The story of A C Gilbert Company, forgive it already been posted

I wonder how many hours I spent looking thru those catalogs when I was younger. Trying to decide what I needed for Christmas. Mom and dad never got tired of me asking questions and making suggestions. They always had the same answer, well see.

Very informative especially seeing how all the accessories worked.  Gilbert and Lionel Cowen died about the same time, in an era when trains were no longer the main means of long distance travel and slot car racing took over as the rage. If these men had lived  longer, we can wonder how these brilliant men could have directed their companies to survive through the societal transitions. 

Thanks Gary, I've never seen this film before. Fun to watch. Don

THANK YOU for sharing this wonderful tribute to the memory of the late, great Alfred Carlton Gilbert, a true innovative genius! He, along with Joshua Lionel Cowen, were men of vision who shared their amazing toys with the rest of us mere mortals!

Not sure if it's true but a friend with a nice Lionel layout had a couple of American Flyer accessories that worked well with Lionel trains. The log loader and barrel loader. He told me AF designed them to work with both type of trains. Smart move on their part if true. Don

Another great film about ACG is "The Man Who Saved Christmas"... all about how AC kept making trains during the war. Correction: Erector sets, no trains 'til 1937

Preview here: 

eddiem posted:

Another great film about ACG is "The Man Who Saved Christmas"... all about how AC kept making trains during the war.

Preview here: 

"The Man Who Saved Christmas" is a pretty good movie. I may be wrong, but I think it was set during WW1, and was about selling Erector Sets and Chemistry sets, not toy trains. Gilbert didn't purchase American Flyer until later. It's been a few years since I've seen it, though. 

As much as I admire Jason Alexander for his acting craft on Seinfeld, alas he was not the best choice for the young A.C. Gilbert, who had actually been an Olympic gold medal winner for pole vaulting.  Jason Alexander did not have an athlete's physique. 

I found this interesting article on the demise of Gilbert: The Demise of the A.C. Gilbert Company

This is on a museum website. I tried searching their site for "Gilbert" this article did not come up, but several others did. I will have to return to it sometime.

Interesting in how that parallels another toy company in New Jersey...

Jon

Here is a link to the Eli Whitney Museum that better shows what other material they have on Gilbert: "The Gilbert Project".

Thanks for the link!  I’ll check it out later while sipping a cotton gin and tonic...

Jon  

Spent countless hours building things with my A. C. Gilbert erector set.  More fun than watching a train run in a circle.  So how did I get to this point?  Oh, that's right, building things to make trains running in a circle more interesting.  Still doze off after awhile.

What, me worry?

C W Burfle posted:

Here is a link to the Eli Whitney Museum that better shows what other material they have on Gilbert: "The Gilbert Project".

Excellent, thoughtful article. I had no idea that Jack Wrather, producer of the TV show "Lassie", effectively bought the company. I recall his name well on the closing credits for Lassie every Sunday early-evening.

Great video...first time I've seen it. I still think the early 4-piece diecast Atlantic engine was one of the best looking engines, even though it was considered a "starter" engine, and they can be had for only $75.. While my large layout is "O", I have a small AF layout from the link coupler era as well.

eddiem posted:

... Correction: Erector sets, no trains 'til 1937

brr posted:

..., and was about selling Erector Sets and Chemistry sets, not toy trains. Gilbert didn't purchase American Flyer until later. ...

maybe so, but don't think he did not have his mind on trains occasionally before that...

#1052 locomotive from the 1926 #10 set.  collector tip... original wheels (only parts exclusively in the extremely rare 1926 set) were cast iron; if a magnet won't stick, they are reproductions.  i've managed to pick up one original wheel which would put me on schedule to score the 4th on my 120th birthday.

cheers...gary

Gary: Is that model shown your's? VERY impressive collectible!

Tinplate Art posted:

Gary: Is that model shown your's? VERY impressive collectible!

kind of glad you asked... well past time i brushed off a few years of dust.

took a few poor pictures to show a little more detail...

the motor (8-14 VAC/DC) goes through three stepdown gears and then uses a chain to drive both axles.  the gauge is just about 3.5" (min).  someday i might bring it up to LALS to see if it could run on their ¾" scale track.  probably only weighs about a pound or two so adding some weight for better traction might be in order.  i don't believe any car constructions were listed in the 1926 manual.

now that i see the condition, i recall it taking a fall some time ago.  good thing about erector sets... everything is 100% reparable!

fun stuff! ...gary

Great video of a genius inventor that helped shape the 20th century but at the same time this video is very sad. Both A.C Gilbert  and Lionel Cowan employed thousands of talented American factory workers and crafts people. These skilled workers produced high quality products and were once able to earn a good living and enjoy a good middle class life. With the introduction of TV, computers, & video games and the movement of American manufacturing to Asia, we are a far different country today.  Our once prosperous factories now lie dormant, re-purposed, or are being left to rot and decay.   Most young people can't build anything. They should only know what they have missed.

" Our once prosperous factories now lie dormant, re-purposed, or are being left to rot and decay.   Most young people can't build anything. They should only know what they have missed."

For an alternate perspective, factory work in previous days was brutal for the health of employees, as was mining.  Much better to have this heavy and dangerous work performed by machines operated by a limited number of skilled workers not breathing fumes, particulates, etc. but operating from sound and air isolated booths or vehicles.  Terrific article in the NY Times on how the Swedish mining industry views automation.  It's great stuff for the workers and profitability.  

In my view, best not to be nostalgic about 19th and 20th century factory work.  It was generally dangerous, quite boring and distinctly unhealthy, if well paid.  I'm sure some folks now are nostalgic about the 19th and early 20th century when the railroads employed about 50% of the population.  Dirty, dangerous work however by today's standards.  Same goes for farm work, which employed 90% of the work force up until the mid to late-1800s and for thousands of years previously.  Now less than 1% of the work force in most developed countries.  Give me (and my offspring) an office or cubicle,  breathing clean air, doing challenging intellectual work, with  no likelihood of losing a digit or limb.   The decline in living standards in industrial nations is pretty much limited to places like the USA with no social safety net, no inexpensive retraining or education, and not much concern for the working class.  The situation is very different in places like Norway and Sweden .

Bruce Brown posted:

I had no idea that Jack Wrather, producer of the TV show "Lassie", effectively bought the company. I recall his name well on the closing credits for Lassie every Sunday early-evening.

 Wrather was a Texas oilman before before he got into the television business.

For an alternate perspective, factory work in previous days was brutal for the health of employees, as was mining. 

True, but thanks to OSHA, factory work is much safer than it once was.
Not everybody is cut out to work in a office.

"True, but thanks to OSHA, factory work is much safer than it once was."

Largely due to automation and robotics, which have drastically reduced the number of factory workers.  Hence my comments not to be too nostalgic about the good old days when lots of nice middle class jobs involved dangers to life and limb, but there were plenty of jobs.  Someone has to supervise, maintain and repair the robotics, and those blue collar jobs are still desirable, but not as numerous.  Plenty of non-office jobs to go around, as there always will be.  Not likely that nurses and medical technologists, the two most numerous middle class health care jobs,  are going to be replaced by robots any time soon, for example.

With the Pats win Sunday, a TV crew went to a factory making Patriots gear.  There was a machine making twenty hats at a time.  No workers in sight.