American Flyer Trains

[American Flyer Trains]

Hey does anyone know if American flyer made trains similar in size or looks to joy line?

[cuyama]

Seems like you'd have more knowledgeable responses on the Toy Train sister forum.

[Steven Otte]

Agreed. I'm moving this thread over there.

[Penny Trains]

A lot of tinplate looks good together, regardless of manufacturer.  Lionel and Flyer were really most responsible for creating what we think of as O gauge in America.  Ives may have started here first, but Lionel and Flyer were the ones to make the trains larger when they shifted from cast iron to stamped steel locomotive shells.  Before them, manufacturers were following the european ideal of what O gauge should look like.  (Bing, Maerklin, Fandor, Bub, Krause)  So small locos with short 4 wheel cars were more common in sets on both sides of the Atlantic in the early days.

Here's an AF 3195 cast iron electric along side a Marx clockwork 0-4-0 which has many similarities to Joy Line locos:

They look good together, but it's the Marx loco that has the boiler length we've come to expect for an O gauge loco.

Here's a German clockwork engine along side the 3195:

And again aside the Marx loco:

See how much smaller european trains can be?  Both run on O gauge track but the German engine is more like S gauge in size.  (BTW if anybody knows who made that German engine I'd love to know!)  Hornby O is a bit bigger, especially pre-war Meccano.  But still very small and very short compared with what Lionel, Flyer and Ives were making in the late 20's.

Unfortunately I don't own any Joy Line equipment to show side by side pics with.  I'm sure somebody does, let's hope they see this and post!    But I do know that Marx, Hafner, Overland Flyer, American Flyer and Joy Line share ancestry.  So I've always assumed (correct me if I'm wrong) that much of the smaller equipment from all of those manufacturers were similar in size.  Especially Joy Line and Marx.

But take a look at the 3195 and this AF 3000 series caboose:

Not only does the caboose tower over the loco, but the 3195 has trouble pulling cars from that series.  The lightweight 4 wheel tender tips on curves due to friction from the larger car's axles and wheels against their truck frames.

So my suggestion would be to stick with small AF locos and 4 wheel AF cars if you want them to look good with Joy Line locos.  But both pre and postwar Marx would look great too!

Becky