# American Flyer 1962



## T-Man

My latest is a tune up of an AF set from 1962. A childhood present of a co worker that was accidentally back over by a car. Two cars suffered and the others have the used look. A "break" from my circuits.

Starting with the engine, it is in great shape. The e unit is in the cab with a smoke generstor and a large air piston. The draw bar screw broke but came out and being 4-40 I have a generic replacement. The shell had a small bath too.


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## T-Man

*Unlucky Tender*

One nice thing about plastic is that if it breaks, chances are good that it can be glued back together. With this set a lot of the pieces are there.




















A little T hold from an elastic for supper glue. This guy will be fine after a visit to the epoxy shed.


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## tjcruiser

T-Man said:


> A childhood present of a co worker that was accidentally back over by a car.


I don't know if I'm rooting for the trains or the co-worker ... WHO, exactly, was backed over by the car?!? :laugh:


Must have been the trains, judging by the carnage. Good for you, T-Man, for investing the time to put these pieces and the carnage back together. I hate when stuff like this is lost to history and/or the trash heap. With every dab of epoxy, paint, oil, and t.l.c. magic ... old trains like this have a fighting chance to keep chugging along.

Nice work, T-Man ... nice work!

TJ


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## Stillakid

T-Man, let me know if you need some parts. I'm sure I probably have them


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## Big Ed

Can I have your O when you go all S?


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## Reckers

T-Man, I really appreciate anyone taking the time to rebuild one of those jewels. That was about the last of the really high-quality units, too!


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## T-Man

From what I gathered, for months I have said I would clean up his trains. I didn't know they were AF until two days ago. Anyway, his mother called and asked him if he wanted his trains. It was when he brought them home in a bag and left them in the driveway when the accident occurred, oops. The NH hay thrower got the worst of it. The engine got a broken screw. The tender has a broken truck, I have two more trucks to fix. Evidently a flat car carried a vette. It was on ebay for only $120. Just the vette. No vette in the bag. Some of the cars have childhood damage. . Caboose roof etc. I will show this all later. Now I just studied them and did some research.

Here is a good site if you don't know this. My Flyer Trains.org

Also here are some of the catalogs.

These are just to fix up. I do like the engine. I don't have an AF six wheeler. On Ebay they are buyable.
For parts a stripped NH boxcar shell would be nice. All the doors and door sliders made it through the crush.
These cars use a plastic truck I may wait for Wilington and buy a car, then switch the trucks out. Then I will use it on Lionel trucks! HA HA I don't have enough pieces to make two trucks for the vette flatcar. It has been interesting fun I researched the catalogs. You will find the rolling stock interesting too.

No ED the O is not up for grabs. I could hear the hout-in and holler- in when I found out the bag was S gage.


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## tjcruiser

T-Man said:


> It was when he brought them home in a bag and left them in the driveway when the accident occurred, oops.
> 
> ...
> 
> I could hear the hout-in and holler- in when I found out the bag was S gage.



Hmmm ... Accident??? Or attempted mercy killing? Hmmm ...

(Have fun, T-Man ... have fun!)

TJ


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## Reckers

tjcruiser said:


> Hmmm ... Accident??? Or attempted mercy killing? Hmmm ...
> 
> (Have fun, T-Man ... have fun!)
> 
> TJ


Far worse, TJ. Flyer-envy.


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## T-Man

*Texas and Pacific gondola c2009*

I attached one half of a coupler. Not much there.










Before the epoxy.









Completed with sand load.


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## tjcruiser

T-Man,

Re: plastic coupler-frame repair ...

So CA-type glue for an intial hold, then epoxy around that for more strength? (You say "before epoxy" in your photo caption.)

Just curious. I've always had marginal success when trying to glue some plastics.

Thanks!

TJ


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## T-Man

With any small piece I use super glue to hold then add the JB Weld 4 minute epoxy. If I have a shell I fit the piece with the super glue. Then back side with JB. If it shows I may dremel a groove over the crack, JB, then smooth and paint. It gets hard when you use a clamp. You don't want to glue that. The aligator clips are ok I guess the teeth do the holding with minimal contact. The joint held.

I had a problem with photo bucket, here the the other shot.
I cover with flat black acrylic.


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## T-Man

You can have a lot of fun with some junk caboose shells!
WHat better way to practice.

Here is the shot of the NH boxcar 25082.









That was latter.

This is what I started with


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## tjcruiser

T-Man -- Thanks for the glue/epoxy clarifications. Makes good sense. Very nice repair work!

Tim -- Re: "dentist" ... I've talked about this a while back on the forum, but I'll repeat it here briefly for you ... 

I chipped a front tooth some months back. Mr. Dentist smeared some magic schmoo to build up the missing area. He used an ultraviolet wand-light (or infra red???) to cure the schmoo rock-hard in about 60 seconds. Most amazing thing I've seen. After curing, he sculpted the "tooth" back to perfect shape. I've been chomping on the thing ever since. Not a hint of cracking, chipping, or anything.

What the heck is that magic ultra-violet-cure schmoo? And how do we get some to use on our broken trains ?!?!?

Cheers,

TJ


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## T-Man

*Tender*

The tender needed a minor truck repair. Plus I painted the frame a flat black.Here I soldered the connection. There was no evidence of a connector board. I also wired in the rear axle. An indentation broke and part of the axle could move so I epoxied a wire to lkeep it in place and out of trouble.










So, while the rear truck dried,I tested and the engine graduates. WIth a little cleaning and a nudge here and there, she's running smoothly. I like the chuff sound.


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## tjcruiser

Yeah, I'll 2nd that. Great looking loco ... very nice proportions.

Signed,

Some guy who's not TJ who's passing along happy compliments about AF stuff! :laugh: (Just in case Reckers happens to see this!)


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## Reckers

Reckers sees all, TJ: he is the Great OZ of S scale!

T-Man, that is some very nice work! Thank you for restoring them and returning my children to the fold. *L* Those molded-plastic couplers are from the Pikemaster era; it and the game trains where American Flyer's last gasp before bankruptcy. If I may offer a quick-and-easy guideline for future cars, it's this. Cars with a 600- series numbers had the old link couplers, essentially a hook on one car that slides over a bar on the next car's coupler. These can be easily retrofitted to a knuckle coupler. The 900 series came with a knuckle coupler with moving parts, as opposed to the one-piece, molded plastic unit on your gondola. Any car with a number that has 5 or more digits is likely either new stuff (Flyonel) or of the Pikemaster, molded-plastic era.
Finally---there is O gauge and HO gauge American Flyer, too. They will not have the 600 or 900 series numbers, but will have three-digit 500, 700, and so on. Be careful not to stray from the 600 and 900 series stuff as you look for rolling stock that is older stuff. Best wishes and your stuff really looks great!


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## T-Man

Good Info, 
I think it is time you start working on a links page.
My signature goes to the "how to" thread where I have my links and others.
How do you convert a latch coupler?


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## Reckers

T-Man, can you tell me what you mean by a links page? If you mean a list of information sources, Jim and I have been notating sources as we went along. Here are service manuals: http://myflyertrains.org/gallery/GilbertFactoryManual 

Information/parts stuff: http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=2567

Wiring diagrams: http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=3207

Instruction Manual: http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=2571

If you look thru the earliest posts on S scale (after your own, of course!) you'll see a lot more stuff. 

The conversion of the latch to knuckle is pretty simple. The truck has a vertical tongue that extends forward, and that tongue has a hole in it. For the latch system, there is a horizontal metal pin that goes through that tongue. The latch mounts to one side and the horizontal pin protrudes on the other, giving the latch of another car something to grab. That silver pin is peened on the non-latch side. They make a special tool, sort of a modified punch, to drive the pin out with a hammer ( hit the pin side, not the latch side) so it can be reused. Being an inexperienced dolt, I took the high road and cut the pin off with my dremel, then used a drill bit in the dremel to carefully excise the peening before tapping it through. Next time, Ill just carefully support the tongue and whop the pin with a hammer.

Installing the knuckle requires you get the correct knuckle. You have (on the truck) a vertical tongue with a horizontal hole in it: the correct knuckle is weighted and has a vertical slit to slide over the tongue. It has a hole that lines up with the horizontal hole in the tongue, and a split rivet to push through the hole and spread to keep it there. When I get home, I'll post a pic and it will be self-explanatory. 

And, by the way....you've been teaching me stuff for a year, now. It's nice to finally get a chance to give something back. Thank you for all your help.


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## T-Man

Your parts page is a good links page. Maybe you could get TJ to make a Thread a stickie at the top of the S column?

I do like your grassy knoll. All coffee grounds?


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## tjcruiser

T-Man said:


> Your parts page is a good links page. Maybe you could get TJ to make a Thread a stickie at the top of the S column?


Great idea! I'd love to, but my Moderator title didn't come with a detailed instruction manual. I don't know how to make a Sticky.  

B&M ... If you read this, can you help out with the sticky, and/or teach us new mods how to do that?

Thanks!

TJ


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## Reckers

Thank you, T-Man. It's all coffee grounds---15 ounces worth, by weight---with Elmers Glue All and water. Once it dried, it had rough edges and some minor fissures. I have a can of spray craft adhesive (Walmart): I sprayed the foam surface around the base of the hill to ensure some grip, then sprinkled more coffee grounds into the fissures and around the base of the hill to produce a more gradual transition from hill to flat. More spray adhesive on top, then green grass and a lil more adhesive to keep it there.

On the back edge, along the railroad cut, I used spray adhesive to make the vertical wall tacky, then dabbed in clumps of Woodland Scenic foilage. After it was all in, I took a Glue All bottle with about a 1/2" of glue left in it, cut it 50% with water, and just dribbled it out of the bottle right onto the foilage. It settled in and put down roots.


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## Reckers

TJ, Stillakid has posted a lot of good links, too: it would be nice if all of it could be stickied at the beginning instead of just my stuff. He's put a whole lot of work into developing the S scale section. I'm just the God-like figurehead.


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## Stillakid

*Yes He Is..............*

The Great Exalted Poohba:worshippy::worshippy::worshippy::worshippy:


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## Big Ed

T-Man said:


> You can have a lot of fun with some junk caboose shells!
> WHat better way to practice.
> 
> Here is the shot of the NH boxcar.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> That was latter.
> 
> This is what I started with



I think this car would be a good candidate for a T man special exploding NH car.:thumbsup:


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## T-Man

*Two more join the fold.*

Today the caboose ( in rough shape) 24636 and the Mounds boxcar 24057 join the consists. The Boxcar had a broken knuckle so I replace the entire truck. I developed a method to replace it while using the old rivet. Both frames were repainted.




















This leaves me with the Vette flatcar (with no Vette) and the Borden flatcar with no trucks.
I have a plan for both so stay tuned.

Also the rear truck for the engine was fittedIused a #4-40 3/8's screw with loctite.


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## Stillakid

*Timboy..........*

I'm betting he files the shouldered ones down and drills a hole for a self tapping screw:laugh::laugh:


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## T-Man

No, the rivets are long enough to be reused and large enough to bend. The brass doesn't break off.

AHHH! I caught your interests?
This way grasshopper.


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## Reckers

Dah T-Bomb.


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## Reckers

Reckers said:


> T-Man, can you tell me what you mean by a links page? If you mean a list of information sources, Jim and I have been notating sources as we went along. Here are service manuals: http://myflyertrains.org/gallery/GilbertFactoryManual
> 
> Information/parts stuff: http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=2567
> 
> Wiring diagrams: http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=3207
> 
> Instruction Manual: http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=2571
> 
> If you look thru the earliest posts on S scale (after your own, of course!) you'll see a lot more stuff.
> 
> The conversion of the latch to knuckle is pretty simple. The truck has a vertical tongue that extends forward, and that tongue has a hole in it. For the latch system, there is a horizontal metal pin that goes through that tongue. The latch mounts to one side and the horizontal pin protrudes on the other, giving the latch of another car something to grab. That silver pin is peened on the non-latch side. They make a special tool, sort of a modified punch, to drive the pin out with a hammer ( hit the pin side, not the latch side) so it can be reused. Being an inexperienced dolt, I took the high road and cut the pin off with my dremel, then used a drill bit in the dremel to carefully excise the peening before tapping it through. Next time, Ill just carefully support the tongue and whop the pin with a hammer.
> 
> Installing the knuckle requires you get the correct knuckle. You have (on the truck) a vertical tongue with a horizontal hole in it: the correct knuckle is weighted and has a vertical slit to slide over the tongue. It has a hole that lines up with the horizontal hole in the tongue, and a split rivet to push through the hole and spread to keep it there. When I get home, I'll post a pic and it will be self-explanatory.
> 
> And, by the way....you've been teaching me stuff for a year, now. It's nice to finally get a chance to give something back. Thank you for all your help.


 T-Man, pics as promised...a day late, but I got it done.

Car that has been converted to knuckle-coupler. Note the brass split-rivet:










Poor shot of the replacement coupler: note the split at the top that slips down over the vertical tongue of the truck:









Side view of same: see the semicircular cut-out on the right side, near the bottom? That is where the split-rivet slides through:


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## T-Man

*Borden Flat Car*

Thank You for the pictures. It's good to know.

The tanks don't stay on the flat they only have two tabs each so I made an extra screw hole to tie them down.










The finished rear trailing truck.


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## Reckers

Anytime, T. Glad to help.


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## Stillakid

*another way..........*

While I haven't yet used them, every time I drive past where people have put out old electrical items(fans, dehumidifiers, air cleaners, etc.) I've picked them up just for the screw posts. There are always several that are long enough and in good shape to be used as replacements. This is an old air cleaner.

It had 2 good motors with fans, and all those screw posts. The fans will be used as exhausts for the Paint station I want to build(saw the "How To" on youtube!)

Just a thought:laugh::laugh:

View attachment 4610


View attachment 4611


View attachment 4612


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## T-Man

Premade screw posts. Deviously ingenious idea:smokin:
It's the first I hear of it.


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## tjcruiser

Jim,

You've won over lots of "fans" with that screw post idea!

TJ


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## tjcruiser

I'm gonna take the corny shot here ...

I don't know whose "post" I like better ... mine, Tim's, or JIM's !!!

Nyuck nyuck nyuck ... Hey, Moe ... whoop whoop!

TJ


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## T-Man

*Finished*

Finished except for a few cars.


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## Big Ed

T is it just your video making the trains look like they are going 500 mph?

Nice to see all running at once. :thumbsup:

But I didn't see the HO going around?


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## T-Man

The video was quick. I guess I didn't run the HO. I noticed it on the cuts.The speed is fast any lower and they may stall. The block on the inner loop will last longer at lower speeds and may not even switch. My track is dirty too. I should run them more.


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## tjcruiser

The Queen struts for her subjects. All hail the Queen! All hail the Queen!

TJ


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## T-Man

It is a continuing fantasy of the supremacy of of S gage (queen) reigning over the model rr kingdom,sitting high on a trest (throne) overseeing the kingdom (table).


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## Stillakid

*Timboy,* it's an "issue" that they just can't come to terms with!
:laugh::laugh::laugh:

*The "King" is Dead! Long Live "The Queen!"*


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## T-Man

The set was delivered back to it's original owner. Good News, One more American Flyer around the tree this Christmas.
Still, I have a few loose ends.


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## tjcruiser

T-Man,

Well done! And tell the owner to install a back up camera system on their SUV!

Cheers,

TJ


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## T-Man

This is the last of the set. The Borden car 24375, and the Vette flatcar 24576. The car was store bought and posed for effect.


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