Tinplate photos 📸 and videos 📽

Wow, nice collection.  I’ve got 3 nice 500s.

@Nation Wide Lines posted:

Don,

No reason to apologize, I was just having some fun with you!

Here is a picture of another Flyer stock car, without doors

And with doors

As for other Flyer stock cars, the variation that RSB posted came in differing colors and it and the one above are the only two prewar Flyer O gauge stock cars that were built.  They of course produced a Wide Gauge stock car as well, but never made an O gauge 6.5 inch or 9.5 inch stock car.

NWL

As usual with American Flyer, there will be variations. The example NWL provided came with two different door colors.

Northwoods Flyer

Greg

Fatman/Daniel:  Great cars. Daniel what a collection!  Fatman same really cool cars plus I had not known that what Hornby calls “milk service” cars also were used as cattle carriers although I was always intrigued by the fact that both were slotted sides. In the US most milk traveled by iced cars or iced sections of box cars. Some also traveled in “tank” cars. Daniel I have seen that lithograph car (#3 in your list of photos) and always laughed at the capacity sign giving the capacity for both “beasts” and humans!

Great posts everyone

Best wishes

Don

Greg: please excuse my lack of knowledge but did the cars without doors come that way from Flyer or are the doors just missing??  Thanks

Don

Hello Don, thanks for your answer.

If you follow Frank Hornby designation the cars which are half slotted are for cattle and the full slotted ones are for milk....

Here are some milk cars, French

And British

In France the milk cars changed with the 1S serie in 1935 and they where more realistic, now normal iced cars. The milk jars where also different, lead models. If you buy the simple model you will have three milk jars but if you buy the model with guard you will have to buy them separetely....

The capicity sign, men 40 or horses 8 was used during the war to indicate the capicity of the car.

All my best wishes,  Daniel

Thanks Daniel - as always Great Information and things that I did not know.  I have the Southern "milk service" car but none of the others.  I have tried a few times to get the lithographed "wagon a lait" a couple of times but have been outbid...oh well leaves things for the future.  Thanks again.

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

Greg: please excuse my lack of knowledge but did the cars without doors come that way from Flyer or are the doors just missing??  Thanks

Don

Don,

The cars without doors came that way.  If you look at the photo below, you will note that the pieces of metal in the door opening are the un-formed door guides, which prevents doors from being installed on this car. 

Flyer sold both smaller sized baggage cars and boxcars without doors.  They offered these door-less cars for a few cents cheaper than cars with doors. 

Here is a Flyer car c. 1916 which was sold without doors.

Another early baggage with no door

An early boxcar without doors.

Similar car, but with doors

And of course there is this, no door openings and a cupola, just another crazy item from Flyer

NWL

NWL :  Thanks for answering the question about the doors.  Candidly I have seem "door less" cars offered at auction and wondered if they came that way or were just missing pieces.  Now I know.  The explanation of "saving a few cents" seems trivial to us today but I imagine in the far earlier era's shown in your response that was not always the case.  I sometimes forget that when my wife and I were assigned to our first AF base in Ohio (1970) , gasoline was "5 gallon's for 1$"

Thanks again for the response.

Don

some of my tinplate

I’m so happy to report this 318 is running really well now.  It had a lil hitch in the giddy up, was binding at one point in the gears causing it to run not so well.  I noticed one of the large gears was a bit kiddy wampas as my ma used to say, so I thought, hey, why not try to move it over with a bit of persuasion.  So I located the spot where it was closer to the frame, stuck a needle nose pliers between the gear and frame, gunched it a tad, and walah, it’s running great!  No more slow downs.  2nd easiest fix in toy train history!  Thought about this for a week before I tried it and it worked, gotta love when a plan comes together.   Here it is in its element, toting a nice string of brown baby states.   Have a great weekend all you tinplate nuts!

Cheers,       W1

Nice to see your 318 running well. It is a very nice engine, especially in state set colors. Greetings for the fix of your loco, it seems perfect.

I also have one a little older, a dark gray model.

Have a nice tinplate weekend,  Daniel

Daniel, that’s a handsome model.  I have a dark gray 318 too.  Currently in the shop but expecting it back soon.  Talked to my repair guy a couple days ago and it seems all I well.  Replacing all the wiring, they get a little ragged after 90 years.  Fingers crossed it will pull a long string of 500 freights very soon.  Will post a short video when I get it back.  

Since we did a tinplate cattle car cavalcade last Sunday I thought for this Sunday it might be worthwhile to do a...

Tinplate Tank Car Tour

Not sure if this is tin plate or wood plate?  This is an early American Flyer tank car. 

OK, for an explanation, this car features a wooden tank that is comprised of two dowels, the larger main body and the smaller fill area. 

This car would be c. 1914, due to the late frame.  There are earlier versions of this car on the Chicago 4 Window Car frames.  There are differing color variations to the tank and some of the earlier cars have frame colors that match the body color.

In addition to the body being held in place with the 2 straps, there are 2 nails that hold the body to the frame.

NWL

Excellent idea Robert, it is a fun subject...

In the same spirit than the AF cars presented by NWL, the French brand AS has offered around 1990 some tank cars with wooden tank.

Also some variations from different manufacturers around SHELL

Hornby British 1928,

L R France 1935,

EDOBAUD, France 1935

Marklin 1935,

BLZ France 1950

GMP France 1955-57,

ETS also offered one, still available

Lionel has also offered different models but I do not have many, If only I could find a 515 model for an affordable price....

Daniel

Beautiful cars.  Here’s my 515s.  Was just looking at my Greenberg book and saw I’m missing the orange Shell version, no picture in the book of it and there it is in Daniel’s collection.  Amazing.  Guess I’ll have to keep an eye open for that one.

Sorry W1, I do not have the Shell 515 unfortunately..... I have seen some for sale but always pricy, I have the same one you have and I am happy with.

Daniel

Well this is great folks...I LOVE tank cars.  Here are a few of mine from various manufactures

A series of "Allstate" tank cars from Marx as sold by Sears.  The 3 dome deluxe car from about 1960.  The Twin Tanks Allstate car from 1958.  The 4 wheel lightweight Allstate tanker from the late 60's through about 1970.

The pre war American Flyer 0 gauge car, # X-1128 from 1936

The Peerless Tank Line car from Bing. I am not sure of the date of this car but I expect it to be around the 1950's

The Chad Valley Milk tank car from the 1950's

The Chad Valley petrol tank car from the 1950's

Two Hafner 1010 tank cars from the 1950's

The Dressler ESSO Tank car from the 1950's.

A Japanese Shell tank car from the 1960's

The Marx (Girard Joy Line) "Everfull" Tank car from 1934-36

Best wishes and great idea Robert.

Don

Hello Don,  nice pieces and not common for me to see those US models.

Your bing is much older than you think, it's from 1925.

Very best, Daniel

Another more unusual American Flyer find. 

This box contains 1/2 dozen (six) 1118 Tank Cars. 

This was an early photo I took, prior to replacing the car that is in the middle-right position

NWL

@Frenchtrains: Daniel Thank you for the information.  That is really neat to know, 1925 WOW!  that certainly is much older than I expected.  I really have very little information on Bing so your input is really appreciated.

@Nation Wide Lines :  An entire box of 1118's and I thought it was cool just to have ONE! Thanks for posting.  Its an interesting take on the marketing scheme in the early days.  Obviously if they packed the cars by the dozen I expect to be sent to a store for sale they were not sold with individual boxes as they were in later years.  Interesting.

Best wishes

Don

Don,

The 1/2 dozen boxed items were contained primarily on dealer price lists, as they were designed for the dealers to buy a 1/2 dozen cars and then to split them up for separate sale.  I am not sure that always happened, as the 1/2 dozen assorted car boxes came to me as shown.

There are also 1/2 dozen assorted cars, which contained 3 freight and 3 passenger cars of various sizes.

Although the below box should have 3 freights and 3 passenger cars, it came to me with 4 freights and 2 passenger cars.  As all of the cars are very nicely matched, I suspect that either it came this way and was sold this way, or someone swapped out 1 car very early on. 

I have seen other half-dozen boxes, with the smaller 5 1/2 inch cars in them, in a friend's collection.

NWL

This was a separate sale only item in 1928, the first year that American Flyer started producing O gauge enameled freight cars.

In 1929, the color of the tank changed to green.

and in 1930, the trucks changed from black to gray

NWL

A few Bing tank cars

And new this week, locos and cars made by the manufacturer Gustav Koester. This trains are metal building toys, made ony 1947-1955.

Arne

@Nation Wide Lines: the 1/2 dozen boxes are a fascinating extension of my meager knowledge of early Flyer.  I agree that although the boxes might have been intended for a dealer to split up and sell separately I can see how they might easily (especially with the "assorted cars" ) moved over into commercial sales.   OBTW I also have the 1930 (or later) green tanker with the grey trucks, it came with an small assortment of enameled cars, likely of the same vintage, that I purchased at a train show quite a few years ago.

@Arnie - What a great assortment of Bing tank cars.  The two domes appear to be the same car by structure and manufacture but with very different liveries.  My "Peerless" version, posted above, seems to be of the same lineage.  The construction toys are also quite unique.  I will admit I had never seen anything by Koester before.  They look like they are made from "Erector" set parts.

Best wishes and thanks to all for posting

Don

If we filled all those tank cars with oil we could corner the market and live like sheiks.  Actually now that I think about it not so sure I’d want to live like a sheik.  Trying to keep a handle on a harem would drive me nuts, one gf is hard enough…

Cheers,       W1

My offering is not as varied as others here since I only have Lionel.

Starting off with an ivory standard gauge 515

Next are two different Sunoco variations of the O gauge 654. An aluminum paint with nickel plates and journals. Followed by a light gray paint with decals and black journals.

Finally the smaller 4 wheel O gauge aluminum painted with copper journals.

Rich great tankers personally I love the 600’s and they have quite a few variations. Nice display.
W1 your comment on the harem reminded me of an old joke. …Osama bin Laden lived in a tiny 3 room house for several years with his 3 wives ….maybe he called the SEALS himself!!

Don

Rich - Now an ivory 515, my how the plot does thicken. That’s a real find.  Not so sure I would call that ivory colored, if I was charged with making up names for Sherwin Williams I might call it Wet Sand Dune Tan.  I think I read a rumor of a yellow Sunoco? model that was made as well.  Greenberg does say that the 515s had the most color variations of any of the 500 series freights but these two he does not have listed.  Don - thanks for that.  Not so much into textspeak but I will say that made me chuckle audibly.  

STD Gauge CMC Erie Camelback. I need a few more boxcars😎

Steve

Greetings friends,

Here is a beautiful Lionel UP City of Salina restored by Bob Furtado many years ago.  Unfortunately it does not like to go around 0-54 curves and has set on a shelf for over 20 years.

Today I gave it a chance to stretch its legs on the straight track and here it is.  Enjoy.

Lew Schneider

Tanks !

OOPS!  Wrong kind !

Ok now to the serious stuff lol!

( you will have seen all these somewhere before but for the sake of taking part because only new clockwork cars recently )

Jep ( France ) Wine wagon

PionerExspressen ( Denmark )

Fleischmann ( Germany)

Robilt ( Australia)

German  Gaz Wagen

Hornby ( UK ) gas wagon ..

French Hornby

Hornby again

Sakai ( Japan)

Bing

Chad Valley (uk)

Marx

Hornby ( USA ) These sets were originally made in the US for sale , but when the company sold to Gilbert in 1929 they became re-issued as Hornby UK items ... they can be found with " Made in the U.S.A." "Hornby Lines" or Made in L'Pool" or in very rare cases with the USA marks overpainted ( the ones brought back from the USA and resold in the UK ) I have examples of all three in the caboose variants .

Here is another variation to add to the American Flyer roster of 9" tank cars.

Northwoods Flyer

Thought I’d update with some windup pics and videos I’m currently enjoying. Enjoy!

*Side note - Does anyone know if the possibility of “reversing the order” of the postings and comments in this thread? (Currently the very first posting is listed first and the latest is all the way in page 44)

Ariel

Marvelous!

Dorfan Clockwork set 136.

Steve

Steve,

Very nice!  I love sets that come with tunnels, signals, and stations in their original set boxes.  They are great finds and I enjoy finding similar American Flyer sets.

NWL

Elgaucho :  Great display of those trains, really neat to see them operate.

Steve:  What a fabulous set ! Trains, track, buildings, tunnel, and signs...an entire RR empire in a set.  I can imagine what the young person who received that set must have felt.

Best Wishes

Don

Elgaucho - Very nice trains, I like it!

You have the option of clicking last reply or first unread post taking you to the end of the thread.  Hope that helps.

Cheers,       W!

@William 1 posted:

Elgaucho - Very nice trains, I like it!

You have the option of clicking last reply or first unread post taking you to the end of the thread.  Hope that helps.

Cheers,       W!

Hi William! Thanks for the reply!

Where exactly is the “last reply” button? I don’t see that option on this page.

Ariel