A prototype named after a toy by Keith Wills I
t’s not often a prototype gets named after a toy. That’s just what hap- pened to New Haven’s streamlined passenger cars made by American Flyer, almost universally now referred to as American Flyer cars. But first, let’s look at the prototype. Designed by Walter Dorwind Teague, an industrial designer of repute, Pullman built them of Cor-Ten rust resistant steel, a com- bination of carbon steel with traces of copper, chromium, silicon and phospho- rus. A product of U.S. Steel and ready for production in 1934, Pullman used it on Union Pacific’s M-10000. It was lighter than conventional steel and could be welded, for Pullman a good ar- gument against rival Budd’s stainless steel. Between 1934 and 1935, Pullman
cast, ready-to-run HO sets and kits. Besides the usual freight cars, there were two passenger cars: a baggage- mail and an eight-paired window coach. Based in Connecticut, it was natural Gilbert would model passenger
dow New Haven cars, introduced in 1940, were stamped, cost less and came in sets or mixed with stamped heavy- weights in outfits led by a NYC Hudson or Union Pacific Northern.
1938 HO NEW HAVEN
1938 HO NEW HAVEN PASSENGER SET
built 50 riveted cars for the New Haven at its Worcester, Massachusetts, plant. They were 84′-6″ long with nine paired windows, seating 84 passengers. Other roads bought them with full skirting like the first run or partial skirts. By 1938 there were 200 coaches in New Haven service, and that is where our story begins.
In 1938, A.C. Gilbert introduced die-
equipment he saw running by his facto- ry every day on the New Haven. They came in a three-car set led by a New York Central J1e Hudson. In 1939 Gilbert reduced his O gauge line to ³/₁₆″ scale with a line of die-cast freight and passenger cars in more expensive sets and in stamped steel for lower cost out- fits. Die-cast passenger cars were stan- dard heavyweights. Seven-paired win-
The O gauge baggage car lent itself to action that heavyweights did not allow. In 1940 it had a whistle in it, and in 1941 it was an operating mail car which snatched a bag from a trackside stand while ejecting another through its open door. Cars were painted Tuscan Brown, red and green with white-trimmed window frames, and blue and white trim for the streamline
3/16” PRE-WAR O GAUGE BAGGAGE AND MAIL CAR
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FEBRUARY 2012
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