Info on American Flyer trains

[Anonymous]

I recently came across some American Flyer trains in an attic. I've been trying to understand what I have and would appreciate any help.

I've seen references to "heavyweight" cars. Is that in reference to the weights on the wheels of some of the cars?

What is the difference between red and tuscan colors?

Can you recommend a good website for beginners to identify trains and their features?

Thanks!
..................Jim

[Anonymous]

Actually, the place to post this would be in the Classic Toy Trains forum, but I can help you out some too. Are the trains S or O gauge. If the track has 3 rails, it's O gauge, which American Flyer made before WWII. If the track has 2 rails it's S gauge from after the war. It would be helpful to know what trains you do have. If you say what the numbers are on the trains of yours I could identify exactly what you have.

Some good lnks to check out for AF S gauge are:
http://hometown.aol.com/cliffgarz/Flyer.html
http://members.tripod.com/alminutoli/index.html
www.rfgco.com/history

Heavyweight is a term used to describe early passenger cars on realy railroads that were used before the newer lightweight aluminum passenger cars came out. American Flyer did make models of these.

[Anonymous]

You might look into the NASG website and some of the links they have there too. NASG is the National Association of S Gaugers. It's an organization like the NMRA (only better) that's exclusively dedicated to S scale model trains which is what American Flyer trains were. A.C. Gilbert Co. made AF trains and they also made them in "O" and "HO" scales.

www.nasg.org

Hope this helps.
Roger