The American Flyer Part 1

The American Flyer is probably the most popular of all model train series. They did reach their peaks around the 40's and another peak in the 60's, they had been around for much longer then that. Their popularity is also skyrocketing today as well and they are I feel going to be around another 100 years!

A toy maker in Chicago called William Hafner, in the very early 20th century developed a model train developed on a clockwork motor, primarily for the use in toy cars. By about 1905 how ever he decided to put them into use in model trains as well. Good thing he did, the model cars sold no where near as well as the trains.

William Hafner and his good friend by the same name, William Coleman approached a small manufacturer of hardware, Edmonds-Metzel. They used this company to start producing clockwork toy trains in 1907.

They were first marketed under the name of Edmond Metzel trains, but because they were selling so fast and so well they needed a new name and they came up with the name of the American Flyer. This came about in 1910. Even the name of the hardware company they were using had also changed its name to incorporate the American Flyer name in it.

They started selling like hot cakes for a few reasons. They were quite cheaper then other popular makes of model trains at the time and because they were also quite a bit more realistic then more budget style model trains of the time.