Introduction

To my readers,

I collect old trains. Mostly sheet steel O gauge (Marx, Lionel, etc. tinplate), but occasionally other pieces. Most of the early companies are well documented, such as Lionel and Marx, but American Flyer is poorly documented for production before WWII. To solve this shortcoming, a group of Collectors known online as Northwoods Flyer, NationWideLines, and others pooled their knowledge in various threads on O gauge forums.

So all is well, right? Wrong. Due to the nature of these being online threads, organizing them is almost inconceivable, and makes reference nigh impossible. As such, I am going to try my best to organize as concisely as possible the wisdom spread forth by these gentlemen, in hopes of benefitting my fellow collectors. As new evidence comes to light, I will be updating the posts, so keep checking in.

Sincerely,

Andrew