RoyBoy posted:Robert S. Butler posted:Here's an example of the early and late Hafner passenger trains.
Ealy
Late
Why does the early Hafner look so much like early American Flyer? Were they connected somehow?
When Hafner left AF he took nothing with him and had filed no patents for his clockwork designs or other trains, so both Hafner and AF coaches (specifically the 1100 and 1200 series AF consists) looked very similar. I have seen other opinions expressed here in on other forums that quite a few cast iron and possibly Hummer AF locos continued to be driven by Hafner clockwork well into the late teens. I agree that the Overland Flyer coaches look pretty **** close to the 1107 Flyer Pullmans, but they also resemble some Bing 210 and 516 metalwork coaches of the same era. So, it is entirely possible it was cheaper for both companies to buy passenger coach shells from Bing and adorn them at the factory before assembly.
