1950's AC Gilbert American Flyer Trains

American Flyer was Lionel's major competitor for higher priced trains and Marx was the low priced competitor for both.  I am trying to understand you question or point of posting.  Please clarify?

I have been an owner, operator and now collector of Gilbert S scale trains since I was 2 years old. Obviously a choice made by my dad.

We need to start prewar to understand the outcome. The American Flyer line of trains was always well behind Lionel in sales and popularity. W O Coleman sold American Flyer to A C Gilbert in time for the Christmas of 1938 offerings to include some new models. While still three rail all Gilbert's new tooling was to 3/16" scale. In 1946 Gilbert made the change to two rail 3/16" scale track as a way to avoid competing head to head with Lionel.

So why did the sales stay a distant runner up to Lionel? Lionel had more manufacturing capacity, was better capitalized at that time, had a bigger sales network, more retail outlets and shelf space and a bigger advertising and promotion budget. Plus Lionel was starting with a 40 year history as a quality toy train manufacturer.

The Gilbert products were great, relatively accurate, appeared more scale than toy-like and ran well. From a parent or gift givers point of view, Lionel was a no risk gift, Gilbert required some explaining in the early post war years. Gilbert simplified the transformer, by having only three terminals, a base post, a 7 to 15 volt post and a 15 volt post. All equipment was redesigned to operate from those posts. From there it became way more complicated. With Lionel a child could put together track in any configuration, attach one clip and two wires, then play. Turnouts-no problem, put them in and they were powered from the track. No issue with shorts from reverse loops.

American flyer was much more complex. An oval of track took only one clip. Turnouts had to be wired separately. For an action car the pickup wheels may have had to be reversed in the truck depending on how it was set on the track. The turnouts could be power routing, fiber pins might be needed and adding extra track clips almost always defeated the power routing feature without the fiber pins. The child would have had to be a future engineering student, like I was, to really want to understand all this and like making it work. Then there was the reverse loop issue. My friends would always lay out the track with one, fortunately the transformers had circuit breakers.

Then there was the space requirement. Postwar Lionel took either a 27" or 31" wide space plus length for straight track. American Flyer was a 40" minimum wide space and an oval with only one straight track was 50"wide; it would not fit on a standard sheet of 4'x8' plywood! American Flyer was clearly more of a niche product than Lionel, but one I continue to enjoy to this day.

HO was cataloged for 10 years.

Gilbert also offered HO trains throughout the postwar years. I thought the best marketing effort was Lionel's Father and Son set with both scales matching. Gilbert seemed to treat HO as a sideline until 1956 when they increased advertising and completely repackaged all the HO products and sets.

Thanks for the responses, all I was asking basically during the 1950's, is how Lionel and American Flyer competed in the toy train market, I remember local train stores selling Lionel trains and accessories, how was American Flyer  marketed, both companies advertised on commercial television, where were American Flyer trains sold? Its been a long time since the 1950's when I was in grade school, my posting was just for general information.  

American Flyer trains were advertised on TV, in the Sunday newspaper comics section and in magazines. They were sold in department stores, Sears, hobby shops and other selected retailers. It was easy to find the AF trains, almost everyplace selling Lionel also had AF trains. Since Lionel was a bigger seller the Lionel displays were usually more prominent, and the stores had much more Lionel inventory.

The West Coast American Flyer sales staff was both enthusiastic and hard working.  They sold relatively more trains compared to Lionel than their counterparts on the East Coast. They managed to narrow the gap so that Lionel outsold them 2 to 1, rather 3 to 1 in the East.

I was surprised how much Flyer was available in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 70s when I was collecting there. (Got my first American Flyer set in the 1950s)  Found out much later it was due to the efforts of the A C Gilbert sales staff.

Ed Boyle

Parner

Special Projects Editor

O Gauge Railroading magazine