American Flyer rolling stock on Marx trucks

Tom

At one time a had a fleet of Flyer S gauge on Marx 3/16 trucks. They look and work great.

Steve

Thanks, Papa.  How are the things going down your way?

Are you folks still doing the Christmas trains at Nixon's Center?  That was just grand and it's one of the few things I miss about California...and there isn't much I miss.

Tom

Doing pretty good Tom. We haven’t done the Nixon in a few years. For the past 5 years we have been doing MUZEO in downtown Anaheim. We are having a planning meeting Saturday to kick off plans for this years display.

Steve

I was thinking of going the other way and take an old Lionel boxcar that is an actual 3/16 scale and replacing the O gauge trucks with American Flyer S gauge trucks. The only problem is that the center of the S gauge truck will have to be mounted about a quarter inch towards the ends of the boxcar. This will require reworking the underside of the boxcar maybe adding a new bolster to mount the S gauge trucks.

@John in California posted:

I was thinking of going the other way and take an old Lionel boxcar that is an actual 3/16 scale and replacing the O gauge trucks with American Flyer S gauge trucks. The only problem is that the center of the S gauge truck will have to be mounted about a quarter inch towards the ends of the boxcar. This will require reworking the underside of the boxcar maybe adding a new bolster to mount the S gauge trucks.

Fender washers make good bolsters. You can vary the thickness as required. When the car is running, no one will see the underside.

I have done this and it works well.  I tried it with some Marx 3/16 passenger cars, and it didn't work well with those because of the skirt around the car, but it works well with freight.

In 2003 K-Line started making S gauge cars using the molds/dies from the old Marx "3/16" scale cars. The run on a new design sprung diecast truck. There were a total of 42 different cars made plus some special runs for advertisers. These cars are usually available on auction sites.The S gauge OB's are distinctive, they are purple and yellow.

@AmFlyer posted:

In 2003 K-Line started making S gauge cars using the molds/dies from the old Marx "3/16" scale cars. The run on a new design sprung diecast truck. There were a total of 42 different cars made plus some special runs for advertisers. These cars are usually available on auction sites.The S gauge OB's are distinctive, they are purple and yellow.

Those Marx molds were not 3/16" size. They were from the Marx deluxe plastic line, which is larger than true 3/16" size. That's probably why they did not sell as well as K-Line would have liked.

In general, American Flyer operators are much fussier about keeping to scale sizing than post war three rail operators.

Marx 3/16" size cars are almost all tinplate, with the exception of a hopper, and maybe a closed door boxcar and a closed door stock car, all in the basic plastic (non-deluxe) line.

The trucks look like those made by American Models.

I am aware the K-Line cars are not really 3/16 scale, that is why I put it in quotes. I think they might be the same combination of scales as the K-Line S gauge Big Boy. The k-Line cars never appealed to me so I never purchased any. However these cars have come up on other forums recently so I purchased the K-Line #018 UP box car to do direct comparison measurements and photos. Also if my guess on size is correct I can run it behind 4014 and it will look ok.

The Gilbert box cars are not the best for comparison since they are based on a late '20s, early 30s X29 car as used on the PRR. The internal height of those cars was only 8'-7". The American Models cars are models of an early 1940's car with a 10'-0" inside height. I will put a picture in a separate post and I should have the K-Line car by this weekend.

Here are pictures that show an AM boxcar with the Gilbert (actually an AF by Lionel) boxcar. Also included is a shot of the original artwork for the K-Line car I purchased.

@John in California posted:

I was thinking of going the other way and take an old Lionel boxcar that is an actual 3/16 scale and replacing the O gauge trucks with American Flyer S gauge trucks. The only problem is that the center of the S gauge truck will have to be mounted about a quarter inch towards the ends of the boxcar. This will require reworking the underside of the boxcar maybe adding a new bolster to mount the S gauge trucks.

John,

I've used the Lionel cars with a Flyer frame and trucks which eliminates the whole problem of locating the trucks in a Lionel frame.  The photo shows a typical AF by Lionel boxcar, the converted car and an American Models car.  They play well together.

Looks good Jerry, plus you chose a double door Lionel car.

I purchased the Lionel boxcar on the right for almost nothing thinking that I would use the trucks. Then I discovered that the proportions were consistent with 3/16" scale. The boxcar looks ridiculous next to a 1/4" scale boxcar. It also looks silly all by itself because it is quite out of proportion to the trucks. And as I look at it, It appears that the bolsters are set for S gauge, so American Flyer trucks will be easy to install once I find some. On the side of the little car it says BLT 1-91 Lionel. Does that mean that it was built in 1991? I get the idea that Lionel wanted to build a cheap toy, but really, What were they thinking?

That's a bit weird looking.  It has the look of most of the plastic Marx cars that are out there with the large, out of proportion trucks.

http://www.tuveson.com/waffle-...r/waffle-boxcar.html

American models trucks work very nicely too.

Carl