American Flyer Displays

  This is a somewhat specialized website with one focus and that is to provide a place to explore the history and art of the classic American Flyer display layouts in all their forms, including:

Whether you want to relive the days when these layouts actually existed, or want to recreate some of them, either in whole or in part, I hope these web pages will be useful and enjoyable.  I have included track plans with accessory placement based as closely as possible on the contents lists for most of the factory display layouts.  On the other layouts I have attempted to approximate the track plans based on photographs.

Dale Smith
flyerdisplays@att.net

Contributors

This website is a community effort.    I may have started the ball rolling, but the website would not be what it is today without the generous help of many people.   Listed below are the many individuals who have helped me develop this website by sharing their knowledge and resources.

  • Chuck Harrington, who gave me permission to use illustrations from his website, myflyertrains.org

  • Bob Giardina, who also gave me permission to use illustrations from rfgco.com

  • Clay and Charlie Buckage for providing their fantastic photos of the second floor Gilbert Hall of Science layout and for their support and assistance in creating the section on the Sibley Department Store Layout

  • Paul Yorke, who allowed me to incorporate the relevant portions from his website related to the Sibley and FAO Schwarz layouts

  • John Huster, who gave me permission to use still shots from the Boys' Railroad Club videos

  • Lonny Beno, who provided many scans of hard to find display catalogs

  • Andy Jugle, who provided scans of department store layout photos

  • Bob Bubeck, who helped sort out information related to the catalogs

  • Ray Mohrlang, who provided several scans of photographs from his collection, including those of the large 1st floor layout in the New York Hall of Science and also much useful information concerning the Hall of Science layouts and the location of the 1956 catalog cover photo.

  • Richard Trotter, who provided scans of a hard to find brochure covering the otherwise uncataloged 1958 factory displays

  • Jim Auld, who provided photos of his restored #98 display

  • Emil Suda, who provided background on A.C. Gilbert History and helped me identify important articles and other source material

  • George Sorensen, who provided information on the Chicago Gilbert Hall of Science

  • Daryl Olszeski, who reviewed the narrative, and acted as a sounding board as I constructed this website

Visit The Gilbert HO Index

American Flyer is a trademark of Lionel LLC
Web design Copyright © 2010 Dale F. Smith