The American Flyer Part 2
In 1938 right before the break out of the second world war, the founders son with the same name, who was in charge of the business after his father died in 1918 sold the American Flyer to a company called A C Gilbert Company. Gilbert already had experience in manufacturing toys, but had never done so with trains.
At the same time he also moved the company from Chicago were it was created to New Haven in Connecticut where he lived. He also began to drastically re design the American Flyer and turned it into an S-scale model train in 1939. This scale is a modification of the popular O scale or model which was then the leader on the market.
The S-scale was much smaller then the O-scale and this made it more popular with enthusiasts as it required less room to setup a decent track. The scale is 1:64, considerably smaller then the O-scale yet still very detailed and precise.
He also made another change in 1946 that improved the realisticness of the American flyer more so. Model trains, electric model trains at that time had been run on 3 rail tracks. Not realistic. He changed it so they ran on 2 rail tracks, much like their bigger counterparts. These tracks had 7/8th inches between each rail. This made the trains run better as well.
How ever, television was starting to take hold at this time as well. This distracted many from their hobbies they would usually spend their spare time on. Also at this time, discount chain stores came into play, discounting train sets that companies like A C Gilbert could not compete with. in 1962, Gilbert sold the American Flyer to Wrather Group. This company produced toys as well, but usually on a mass scale and tended to produce poor quality as well. Sales of course fell through the floor and in 1967 the company went bankrupt.