How Was The Lionel Train Founded – American Flyer Electric

February 9, 2009
by Edward Rizzo

Soon to follow with his outstanding model trains, Josh came out with a different gauge, and this was a small three rail O gauge. He had rapidly visualise the need for a train that would be more adjustable to home sizes and could generate off the electricity. That is incisively what this gauge provided and is nonetheless a very favourited model now.

Some Other train makers were quickly becoming known as well. For illustration the in 1907, the American Flyer joined the industry. Owned by two friends, William Coleman and William Hafner. They had settled they needed to try out with keeping costs down in the lithography area. They tried several tin type materials but the quality was inadequate, so they were not popular. Actually, it was this enterprise that first started creating clockwork trains.

Eventually the partnership came to an end and Hafner went on his individual manufacturing the American flyer electric train set. In the beginning, he went with the O gauge, but shortly went into the common gauge that Lionel had set.

Just before the oncoming of the war, Hafner sold the American flyer in 1938. This was to A C Gilbert. Once the war started out, every last model train making had to stop. Every last the attention had to be put on the war. Prior to this though Gilbert had changed the gauge from HO to O. Then in 1946, the S gauge was introduced. The Lionel Firm had the superior edge in the industry and Gilbert was unable to compete. He could not keep up with the mass production and the price of Lionels. Gilbert stopped production in 1966 and simply after this; Lionel took over the ownership of the American Flyer.

The passion for model trains lives on today and will no doubt preserve to do so for many years to come. There will never be a toy in the industry that can take the place of the preferred trains in people’s heart.

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