The American Flyer Part 3

A major toy train maker and the market leader at time, Lionel Corp purchased the American Flyer. This company itself was having difficulty with finances as well and they also went bankrupt in 1969, so they sold off the rights to the American Flyer to another manufacturer, General Mills.

This company, General Mills, started selling some of the designs of the original designed Gilbert American Flyer, it how ever sold off everything it purchased from then Lionel Corp to Kenner, who then in turn sold the company to a man named Richard Kughn. This happened in 1985.

Mr Richard Kughn had great success with the company and design for 11 years, but he sold out in 1996 to a company called Wellspring Partners, who then took on the original name of Lionel and called themselves Lionel LLC, which still operates today.

The sell the S-scale American Flyer still. They were at first focusing on selling other scale models, but in 2002 they started selling more and more of the American Flyer.

The American Flyer toda is more then 100 years old and has gone through many different hands. It's popularity is still going strong and while it fluctuates, this model train and scale is going no where fast.