin streamlined locomotives and three passenger coaches, and rare Hiawatha passenger train sets.

The Hudson 4-6-4 Steam Locomotive with New York Central Tender was a favorite made in O gauge by American Flyer under Coleman in Chicago and later by Gilbert in his 3/16 scale models. Other prewar engines popular with collectors include the 1681 2-6-4, 3326 steam engine with tender, the little 3116 four wheel engine and the 312 Pennsylvania K-5 engine and tender. Restorers can also look here for 1930's locomotive body shells and sets of steamer wheels from Model Engineering Works (MEW).

Nostalgia for railroad collectibles has helped to preserve a great number of prewar American Flyer O gauge tin type baggage cars, tank cars, Streamliner passenger coaches and aluminum observation cars, as well as interesting operating cars like the Industrial Brownhoist crane car or a 1939 wrecker car consisting of a Chicago vintage flat car frame with a Gilbert era crane. To help provide the context of the times, look for an antique American Flyer catalogue, showing how your collectible vintage cars were marketed at the time they were produced. You can also find more modern rolling stock offerings like the 6-49047 CP Rail Coal Dump Car.

If your interest is expanding on trackside scenery with new or vintage American Flyer models, there are plenty from which to choose, such as the K 771 Operating Stock Yard & Stock Car with cattle and controller, pre-war blinking RR crossing signals, lighted water towers and operating semaphores. There are also vintage litho train stations and "Electromatic" electromagnetic crane sets. You can even operate it all with a restored #4B transformer, or the 100 watt No. 8B with twin wood handle controllers, or the fancy 30B twin controller transformer with voltage meters. From vintage locomotives to track sections and switches, you can find bargains on all the new and old American Flyer model railroad items here every day.

See more American Flyer O Scale Model Railroads at eBay »