Fond Gilbert Flyer Memories

At that time, all my friends had Lionel, and curiously, when I got back into the hobby in my 30's, I chose Lionel and some Marx!

Oh, and I once took a trip with my uncle from Grand Central Terminal on the New Haven Railroad to visit the A.C. Gilbert factory in New Haven!

Art, Did you ever visit the Hall of Science near the corner of Broadway and Fifth Avenue? I never made it, but it sure must have been something.

My first childhood set was The Mountaineer from 1956, bought second-hand by my father around 1962. I still have most of it, including the 283 Pacific that headed the train:

Lost the caboose somewhere along the way, but I replaced it with a C&NW version thirty years later.

Later I lost my way, going N-gauge for a number of years before stumbling into prewar tinplate. Miss the S-gauge.

Good memories, mate...thanks.

PD

@Tinplate Art posted:

Oh, and I once took a trip with my uncle from Grand Central Terminal on the New Haven Railroad to visit the A.C. Gilbert factory in New Haven!

I used to hang out in the Grand Central Terminal  in the mid 1950's- mid 60's and on the commuter and long distance trains platforms and saw some great sights.  The smell of steam, ozone, oil, dank (damp, heh) air -- and hissing of moving trains,  lightening flashes of arcing 3rd rail; shoes over long crossovers and whining of various traction motors of slowly moving trains.  An almost magical place -- and all with the then very dim platform (incandescent bulbs) platform lighting.  I remember scenes like this when the old Terminal looked like a REAL railroad Terminal with real classic trains !

PS:  Check the OGR Subways Forum section -- I replied to your post there about BMT EL Gate cars ---  Regards - Joe F

Back in the day the rivalry between Lionel people and Flyer people raged. Lionel sold more about 2 to 1. Presently I'm on the peaceful mission of incorporating both in my collection. Peace, my friends!

Nice memories!  My first electric train belonged to my cousin.  A Flyer 302 Atlantic and 3 green passenger cars with hook couplers.  He gave it up when he went to college.  My Mother did not like the smell of the Flyer smoke, so it was set up only briefly.  She thought it was going to catch fire because it smoked very well.  Mom has been gone for a few years now but every time I smell Flyer smoke or hear of Flyer memories that sad but good memory comes back.  Even though I have made the switch to Lionel, I still have the Flyer set and great memories. Thanks so much!

Dave

I really loved the aroma of that wonderful AF smoke, and fortunately so did my mom and dad! My layout was in our semi-finished basement. That smoke fluid has been much imitated, but never quite duplicated.

One of our neighbor ladies in Woodhaven, Queens worked as the switchboard operator at the GHOS. On one occasion, she arranged for a friend and myself to get a special tour of the GHOS, which included a visit to the sales display layout on an upper level not open to the public. We also got to see some new products to be released later that year! And to run some trains on that layout.

Oh, and thanks to that fine lady, my parents were able to get her 40% discount on the brand new A-B-A five car North Coast Limited set, which I believe retailed for $80, which was a little out of my parent's reach at that time.

Thank you for sharing these wondrous memories. Magic!  

From the description you had a real treasure trove of Gilbert items, Art. I did not have nearly as many, just two trains and some accessories. Fortunately I still have all mine including all the OB's and set boxes.

I have a lot of fond memories on running to the train board on Christmas morning. I wanted to see what Santa brought. One year my father put the train board in my bedroom. One year it was in the guest bedroom and a few years it was in the basement. Dad was like me. We always wanted it bigger.

Our Gilbert Flyer family Christmas layout from 1956 ---

Bob

Great picture Bob of some great trains..

Bob, that is a fantastic layout, hard to believe that is 1956!

Bob: An impressive layout and trains!

I had always wanted a train, and when I was six years old i received an all aboard Champion set.  This was in 1969 after they went bankrupt, so I am sure they got it for me because it was cheaper than Lionel (they had 6 kids to buy for).  It was set up in the dining room floor, and I found it while sneaking downstairs at about 5 am.  The lights were off and all I saw was this large thing in the floor that a had a lump on one end.   I carefully touched the lump and it moved a little, so I bravely turned on the lights and saw it there in all it's glory.  The lump was a tunnel.  I turned off the light and went back to bed.  When I woke up again, everyone else was up and they had the train running.   That flyer smoke smelled great!

I still have the set, but the panels took a horrible beating along with the light poles and trees.  The engine finally gave up the ghost, but I still have it.  Had to glue up cracks in the panels and replace light poles and other accessories, but the set is largely intact.  I thought there were some pictures of it, but I cant find them.

I have since expanded my Flyer collection, but this set is my favorite.

Kelpieflyer,

Nothing beats the smell of original American Flyer smoke.

Amen to that! :-)

Art, great memories from childhood. Growing up in the 40's-50's I remember kids were either American Flyer or Lionel. Basically you were what your parents got you for Christmas. Most kids in my neighborhood, myself included, were Lionel. We had one kid that had American Flyer and had a layout just like Bob's pictured in this thread. In fact his was permanent in the basement. Honestly he was the envy of all us Lionel kids. They were great trains and it is nice to see that American Flyer ( S gauge)  is still well represented.

Tom

Great memories!  My earliest introduction was a neighbor who's son had a large Flyer layout in his basement.  I vaguely remember at maybe 2 or 3 (1953 or 1954) my Dad setting me in the center of the table that had no scenery, just track and trains.  I was threatened that if I touched anything we would leave immediately, and having the trains run around me.  I was impressed by the Flyer crane and it's work caboose and all the smoke from the engine as that is about all I can remember of the layout.  A few years later the neighbor decided to move and offered the layout and trains to my Dad.  I don't recall how much but enough that my folks could not afford it at the time.  The trains were given to relatives who destroyed everything.  The Mom regrettably told my parents that if she knew what was going to happen to her sons collection that she would have just given me the trains.  Ah, what could have been!!  A few weeks after they moved, the family was on an airplane that crashed at Tri City Airport in Freeland, MI. and all were killed.  Maybe that layout was the spark that has lit the fire for the love of trains throughout my life and continues today.  Bob's layout from 1956 brought those memories back.  Thanks to all of you!!     That brings up the question, what sparked your love of trains??

FuzzyD

@Bob Bubeck posted:

Our Gilbert Flyer family Christmas layout from 1956 ---

Bob

Love that Silver Rocket, I have two passenger sets.

Ray

My Lionel friends had mutual respect for each other's seasonal layouts and enjoyed the differences in equipment and accessories. And, I did have a Lionel ZW, a 97 coal elevator, and a gantry crane! LOL!

In 1960 my cousin and family sold his Lionel trains. My cousin was never into trains. He had three American Flyer accessories' The Mystic Talking Station, a American Flyer floodlight tower with four lights at the top and a  American Flyer operating Water Tank. For Christmas that year my cousin gave them to me.

@Bob Bubeck posted:

Our Gilbert Flyer family Christmas layout from 1956 ---

Bob

Glad to learn that several of you enjoyed the ’56  layout picture. Although the photo is almost self-explanatory, there is a nostalgic back story. Although Dad did the heavy stuff, this was the first year in which I did much of the work for the ‘platform’. We called them platforms rather than layouts in those days. It was easier for me to scurry under the layout to do the wiring than my father, who had first shown me the ropes. A big give away that this dates from the mid-50’s, aside from the S gauge AF (New Haven, Conn.) and Plasticville (Bachmann, Philadelphia, PA) looking next to new, is the copious use of Jefferson Sales (Norristown, PA) Easy Build mountain paper, a truly OSHA uncompliant product made with multi-colored Mauer-painted brown paper with mica loosely applied for ‘snow’. One first dampened the paper, then crunched it up, and finally uncrunched it before stapling the paper down. This process had to be done somewhere that could be easily vacuumed later because the mica scattered every which way in a metaphysical blizzard. I still laugh out loud at the memory. The trains and accessories were the accumulation of seven year’s Christmas gifts. My brother and I had a lot of fun running the Flyers with the Silver Rocket being the queen of the fleet.  My nephew and I still possess most of what was on this platform. Another aspect that strikes me today when looking at that picture is that aside from some of the diecast figures everything on that layout down to the Life Like imitation grass was made here in the good ol’ USA.

Bob

@jim sutter posted:

Kelpieflyer,

Nothing beats the smell of original American Flyer smoke.

Isn't THAT the truth!  Throughout the years that I had my shop I bought several different company's "American Flyer' smoke fluid. One even claimed they had the 'original' formula but none of them smelled like what I remember.  One time I came across a plastic locomotive that ran on battery power from the 1960s that had smoke and whatever was still in the unit smelled EXACTLY like the AF fluid in the red capsules. I also remember that they were quite expensive for me at the time when I had my trains from 1950 - 1959 or so...    Weren't they $1.25 a box?  My allowance was only a quarter!

Especially fond memories of the Flyer smoke fluid in those red ampules and the wonderful aroma that ensued when it was converted to a vapor! Nothing like it before or since!

Robert Board, called his smoke fluid Super Smoke. It was close to Flyer smell but not exact.

@jim sutter posted:

Kelpieflyer,

Nothing beats the smell of original American Flyer smoke.

ANormal1 fluid was close, but as they used to say in the ad, "Often imitated, but never duplicated".

Bob

Bob Board still sells his smoke fluid several scents and reasonable prices

Good morning Gentlemen,
Love seeing pictures of "Platforms" as well as "Control Panels" from the past.
Those were the terms my father utilized....
Attached are some pics of my father's Platforms from the "early days".
First from my mom and dad's apartment when they got married in 56...
Then moved to Jersey in 1960, and enough room for a turntable.
Yes - that's me at the "Control Panel" as a young pup.
I know you'll ask and the answer is no....he sold everything in the early 70's.
I still remember the night some guy named "Artie" came and bought it all.
At some point I'll post my current platform and tell more of the story.
I've since re-collected everything my father had and then some....
Thanks for starting this post Bob, awesome stuff!
Bill

This guy has a pretty amazing Flyer layout…

http://www.bartspneumatics.com/AARR_home.htm

I think he sells a smoke fluid that is close to the original Gilbert  version too.

One of the nicest integration of the transformers into a control panel from back then!

@rplst8 posted:

This guy has a pretty amazing Flyer layout…

http://www.bartspneumatics.com/AARR_home.htm

I think he sells a smoke fluid that is close to the original Gilbert  version too.

What a fantastic layout!  Wish I lived closer to see it sometime.

Bart is the fella I contacted back when I had my hobby shop to obtain 'Original' AF smoke fluid. It was primarily a pine scent if memory serves but nowhere near what I remember. This was around 1988 or so. I could be wrong however but my sense of smell was pretty good then! Still is too.

Has anyone figured out what may have made the Gilbert Ampules so unique?

@c.sam posted:

What a fantastic layout!  Wish I lived closer to see it sometime.

Bart is the fella I contacted back when I had my hobby shop to obtain 'Original' AF smoke fluid. It was primarily a pine scent if memory serves but nowhere near what I remember. This was around 1988 or so. I could be wrong however but my sense of smell was pretty good then! Still is too.

Has anyone figured out what may have made the Gilbert Ampules so unique?

I visited once about 10 years ago.  The pictures do NOT do it justice.  That place is wall-to-wall Flyer.  Never seen anything like it in person.  I dare say he has more AF there than at any train show I've been at (between all the sellers there).

The "flavor" I have of his smoke is "cedar".  I don't know how close it is to the original, but it smells just like my uncle's Flyers when I was a kid back in the 80s.  He may have had original stuff at that time, I'm not sure.

The original Gilbert scent is now called Cedar. It is made by SuperSmoke, JT Megasteam and Challenger. I used the last of my red Gilbert ampules 20 years ago. The modern replacement fluids are a little off from the Gilbert originals. Supersmoke is a higher viscosity than the other two. It works well in Gilbert smoke units but the modern Lionel smoke units work better with a thinner fluid so I have been using Challenger. JT MegaSteam is also great for the Lionel smoke units.

If you want to compare scents try a Gilbert engine against a recent production Lionel engine. The same fluid smells slightly different in a recent production U36c on high than in an original 322AC. Might be caused by a difference in the temperature of the new Lionel smoke resistor vs the old Gilbert wire wound wick.

There is no such thing as too much smoke.

Recommend not using Super Smoke even though it has a cedar fragrance. It appears to have one of the higher vaporization temperatures. As a consequence, in the process of vaporization the smoke unit expels more liquid than desired and slops up the top of the engine. YMMV.

Bob

I use nothing but cedar  Super Smoke in my Flyer and American Models steamers since Anormal 1 quit making fluid. I tried all the brands out there and nothing else comes close.The last Flyonel engine I have gets Lionel pine.

Gunny

Bob stated it best with his quote: "Often imitated, but never (quite) duplicated." NOTE: I added the "quite".