You never know what you'll find when someone advertises "old trains."



This is an American Flyer Type 4 locomotive. This variety was manufactured in Chicago from 1927 to 1929. It's powered by clockwork, as many inexpensive toy trains were at the time. You wound it up with a key. The key for this one is long lost. I may be able to find another one, but keys are easily fabricated from K&S brass parts, available at hobby shops.

Amazingly, the motor still runs. The train doesn't. It's missing one of the drive wheels, and the other wheel isn't soldered to the axle very well. Replacement wheels are still available and I can re-solder the other one. It ought to take about $5 worth of parts and about 15 minutes to get it running again.

It runs on O gauge track, the same as Lionel. But the track has two rails, you say? It sure does, because it's not an electric train, so there's no need for the third rail. This train predates American Flyer's 2-rail S gauge electrics by about 25 years.

The locomotive is made of cast iron, cast in two pieces and held together by a screw. The tender and passenger coach are made of pressed steel, plated with tin. This is commonly called "tinplate". The graphics on the coach are lithographed, a form of offset printing. This was very common on cheap toys up until the 1950s, when lithographed tinplate was gradually replaced with molded plastic, which was cheaper, could hold more detail, and could be made without any sharp edges.

This item isn't particularly rare, but it's an interesting curiosity.

I'm very happy to have it, but the genealogist in me really wishes people would hang on to things like this. This was someone's grandfather's train. All too often people's reaction to an old train is "What's it worth?" They're looking for a fast buck.

In this condition, this particular train is worth about 50 bucks, give or take a few dollars.

Any toy that once belonged to any of my grandparents would be worth 10 times that to me.