Postwar American Flyer Passenger car set colors

I have wondered about the colours on the link coupler heavy weights and thought this is a good opportunity to ask here as well.

I am also interested to know exactly what engines (Hudson/Northern) had specific coloured sets as mine did not always come with locomotives. I can work out some combinations but not others, especially the early painted ones.

I have a set which looks more a pinkish colour which has various paint flaking, another set that is painted a more slightly more reddish colour, a set that is painted green the same as the 9xx series, a shiny olive green set which I assume is integral to the Bakelite and a dark shiny red, again integral to the Bakelite.

Were the painted versions, especially the pink/red ones due to any change of process batch design or.........?

As a rule most where  all silver with  a one color stripe, (i.e. New haven, orange)....

Here is a link you can use to see the various sets made.  Since you have link couplers, you can go back to 1952 and earlier for the sets, The color stripe was part of the main color of the engine...

http://www.myflyertrains.org/A...lbert%20Catalogs.htm

Marty

Are the heavy weights 95x or 65x numbers? Are the passenger cars painted? If link, what variation of link coupler do they have? Do the cars have opening doors? Which engine is with the passenger cars? With this information we can tell better what you have.

Gilbert never intentionally mixed the colors in the heavyweight passenger sets. It is possible some one off sets like this could have been sold to employees at the factory store. Gilbert did not make a set with only two heavyweight passenger cars so it is possible these cars were all separately purchased. 

There is a book that lists every set, catalogued and uncatalogued, by engine. So it is easy to determine if this is a documented set.

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AmFlyer posted:

Are the heavy weights 95x or 65x numbers? Are the passenger cars painted? If link, what variation of link coupler do they have? Do the cars have opening doors? Which engine is with the passenger cars? With this information we can tell better what you have

There is a book that lists every set, catalogued and uncatalogued, by engine. So it is easy to determine if this is a documented set.

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I am looking at the 65x heavy weights with link couplers. I'm not at home at the moment to look at them to see which coupler weights they have. Will the book you mention go down to a granular level as to the specific shade of red/pink paint used in specific sets? I am guessing you are referring to Mr. Tufts?

My problem is that the pass cars didn't always come with an engine and if they did most certainly not the correct one.

Thank you for the replies.
Here is some more detailed information:

The odd locomotive is a 293 steam engine.

The four passenger cars do not have silhouettes in the windows.
They all have die cast trucks and knuckle couplers.
I am not positive as to whether they are painted or molded in color.
The cars are:

951 Baggage - green
952 Pikes Peak passenger car - green
953 Niagara Falls combine - red/tuscan
954 Grand Canyon observation - red/tuscan

The 293 should have just green cars

Forgot to mention they are painted and don't have silhouettes, it was the 5555 set that had these and they are red and I have this set with the Hudson.

I was referring to the book by Robert Tufts, as I recall it was printed about 12 years ago.

The 65x cars were originally painted a red color, or green, with the long trucks. Then some short truck cars were made painted. The unpainted Bakelite red and green cars arrived in 1948. They are darker than the painted. I have seen some that have faded slightly. Some red and green painted cellulose plastic cars were made as 652's in 1953. These are also stamped Pikes Peak. These are the same shells used for the 95x cars. The paint on the Pikes Peak 652's varied in color from maroon to a cherry red. The green paint on the Pikes Peak 652's is the same green as used on the 95x green cars.

All the 95x cars were painted in the same color of red. As far as I know the color variations in the 95x cars is only from fading.

Hi Tom,

I have two sets of four car short truck 65x painted heavy weights. They are different shades to each other which is where my dilemma is. The set that I call the 'pink/red' ones are uniform all over and the paint is flaking, which suggest they haven't faded due to sunlight and the other set is a slightly darker shade and more reddish.

it would be interesting to see if anyone else has similar sets that have a shade variation and to possibly understand why.

Your red painted 65x heavyweights with short trucks are likely 1948 production. The red painted 1947 and 1948 cars did seem to have several versions of red paint. The paint did not adhere well to the Bakelite, hence the flaking. I do not have any of these early painted cars. I have several unpainted red 1948 production heavyweight cars. They all have 2 numbers on each side rather than one number centered on the side of the car. The only painted 652 heavyweights in my collection are 1953 Pikes Peak cars. All 3 of my red painted cars are a different shade of red, all are LN OB condition cars. One of them matches the red paint on the 952 cars. 

I have not seen any variation in the green paint on the 1953 cars and it matches the 95x paint color. Both of mine are also LN OB. As a minor point of interest one green and one of the red 1953 cars are in plain white boxes with the correct stamping on the end flap. 

Lots of answers here, some relevant, some not. The silver cars with painted window strips are the streamline cars, although the Silver Bullet came with two silver-painted 955 "New Haven" cars. There were many variations in finishes, especially with the 955 cars, which came unpainted plastic, painted plastic, and at least two shades of reds/maroons, and two different greens; also with and without illumination, or even window plastic. The heavyweight (six wheel trucks) cars also had variations, and yes, paint did not stick well to the Bakelite bodies, so they did do some in colored Bakelite. Many variations on lettering, some rather rare even. in the 95X cars there are also variations in window treatment, the most uncommon are windows with silhouettes. I have seen at least two green colors on these cars; interestingly, apparently ACG never made a Green KC mail pick-up car, although the LC version came both ways (the only green ones I've seen are molded-in color). Don't forget, unsold cars were combined into "special packages" and sold as a single item; they even made it into a catalog or two as such, no locomotive, just a passenger car assortment.