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Well, the new American Flyer waffle-sided boxcar has arrived.  A friend of mine bought this car and loaned it to me for a quickie review.

So, first impression...  It's better than I'd thought it would be.

Right out of the box I noticed that it was taller than the traditional American Flyer boxcar.  Perhaps slightly under 1/8" taller, but noticeable. 

Over all, with the exception that the trucks appear to be a tad too far inward (at least for my tastes,) it's a pretty nice looking car for the Flyer Folks.  It hunkers down nicely over the trucks leaving no unsightly gap.  The underfame is stamped sheet metal with no underbody details.  The waffle embossing is well defined and molded in details are aren't clunky. 

4-rung ladders all around and no roofwalk clearly establish this car as a contemporary style boxcar.  The Waffle is a victory of Selective Compression.

AFWSBC 121115 001r

The Waffle is also about 1/4" longer than a traditional Flyer boxcar and just a tad wider.

AFWSBC 121115 002r

It holds up well to its traditional cousins.  A little taller as befitting a contemporary car:

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So, your about to ask: "How's it stand up to other manufacturers cars?"  Well, here's a small sample.

American Models 40'boxcar:

AFWSBC 121115 004r

SHS/MTH 40' boxcar:

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Plus, the Waffle is essentially the same size as the old Lionel O27 "Scout" boxcar.  I wouldn't be surprised if the body eventually shows up in some of the lower end O gauge sets.

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But, you guys probably figured I would apple and orange it to a true 50' contemporary boxcar and you'd be right...

AFWSBC 121115 007r

A model for the fine-scale S Scaler the Waffle isn't.  However if one were to want to do a scale 40' fantasy waffle sided boxcar, a scale conversion isn't out of the question.  I could almost consider doing one...

Currently the American Flyer waffle-sided boxcar is available in Chicago & North Western, American Flyer Lines and New Haven.  A BNSF version is also available for NASG members.

Rusty

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Last edited by Rusty Traque
Original Post

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falconservice posted:

Do you have access to the Lionel O gauge waffle-sided boxcar an you compare it to this new S Gauge Waffle-Side Boxcar?

Andrew

No.  All I can offer is a web photo I located of an O27 Waffle.

From what I can see, the Flyer Waffle looks much better than the O27 Waffle, which sits higher and has poorly shaped stirrup steps.  There are other detail differences, also.  The Flyer Waffle is definitely not a scaled down version of the O27 car.

LWFSBC O27

AFWSBC 121115 001r

Rusty

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  • LWFSBC O27
  • AFWSBC 121115 001r
Last edited by Rusty Traque

Since I am the master of the obvious, I have to mention that the most outstanding inaccuracy issue with this car is that fact that it is on friction bearing trucks instead of roller bearing trucks.

I admit that I am inconsistent on my desire for accuracy in my FLYER/HI-Rail rolling stock, but I did retrofit a set of SHS Roller Bearing Hi Rail Trucks on my hopelessly inaccurately detailed K-Line S-gauge Timken Roller Bearing Boxcar. 

Little Tommy

If I'm not doing S gauge, Marklin 3 rail HO, or 3 rail O, I also dabble in N scale. Micro Trains, as they are wont to do, have a couple variants on very similar cars. Gosh the tooling costs must be astronomical, but so is their customer base.

Anyway, I have a couple different waffle sided box cars by them, and I noticed on one, the trucks are somewhat inboard, and the couplers have longer shanks on them.

Here is a photo that I grabbed off the web that illustrates that.

 

SOU_565240_60_PS_Waffle-Side_Box_Car_NS_Norris_Yard_05-29-11.151102008_std

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  • SOU_565240_60_PS_Waffle-Side_Box_Car_NS_Norris_Yard_05-29-11.151102008_std
Last edited by Quick Casey
falconservice posted:

The S gauge/S Scale waffle sided boxcar has more DIFFERENCES than I realized.

I wonder why they did not use roller bearing trucks since this is a Post-1960 built boxcar.

Andrew

I would expect the Flyer roller bearing trucks, given their more complex design vs. the current standard truck,  would've added to the cost of the Waffle.  Maybe another 5-10 bucks retail per car.

Rusty

I actually like that locking Flyer door handle, Mark.  Compared to the O gauge Lionel doors, which lack it, I think it is an ingenious little thing that Gilbert created.  It serves a real purpose to keep the darned doors closed while the train is in motion.... which is a common annoyance with Lionel O boxcars.  

richabr posted:

Rusty's picture looks like a 40 footer. The relative size of the door to car length is different than in the PS-1 50'.

 

 

Rich

The Flyonel model (I noticed the 50' dimensional data on the car...) also has a smaller door than the 40' SCL prototype or CP 50 footer.

Found a couple of pictures of the GN plug door waffles:

40' Waffle GN 4288

40' Waffle GN 4286

The Flyer waffle is looking better and better for scalification.

Rusty

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Images (2)
  • 40' Waffle GN 4288
  • 40' Waffle GN 4286

Like the New Haven & C&NW versions of the new Flyer car shown above, I bought the "American Flyer Lines" version in blue & yellow.  Production was so long delayed on these cars, but they each still say "BUILT 2014."   Would it have taken that much extra work to correct that to 2015?   LOVE the car though...   Will pick it up a couple of the other paint schemes.   

Last edited by RadioRon

Mark, as for the length of these new wafflers... maybe Lionel wanted to still be able to use the already-existing standard chassis from the classic Flyer boxcars?   Just a thought.   I do notice that the plastic seems to be a bit thinner on these cars, too.   I guess they found a way to save a few cents there.  

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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