# What was it?



## GNfan (Jun 3, 2016)

Hello from the land of n-scale. When I was a little kid (now pushing 60) my dad had a "train set" that wasn't 027 Lionel and was bigger than HO. The track was metal with 2 rails, with "ties" every few inches made out of the kind of metal modern binder clips are made from. The rail joiners were wire-like and imbedded in one end of the rail. (When they broke off we had no way to repair them.) I think the power connector was a plastic thingie that clipped under the rails and connected to the transformer by fahnestock clips. I don't remember much about the rolling stock other than it was a big steamer with the pickups in the tender. When the locomotive died we fiddled with a Sears Catalog Lionel set (the kind with the shiny three rails) before deciding on HO. My recollection was that the locomotive couldn't be repaired because it was imported and my dad could find anyone to repair it (in 1960's Seattle), but it's a childhood memory and could be wrong. 

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Or should I be asking this in the Tinplate forum?


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

Sounds like S to me.. American Flyer...Do you remember the cab # by any chance?


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## RonthePirate (Sep 9, 2015)

I will guarantee S scale. I remember those track connectors.
They were flat and yes, when they broke, there was no way to get them out.

But everything else you say also says S scale, GNfan.
The ties, there were four per section.
The size, two rail, not three.


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Also specific to Gilbert American Flyer is the use of the tender trucks of steam engines for power pickup.The track power clips are black fiber board with two fahnstock clips for connecting the wires from the transformer.
I started out with Gilbert S as a child, switched to HO, then switched to N and finally returned many years ago to S.


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## RonthePirate (Sep 9, 2015)

AmFlyer said:


> Also specific to Gilbert American Flyer is the use of the tender trucks of steam engines for power pickup.


I didn't have steam, unfortunately. I really wanted it.
I had a chrome diesel with chrome passenger cars.

My dad got me the set around 1954. He was a switchman for The Milwaukee Road.
Amazingly, that set just happened to "fall off a boxcar" 
(EVERYTHING we got just happened to "fall off a boxcar")
My first bike.
Weekly sacks of potatoes.
Christmas trees.
You name it.


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## GNfan (Jun 3, 2016)

*Thank You*

Thank you. I google image searched "American Flyer" and the first pic has the track I remembered. I think I remember the track because my brother and I played with it for years, pushing empty gondola cars around by hand. From a "modern" point of view, I never understood why they didn't come out with something like a modern rail joiner to repair track sections.

Thank you again. My dad was a model railroader until he moved to an assisted-living home. I've been working in n-scale off-and-on for the last 30 years. Alas, my sons had no interest in "dad's toy trains" and I recently decided I wasn't going to wait for them anymore. Maybe someday I'll have a grandchild to pass it on to


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