colorado hirailer posted:When l was a kid, my brother and l had Marx 3/16, but two neighbor kids had Flyer, Atlantic sets. In the large dept. stores, l rarely saw the individual Marx 3/16 cars we hunted, but saw and wanted the Flyer Northern..this post WWII, and it was no longer 3 rail. I wanted Marx to have Mikados, Consols, and those Northerns. In those stores l remember many attractive Flyer steam sets, chuffing, but only Lionel Santa Fe F unit sets. Flyer had real steamer wheel arrangements, Atlantics and Pacifics, but not freights,nor did Lionel or Marx have the freight power that shunted coal hoppers down at my depot, and both had some goofy wheel arrangements. Back in trains years later l looked for those 3 rail Flyer Northerns... Himmel! Es gibt Zinkpest! And today l don't seek that roadname.
There are 3/16ths O gauge Challengers aka Northern aka 4-8-4s out there that aren't crumbling - I have several and aside from not having been run in years will probably fire back up with an oil job and some electricity to liven things up. The zinc-pest infected body shells may turn to dust, but the mechanism will yield lots of parts to keep intact models running. They look great pulling Marx tin 3/16ths litho freight cars (the passenger cars are a bit on the short side to run with the Challenger, but might not look too bad behind the NYC Hudson.
