overland flyer

[Anonymous]

i recently receivved an overland flyer by hafner manufacturing of chicago. all i know is it was purchased in the early twenties and is in the origonal box. would appreciate any info on this toy train with wind up engine

[mersenne6]

You'll have to give us some more details. The cars - passenger or freight? If passenger 8 wheel or 4 wheel. Which hearlds (if any) on the passenger cars? The tender - does it have a railroad logo (i.e Pennsylvania) or does it just say "Overland Flyer"? What color is the tender? The engine - cast iron superstructure, aluminum, or litho sheet metal? If litho, what color?

[Dave Farquhar]

I can't tell you anything about the train but I can tell you a little about the company. Hafner was an offshoot of American Flyer--William Hafner had been a co-founder of AF--and the early Overland Flyer trains looked an awful lot like the AFs of the time. Hafner left AF in 1914 after a disagreement with his co-founder, William Coleman, although from what I have read they remained cordial for the rest of their lives.

William Hafner was a highly-regarded businessman who lived by a very simple code: Pay your debts, keep your promises, and speak ill of no man.

Hafner never got the kinds of widespread distribution that its big competitors in the 1920s did, so it was always a fringe player. But the company stayed in business until 1951, selling inexpensive windup trains. This may have been the reason the company lasted so long, because once Ives and Dorfan went under, the only company that wanted to mess around with cheap windups was Marx. Hafner never made an electric train. In 1951, William Hafner's son, John Hafner, decided he wanted to retire, so he sold the company to Wyandotte, a Detroit-based producer of metal toys. Wyandotte soon ran into financial troubles and was pretty much out of business by 1956. Louis Marx bought most of the company's tooling, at bankruptcy, mostly to eliminate a competitor.

I read in a semi-recent issue of CTT that the old Hafner factory in Chicago is still standing.

[Anonymous]

engine is cast iron black 2 passenger cars-1 marked B&O liberal stopover privleges
& overland flyer-1 marked new york flyer & made in america- 1 mail car american flyer line express baggage 1108 - one "eagle eye" caboose marked the joy line-all are 4 wheels-tender is black

[Dave Farquhar]

You've got quite the mix there. American Flyer was a different company, as was Joy Line. Their stuff all ran on the same track and used (mostly) compatible couplers though.

I'd be curious whether your locomotive is actually a Hafner, American Flyer, or Joy Line.

[Anonymous]

As far as value goes, the Joy Line caboose would be worth anywhere from $40-$70 depending on its condition. Unless it has a light in it, then it's worth $80-$110. The B&O Overland Flyer and New York Flyer cars are worth somewhere around $100 each, give or take a bit, depending on their condition. Pictures would be useful for us to identify what exactly you have. The box that you have is VERY important and if the engine and tender are Hafner, then you probably have an original set (with a couple of cars added on), which are in very high demand from collectors.