I've actually meant to ask this for awhile....two of my favorite American Flyer Locomotives are the 3307 steam engine and also the 3020 electrics. I'm just curious, what do you think the chances are that Mike (MTH) or Lionel will ever reproduce these? Perhaps they are a little too common and might not be very popular? Much as I love the originals I'd love to have a few modern day versions....
Mark
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Mark,
As you can tell by the amount of posting about American Flyer here on this site, those who are interested in American Flyer of any era are in the minority. Those of us who collect pre war American Flyer are a small part of that minority. I doubt that there would be enough interest in any reproductions of Narrow (O) Gauge American Flyer to make producing it profitable. If I remember correctly, MTH canceled the O Gauge chrome plated version of the Ambassador that was to have been produced. I think there are probably plenty examples of both of these engines to satisfy the desire of collectors. It would be nice to see some "new from the factory" equipment produced.
BTW, you have some nice examples of both engines'
Northwoods Flyer
Greg
I would love to see some O Flyer also. I have quite a few, but it would be nice to have some with modern drive gear. This would allow for running for long periods of time at shows etc.
Steve
Greg...
That's very interesting, I never really thought about it beyond my own little world. For me I like my American Flyer trains as much as I like my Lionels, and throw in all the other brands as well. One manufacturers trains just compliment the others. I just assumed one was as popular as the other no matter where you look.
Steve,
You hit the nail on the head, much as I like my originals I'm personally pretty helpless when it comes to anything mechanical except maybe old farm tractors and I fall short on those also. But take the AF 3307/3308's, I always thought those were about as close in looks as you could get in tinplate versions to the real thing. Even though they are definately a common easy to find model I have always thought there are alot of folks like me who would love to have modern dependable loco's to run for hours on end. Who knows, maybe these posts will catch the eye of the right folks :-)
I've just got an AF 3113 ("Bluebird") which runs well until it gets to my Ross switches. Then it rides up the central frog or the inner safety rail or both, apparently because the inner flanges are only ~61/64" wide. All my other locos are at least 64-66/64" inside the flanges. Is there a safe way to gently widen the drivers on my 3113 to at least an inch (64/64")? Thanks, Bill
@BillHH posted:I've just got an AF 3113 ("Bluebird") which runs well until it gets to my Ross switches. Then it rides up the central frog or the inner safety rail or both, apparently because the inner flanges are only ~61/64" wide. All my other locos are at least 64-66/64" inside the flanges. Is there a safe way to gently widen the drivers on my 3113 to at least an inch (64/64")? Thanks, Bill
The Ross switches were never designed for the American Flyer electric wheels, as the real problem is not that the wheels are not spread far enough, but that the frogs themselves are too narrow for the fat flanges on these wheels The flanges simply won't fit through the frogs. At least that is my experience with the Ross Switches that I had on my layout 25+ years ago. I solved it by removing the Ross Switches from my layout at that time and eventually replacing the Gargraves track with Lionel tubular track, which I find works better with prewar Flyer.
Thanks NWL! It's a classic case of, "raise the bridge or lower the water"...widen the AF3113 wheels or pare back the Ross frogs. Since you suggested replacing them, I decided to risk some alterations to the Ross switches first. I've carefully Dremeled the Ross frogs and flange rails to ~61/64", and now my AF 3113 goes through...still a bit of rock and roll, but no longer a dangerous derail. The AF center rail pickup also jammed, but that responded to a couple of little wood cheaters to force the pickup up to the next contact.
Other locos and stock seem to roll through unchanged, and so I hope I won't have to pull out the curved Ross switches after all.
Thanks again for the good cues! Bill
@BillHH posted:Thanks NWL! It's a classic case of, "raise the bridge or lower the water"...widen the AF3113 wheels or pare back the Ross frogs. Since you suggested replacing them, I decided to risk some alterations to the Ross switches first. I've carefully Dremeled the Ross frogs and flange rails to ~61/64", and now my AF 3113 goes through...still a bit of rock and roll, but no longer a dangerous derail. The AF center rail pickup also jammed, but that responded to a couple of little wood cheaters to force the pickup up to the next contact.
Other locos and stock seem to roll through unchanged, and so I hope I won't have to pull out the curved Ross switches after all.
Thanks again for the good cues! Bill
I dremeled the frogs on my Ross switches as well and it really did not help with my issue, which is why I eventually removed them from the layout.
My current layout features no switches of any kind. It is just not worth the hassle to me, as I run all prewar trains, many with thick flanges, similar to the wheels on your 3113.
It is possible to spread the wheels apart some, but I don't think that would have solved the issue with the frogs as it is more a matter of the thickness of the flanges on the wheels not going through the frogs as designed by Ross.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
