# christmas gift for my dad just got here



## dicgolfer72 (Dec 4, 2015)

my dad has been talking about wanting a permanent train layout in the house to play with 
well he is busy and would never have the time to build his own 

so a week ago I snagged a American flyer all aboard pioneer 600 set for him on ebay 

I paid a tad much I think($127+$41 shipping), considering it comes with the crappy plastic engine
and cars with the pikemaster knuckle couplers 

but It is 99% complete (missing a few rr crossing signs,1 broken stop sign , and one house is missing the chimney )

it arrived in the mail yesterday 

so today I had him come by my store under the premise of bringing me lunch 
and he was as happy as I expected 
we spent an hour or so putting it together 
and he looked like a kid a Christmas playing with a new toy lol it was great


here she is after he set it up





lol its setup in the front window of the store until he warms up my mom to the idea of a train in the basement lol


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

Nice... Now, go out and get a 302 or a 303 for the guy,lol....I wish my Dad was still here to see what his love of flyers has done to me...He set the wheels in motion back in 1955...Miss you Dad....


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## dicgolfer72 (Dec 4, 2015)

he already has a 312 and a 313 from when he was a kid so he is good to go 

ill probably take the 21165 and cars and add a circle track and one of the transformers
from that lot of stuff the other day 
and sell it to someone local for a cheap price so they can enjoy a train set as well


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## longbow57ca (Oct 26, 2015)

Hello dicgolfer72, You got your dad a nice gift for Christmas, All Aboard set, from American Flyer. Those 21165 plastic engine will run for a long time and last long time too. I have a set like that too and I like that engine it is a very good runner too. Thanks longbow57ca.


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## dicgolfer72 (Dec 4, 2015)

longbow57ca said:


> Hello dicgolfer72, You got your dad a nice gift for Christmas, All Aboard set, from American Flyer. Those 21165 plastic engine will run for a long time and last long time too. I have a set like that too and I like that engine it is a very good runner too. Thanks longbow57ca.


thanks 
it was great to see him react the way he did 
I was afraid he would be miffed since my mom is against the idea lol


they do seem to have a pretty robust motor and they are fast 
but being so light they just don't pull much 
and they also tend to bounce off the tracks on corners because of the lack of weight 

I took the one I had at home for my 8 month olds set and added 14 .25 oz automotive wheel weights 
and it kept it from jumping track but it still would not pull the Disney box car set and caboose 
the wheels would just spin on the track

I ended up just changing out a link coupler on one of my 300 ac units to a knuckle and now the Disney set runs great


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## longbow57ca (Oct 26, 2015)

Hello dicgolfer, The 21165 was made just to pull those 3 or 4 cars that came with that set. Those American Flyer All Aboard sets are getting expensive on Ebay and getting hard to find them now that is why the price went up on them. Thanks longbow57ca.


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## Aflyer (Nov 10, 2010)

dicgolfer72 said:


> my dad has been talking about wanting a permanent train layout in the house to play with
> well he is busy and would never have the time to build his own
> 
> so a week ago I snagged a American flyer all aboard pioneer 600 set for him
> ...


dcgolfer72,
I think that is great that you got your dad trains for Christmas. Keep up the good work, and I agree with Flyernut, a little 300 series Atlantic would make that All Aboard layout live up to its potential.
You may find that the 312/313, are a bit too long for those narrow Pike Master curves.
Aflyer


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## llskis (Apr 11, 2013)

FWIW: To my surprise most A/F will work with the tight curves. Only ones that I know that will not work is the engines with 4 drives wheels (336&343 types). To make the engines work well the tracks have to be completely level hooked up well. Larry


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## Smoke Stack Lightning (Dec 7, 2015)

Great story, thanks for sharing

Rich


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## steam chaser (Feb 21, 2011)

Nice gift ,nice thought and a nice memory for the both of you to look back on.Great job.


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## mario760 (Sep 21, 2015)

It sounds like your dad is enjoying his All Aboard set. He could always make it larger and add more cars if he likes. This is the 1200 set my dad bought in 1965. I added another 3 panels and more scenery. There definitely is a market out there for these. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## dicgolfer72 (Dec 4, 2015)

thanks 

it was a big hit over the holiday 
my dad got it home and set it up in the basement 
all the little kids went crazy (few of the adults to lol)


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

That is wonderful. It is amazing how popular toy trains continue to be with children of ALL ages.


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