Hi Everyone, its Saturday morning here in Texas and I am at the table contemplating a late acquisition - and I need your expertise! While wandering at a flea market/community garage sale I spotted two obviously prewar coaches. The price for the reasonably complete one was $1.00 and he threw in the one without wheels if I agreed to take it away. NOW, you all know us toy train collectors, I thought about that deal for about one nano second and stuffed them in my bag for later review.
Candidly I thought at first look that they were Prewar American Flyer as they looked like some 1107 coaches I have but that turned not to be easily confirmed for several reasons . First, the lithography (according to the '97 Greenberg book) was not listed or shown, Second over the windows was not "American Flyer" but "Overland Flyer", the coaches had a railroad logo under the windows and finally the couplers just did not fit any description I had of AF prewar tab/slot couplers. After considerable paging through Greenberg I did discover on pg 12 pictures of a Hafner coach that had similar markings although a different road name under the windows. This book, written by Alan Schuweiler, states that Hafner left the AF company in 1913 just before Flyer brought out its "new line" which included the 1107 coaches. He pointed out the absolute similarity of the AF coaches as shown in the 1914 catalog and the Hafner coaches in that same year implying that Hafner took his designs with him and used them to open up his new company. Who knows...but I would really like some help to ID these things, not for their absolute value but just to satisfy my curiosity.
So ...Nation Wide Lines, StevefromPA, and Greg J. Turinetti and other prewar AF experts...WHAT SAY YOU? Are these things AF but not shown in Greenberg (Highly unlikely) or are they Hafner or...???
Here is the side view...the Greenberg book, pg 12, shows a similar car that he states is Hafner but the road name is Erie. However the placement and style of the logo is very similar to these. Note that over the windows is "Overland Flyer" not American Flyer as it appears on the 1107 and there are no numbers on either car.
End view, no writing on the ends at all not even a "made in the US"
A view of the coupler, note the very circular round hole for a "slot". I could not find any American Flyer couplers that matched this description. Both cars have these couplers and there is no evidence that they have ever been changed.
Now another piece of advice sought...I have one car with wheels and only 1 coupler and one car with 2 couplers and no wheels. Should I "K-ball" them to create one complete car or leave as is?
Thank you for your help and advice
Don McErlean
