Here's a cute 1942 photo from Shorpy

Looks like 00 gauge ?

Yes, that looks like the Lionel OO set. Don't recognize the switch track though.

It's Flyer HO. 

Who do you think grew up and became someone?  This kid or some modern kid glued to a video game?

Alan

The rapt expression on the kid's face is what makes the photo.

Can anyone identify the maker of the semaphore next to the switch?  I have one very much like it that I picked up years ago, but I've never been able to discover who made it.

True the boys expression is priceless, but the staging and lighting has a professional look to it. I like the way the shadows are used to accent the subject of the trains and the make-shift work bench behind the boy shows work in progress.

All in all it's a very nice picture. I was wondering if it came from a magazine or something like that.

I don't know about you guys but that kid is me at 10 years old.  Actually, its still me.

I'd bet money that the caboose is Lionel OO.

I can't figure out what it is. The track looks like OO, but  the cars are not Lionel OO. Could be AF. Looks too big to be HO I think.CW Burfle will know what it is.

The kid looks like Beaver Cleaver (Jerry Mathers), but its not.

I agree now that it is American Flyer, but to my eyes it looks larger than HO Gauge. However, there's not much else it could be.

I agree that the semaphore has a European look to it. I don't know whose turnouts those are. I also don't know anything about the buildings.

I hope the kid stuck with trains, girls or not.

OK, you win. Send your address so I can mail the $1.

I'm surprised how close the AF and Lionel were. I can now see the Lionel chimney had a cover over it, along with a black box under the body. What threw me was this caboose is a miniature version of the Lionel metal "O" caboose made late pre-war, and early post-war.

Mike Slater on this Forum runs a small Lionel OO Gauge layout  at Trainfest every year. Maybe he will weigh in on this photo.

Very interesting picture. Frankly, I'm surprised at the level of realism the early models could have been capable of attaining.

Even with the spartan table... to my eyes this little layout has a lot more "realism" going for it than a comparable picture of a 3 rail layout of the time.  That's not meant as a slam, for I appreciate 3 rail.  It's just that from this one picture of an obscure moment in time in 1942, it is obvious where model railroading was heading.

Also hard to understand why such nice looking trains didn't financially succeed for AF and that Lionel still had another 10-15 golden years before the HO crunch was really beginning to be felt by the Big L.

Here's links to the 1941 Flyer HO section of the catalog:

http://www.myflyertrains.org/A...1_catalog_page42.htm

http://www.myflyertrains.org/A...1_catalog_page43.htm

http://www.myflyertrains.org/A...1_catalog_page44.htm

And the 1948 HO catalog as a follow-up:

http://www.myflyertrains.org/A...F_catalog_index1.htm

Rusty

Wow... I still think that AF HO stuff looks pretty good!  Especially when you remember it was mfg'd and marketed in the 40's!  Nice looking HO Hudson model... in 1942!

Thanks for the follow-up links, Rusty... enjoyed the new knowledge found therein!

I like the chemistry set and vise on the table behind him.  This kid had some cool stuff going in his bedroom, I bet the first thing he did was start making custom modifications to that train set.