In retrospect, I wish we would made the switch to Lionel early on back then. Several reasons - My dad didn't have the finances to purchase new trains and would buy our few add-ons from newspaper ads and after Christmas sales. Many of my trains didn't run quite as they should have and neither of us were very mechanically inclined so we were at the mercy of a train repair shop all the way across town.
My most desired set was the Santa Fe Warbonnet and when it finally arrived at about age 10 or 11 it was a great disappointment. Mine was a combination of the original 360 AB with a newer B unit and dummy A that had the (awful) horn and the odd Diesel-Roar, of which neither sounded good to me. It could barely haul the ABBA around much less the 4 silver passenger cars. It mostly sat on the siding and I ran the Comet PA and GM 370 Switcher or my two K5s.
In looking today at an American Flyer gondola and comparing it to a Lionel NYC gondola there is almost no comparison. The weight, detail and 'feel' of the Lionel model is much more 'massive' than the Flyer. I never had a Lionel 2046 to hold or examine back then but I can imagine what a steamer like that must have seemed like to a 6 year old! I doubt if I could have picked it up!
There were several of us in the neighborhood who had Flyer but the Lionel's seems to run better and be more sturdy. Yes, we had them beat with the Smoke & Choo but Lionel had a 'real' whistle!
