Greetings--I am a Hafner collector and I thought I was reasonably knowledgeable; however, I am considering an unidentified wind up cast locomotive. At first I thought it was clearly Hafner by the caged motor; a look at American Flyer wind up locos of the same period (1920s) reveals similar features, as far as I can tell. The bodies look identical. With the group's patience, how do you positively distinguish between Hafner and American Flyer 1920s cast locos? Thank you, in advance.
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Could you post pictures of the underside of the motor and the locomotive body?
It is my understanding that by the 20's, AF had gone on to their own motor designs. I believe the early AF/Metzel locos have a Hafner style motor with the basket winder for the mainspring... that may be what you are looking at.
By the way, this would probably get more input if it was in the tinplate forum - I just happened to see it in the "Recent Posts".
I guess the number one difference I would look for between AF/Metzel and Hafner would be the "S" shaped spring that Hafner used for the ratchet on the mainspring basket. On a Hafner motor, that spring is visible behind the key on the outside of the motor, but the AF/Metzel motors don't have it on the outside.
This is a later Hafner motor, but the ratchet spring is visible behind the rear drive wheel - the ratchet spring is held in place by the brass hub that the key is screwed into:
The following picture isn't mine; it's one I had in the archives from an auction. As you can see, there is a similar boss that the key screws into, but the Hafner ratchet spring isn't visible behind it:
Also, there are differences between the wheel castings. Hope that helps...
Perfect. Thank you. Interesting hobby: seems like the more one gets into it, there more there is to learn!
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