Monday, August 2, 2010

The American Flyer Model Train




The American Flyer trains proved very popular, in part because they were lower priced than other makes popular at that time, and also because their detailing made them more realistic than other low budget model trains. These Edmond-Metzel trains were sold so successfully through some major retailers that the brand name The American Flyer was adopted for marketing purposes and by 1910, the name of the hardware company had been changed to American Flyer Manufacturing Company. With a friend, William Coleman, and using a small hardware manufacturing business known as the Edmonds-Metzel Hardware Company, Hafner began producing toy clockwork trains during 1906-7.

William Hafner, working as a toymaker in Chicago, developed a clockwork motor for use in toy cars in the very early part of the 19th Century and by 1905 was making toy trains using that clockwork motor. Although The American Flyer model trains were at their peak of popularity between the 1940s and the 1960s, they actually had a long history before that, and their popularity seems to be on the increase again today.

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