model train set on track

Turning Out Toy Trains by the Carload

e*Train Issue: Aug 2011   |   Posted in: ,

Reprinted From “Illustrated World” November 1919

By Leon Sweet

I discovered this interesting article when reading through old issues of the American Flyer Collector’s Club “Collector” magazine.  Unfortunately, the photos that were reprinted in the Collector were so dark that one could not make out the subject very well.  Ebay is great as I found the issue I was looking for that very day and purchased it.

The article itself is very general in that it does not specify the manufacturer of the toy trains that were the subject of the article.  However, if one looks at the photo at the top of the second page of the article (see below), one can see pictures/posters of the 1917-1919 American Flyer catalog cover in the background.

Overall the article is especially interesting in the production and assembling descriptions that it provides for track, wheels, and engines.  As a collector of prewar American Flyer, I am especially interested in the photos of the inside of the factory, which must date from early 1919, as I can see some of American Flyer’s 6.5 inch freight cars (which were introduced in 1919) in the same photo that shows the 1917-1919 catalog covers.

Read the original article here (PDF) (Very Large File)

Illustrated World was a Popular Mechanics type magazine of its day that apparently went out of business in or around 1928.