Customer Reviews

Standard Catalog of American Flyer Trains

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
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I too was waiting in anticipation for a new better written book on American Flyer. I am primarily an S gauge person, but to finally have at least the basic refreshed info on HO, and basic info on O and Wide Gauge presented again is a big bonus.

Not to put down Greenbergs works, but Greenbergs are getting very dated and the repeatative descriptions just for the sake of saying something were nausiating. David Doyle in his book, has changed the format to a much more concise format. There are a few brief paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter giving important but generalized information on the chapters subject matter. For each variation of a numbered item, they give another brief general description then list each variation with a range of values and a rarity rating. This is better than other guides that simply give an EX or LN value and move on leaving the other grades open to abuse by sellers. One word of advice to David is to stick with common item names. Calling the Box Cars, House Cars was wierd and a big turn off. Train people know them as box cars, talk about what they are familiar with, not some abscure name no one has ever heard of before.

The book is chock full of pictures, and they are new and bright and clear, not recycled from other previous publications. For the most part the photos are very well done, but some items they photograph are in poor condition and a superior example would have been easy to find. An example is the chapter on Hopper cars shows a beginning photo of a 921 CB&Q hopper, a very common hopper car, with a broken step. Other photos are of items that are covered with dust like the 283 at the beginning of the steam loco chapter. David tries I think to show photos of the scarcer versions at least half the time. I'm not sure if this was a chance thing or a deliberate move.

The chapter on paper is short, sweet and helpful. There is only so much you can say about dealer catalogs and consumer catalogs and the like. The chapter on HO is also shorter and sweeter than the S gauge chapter(s), mainly because they made so much less of it compared to S gauge. Even more brief in the overall information offered are the O and Wide gauge chapters. These are grey areas in American Flyer collecting the same as OO is for Lionel. But we rarely hear of the Lionel people complaining about the lack of material in the small OO chapters when they are included in books. American Flyer people are already complaining about the O and Wide gauge chapters, and I say leave them complain as these are small niche areas, and the book was more about the mainstay of American Flyer trains, S gauge. It is a welcome blessing to see anything on the O and Wide gauge areas with more up to date pricing so everyone into those areas should be grateful they got anything at all instead of whining. There have been other HO books put out, but they are very dated as well, and the fresher HO data was welcome, even though the amount of time spent on the chapter was not overwhelming mainly because there was no need to.

I have been into American Flyer trains since I first became congnative about the age of 4 or 5 and remember my first encounters with the train set up at Christmas. I've collected American Flyer S gauge for over 30+ years and am working on my 4th collection. I know what I've seen, and what I've not seen over 30+ years of searching and collecting these trains. With that said, I can say here what is wrong with this book. David tried very hard to avoid ambiguous information, something Greenbergs did not do. I saw only one or two examples of this in the book. One example is the alleged existance of a 293 steam loco with a whistle in the tender. This was NOT made that way. The whistle was either added by a previous owner or the tender was swapped from a different loco. But because some big time collector somewhere said it was made because it exists in their collection, so it was listed. The second example is the listing for a 290 pacific with Reading logo on the tender. This loco was never made that way. This is a tender swap by someone after the loco left the factory. This, unfortunately, is a big peril when writing a book of this type, the author is at the mercy of the collectors he asks for information from. The other big issue is with values vs truly scarce variations. As I said before, I know when a variation is tough and should demand a premium. There are several instances where a scarce variation is listed but given the common versions value. I'll give two prime examples. One would be the 24720 Civil War coach. The very earliest versions of this car are painted but do not have American Flyer Lines stamped on the car sides. In my 30+ years of collecting and searching, until about two weeks ago, I had only seen one of these cars and it was in a boxed "One of the First Fifty" sets. This car is HARD to find. Yet it was given a value of a meager $90, only $10 more than the painted version with the American Flyer Lines logo stamped on the car sides. Sorry Dave, this car is at least a $150 to $200 car. Second example would be the 625 Gulf tank car. Its hard enough to find this car without the 625G number indicating a change to Gulf from Shell. But to find the plain 625 version with the SEPX shell markings and Gulf logo is difficult to say the least. Yet David lists all variations of this car at $25. Again, this car is scarce, and is worth at least $150 or more. There are other examples exactly like this, such as the 636 spool flat with small lettering, and 934 caboose. One other item of note. In the O Gauge accessories section they show White with Red trim S Gauge items in the photos. This is incorrect. Pre-War O accessories that were carried over after the war were originally painted in Yellow (Dark Cream), with Brown trim.

Other than the issues mentioned above this is an excellent book. Well laid out, much easier to read, and it has a range of values for common people who want to deal in average grade tains instead of the high end collectors grade stuff. Photos could have been better and some of the values definately need tweeking. Over all, I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to get into collecting and/or operating any of the American Flyer equipment offered from the early 1900's to date.

Anyone looking for an up-to-date, definitive, comprehensive reference book on A.C. Gilbert's American Flyer product line simply has to have this book! The descriptions and prices are accurate. The illustrations are clear and crisp. For about $21, there just isn't a better book available on the market. Many of us have invested in the Greenberg American Flyer books that were printed in the 1980's and although those are fine books, the three volume set can easily cost you $500 nowadays. This one book has nearly as much info crammed into one easy-to-read source. I just can't say enough good things about this book! Buy it, buy it, buy it! I don't know what else to say, except that you won't be disappointed. Peace

When I saw this book was in the making I was very excited as Greenberg's books on prewar American Flyer are exceedingly rare and expensive these days. The S gauge books are still easily found and reprinted, but not the books on the prewar O gauge trains and Wide Gauge trains. Knowing how well the Lionel books in this series were done, I expected the same from this American Flyer offering - it is insanely disappointing.

Everything you could ever want to know about Flyer S gauge is here, but then again, that info can still be readily accessed in countless Greenberg books. There's very little in this huge book on prewar Wide Gauge trains, and what is in this book is VERY innacurate and the values assigned are ridiculously high in some cases and ridiculously cheap in other cases. For example, virtually all 14" Wide Gauge passenger cars have the same values across the board with only a couple of exceptions.

The coverage on prewar O gauge trains, the trains with which American Flyer was founded upon, are absolutely not covered here! I was stunned! There are maybe twenty pages at the back of the book with photos of only SOME O gauge offerings, NO DESCRIPTIONS OR DETAILS ON ANY O GAUGE TRAINS WHATSOEVER, and all are listed as "not enough information available" for rarity.

I think it would have been much better to have offered this book in two volumes as the Lionel books were done, one covering the post-war S gauge trains and another which would have covered the formative prewar years of American Flyer. Instead, we have one big volume which was compiled by someone who knows an awful lot about S-gauge plastic and next-to-nothing about tinplate or older trains. You get the feeling this book was rushed along to the press before it could be finished.

If you're into S-gauge, you'll like this, if you're into prewar trains, it's got some okay photos, not many, but you'll not learn anything here you didn't already know.

So far this is the best book I've seen for the American Flyer collector. It has so much information and really helps when sifting through train shows and online auctions!! A must!

Standard Catalog of American Flyer Trains This is a great book that for the first time you can get all three train gauges make under the name American Flyer and/or A.C. Gilbert. Great pictures and descriptions of trains and accessories. A valuable book at a great price.

THis one has all pertinent info any collector might need about Gilbert and Coleman produced American Flyer items. Color pictures for most items including S, HO, Wide Gauge, O, catalogues, cars, locomotives, accessories, buildings and sets. Prices are out of date, but the info this contains, all in one place, is invaluable.

I have just wandered into the American Flyer train tent after many years as a N/HO/O train collector/hobbyist (abet never very serious about it - I just like trains - big, small - I like them all) when I purchased an AF 310 engine at an auction. Always wanted some AF S-gauge and now I had a start. But now I needed to know a bit about the AF train 'empire' - the models, their time chronology, etc.

One of the keys to acquiring this kind of is a good reference book that covers the entire spread of AF train products. This book is such a reference book. It is a very good basis for building one's knowledge base and, so far, it has delivered in spades.

Bottom line: an excellent reference book for American Flyer trains. Highly recommended.

I'm not a collector, so I can't comment on the accuracy of the material contained in this book. However, the quality of the photos, completeness, and overall look are excellent. I first saw this in a local bookstore, but the price kept me from purchasing it. It was only when I found it on Amazon at a much reduced price that I decided to buy it.

I received my first American Flyer train set for Christmas when I was about 6 years old in 1957. My father continued to add to it until I ended up with four engines, many accessories, and a lot of track which was enough to make a really nice layout. This book has been useful in helping me identify the value of items in my collection, their date of manufacture, and rarity. Overall, a very good book.

I ordered this for my husband and he absolutely loves it. He had seen it other places at a much higher price and was thrilled you had it.

Thank you.

Great book with many excellent photos and variations. A must have for any Flyer fan!