Hi all, I am new to O scale after having rescued a batch of 1950s Lionel, Marx and American Flyer equipment from decades of storage in someone's attic. The permanently-mounted trucks on tender of the American Flyer steamer are nearly obliterated - has anyone seen a tutorial on how to replace them?
A shout-out to their durability - every one of the engines started up immediately after powering up the track, no cleaning required. The Marx engine's smoke unit even started puffing away -- what a stink it made, now I suspect lung cancer is in my future...
This car stops at ALL railroad crossings!
Postwar American Flyer is S-gauge (7/8 inch) and S-scale (1/64), not O. Are you sure you don't have prewar Flyer (1 1/4 inch gauge but 1/64 scale)?
Bob Nelson
Hard for me to say as I am not very familiar with the larger scales (I have mostly HO and N). They're similar in size to the Lionels and Marxes - how can I tell which scale it is? Are the guages you quoted equal to the distance between the flanges?
If the Flyer engines use the same track as the Lionel and Marx stuff, then it is prewar Flyer, as postwar Flyer used S-gauge which was a narrower track than the Lionel and Marx track. However, the prewar Flyer was O gauge, which would have ran on the same 3-rail type of track as the Lionel and Marx items
The track gauge is the distance between the inner surfaces of the railheads of the outer rails. The flanges must fit in-between those surfaces; so they are slightly closer together. For comparison HO gauge is 16.5 millimeters (about 5/8 inch) and N gauge is 9 millimeters (about 3/8 inch).
You can estimate the scale from the fact that American trains are usually 10'8" wide overall. In O scale, this is 128"/48 = 2 2/3 inches. In S scale, it is 128"/64 = 2 inches. Of course, toy trains often take liberties with their scales.
They are S-gauge, so thank you for setting me on the right track (bad pun intended) so I don't waste time and money on getting the wrong parts.
Going back to the original question, what are my options for restoring this tender, or is it not economically worth it?
American Flyer S guage had several types of tender trucks. Some were sheet metal and others were a combination of sheet metal and cintered metal.
A picture would help to narrow the repair. If you need to replace the whole truck simply drill out the rivet and replace taling note if it is the insulated or non-insulated truck then resolder the wire to the rivet.
Your story of an AF or especially a Marx steamer taking off after > 50 years of storage is not that uncommon and it is always fun and exciting when it happens
Love the AF!
Jim
Not much hope for these trucks. Recommendations?
It probably would help to post a side view of the tender, and the engine, as well as giving the number on the side of the engine.
Pikemaster trucks are useless. they don't stay coupled and they break easy as you can see. They sometimes show up on ebay. Gilbert also used Knuckle coupler trucks on the same frame using similar parts to what you have. also the wires to the loco were soldered to the tubular rivets that hold the trucks. (either straight thru or by the 2pin plug set up.
if you can find them or don't want to do the work. let me know.
I have them and I fix all AF except for the new electronic crap LTI makes.
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