Can someone assist me please?

[Anonymous]

Myself and my wife uncovered a train set and are lookign for soem help identyfying it.

I am not unskilled with the internet, yet can find no information at all on this set! It is quite maddening! If someone recognizes this set, can you tell me a general value range? (I know it is based on condition, but a range woudl be sweet!)

It is a boxed set, titled:

Gilbert American Flyer TRU-MODEL Train.

It is a yellow and blue box with an image of a train on the left side of the box.

The bottom of the box reads : Developed at the Gilbert hall of science -The ac gilbert co. new haven conn, usa.

On one of the sides of the box cover it lists copyright 1939.
Inside is six trains, all is seperated boxes, two sections of tracks in seperated boxes and more tracks backed up against the edge of the box. There is also an area for a switch of some sort.

The seperate boxes read:
530 Hudson Locomotive
504 Gondola
514 Wrecker
506 BCX Car
516 Caboose
The last train box is unlabeled but the train itself says"new york central"

Any help would be appreciated!

I can e-mail pictures if anyone likes. [e-mail] is my email.

Thanks,

Jim

[Anonymous]

No ideas anyone?

[trigtrax]

Sorry, I don't know anything about Flyer but from the date you describe I feel it must be the Standard Gauge type.. It probably does have some value.. I suggest you do a web search for TCA and that might get you in touch with those in the know.. Word of advise, do not sell until you find out all you can about the set.

[csxt30]

[#welcome] Jerric ! Maybe you could also search for information on Gibert. I used to collect erector sets & I know there was a club dedicated to all of Gilberts toys & his Hall of Sceince. Can't remember all of it now. Hope this helps, too. http://www.trainmarket.com/ I did have this site , which may help.

[Anonymous]

Your set would be an Gilbert American Flyer O gauge set. Toy manufacturer Gilbert bought the American Flyer train company in 1938 and completely changed their trains. These new trains were 3/16" scale (3/16 inch=1 foot). This is S scale, but the trains ran on O gauge track. In 1941/42, World War II brought a stop to the manufacture of "non-essential" or luxury items made out of metal, which included all toys and therefore trains. After the war, Gilbert went back to producing American Flyer trains, but these ran on the proper S gauge track and not O gauge.

As far as value goes, the fact that you have the boxes enhances the value greatly. You might try checking the American Flyer O Gauge category on ebay for you set. The link to it is: http://toys.listings.ebay.com/O-Scale_American-Flyer_W0QQfromZR4QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ2QQsacatZ19146QQsocmdZListingItemList .

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the help!

Sask....

I searched EBAY and found no sets that match the box I have, any way of telling what set I have exactly?

I do have pictures!

Thanks!

Jim

[Frank53]

It is very doubtful that you will find that exact set on ebay at any one time. YOU may want to start looking for teh individual components on ebay just to get an idea, but in your case the value is going to be considerably greater than the sum of its parts.

You probably need to find a Flyer Club and then establish a correspondence with an avid collector who can assist you. Hit and miss, but you need to really find out about teh value of the set before you make any decisions.

[phillyreading]

Not sure what you have as you do not have a photo with your topic, however the three letter number system for American Flyer suggests to me between 1943 and 1958. I can not help you any further without a photo!
Please try Greenbergs guide for S Guage trains published by Kalmbach Books & Video.

[Sturgeon-Phish]

I'll do a little more looking but from the numbers I'd say you're 1939 O gauge. I'm not into AF pre-war so I'm fuzzy.
Jim