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1951 American Flyer Trains

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:10.00 USD Estimated At:50.00 - 125.00 USD
1951 American Flyer Trains
Beautiful indeed and helpful too with fantastic photos and drawings, etc., is this 1951 American Flyer Trains, as is, with colourful over 47 pages and full of information too; up to $60.00 plus on ebays; an wonderful " American Flyer Trains & Gilbert Toy Catalog with Price List, is so very much interesting in beautiful coloyr; this catalog has great pictures of trains and accessories;

Note the History - "A. C. Gilbert Company was an American toy company, once among the largest toy companies in the world; best known for introducing the Erector Set; a construction toy similar to Meccano); Gilbert was founded in 1909 in Westville, Connecticut by Alfred Carlton Gilbert, originally as a company providing supplies for magic shows; and as Alfred Gilbert was a magician... Gilbert invented the Erector concept in 1911, inspired by railroad girders; the construction toy was introduced two years later; starting in 1922, A. C. Gilbert made chemistry sets in various sizes as well as similar sets for the budding scientist, adding investigations into radioactivity in the 1950s with a kit featuring a Geiger counter; A. C. Gilbert began making microscope kits in 1934, one line of inexpensive reflector telescopes followed the Sputnik-inspired science craze in the late 1950s; 1938, Gilbert purchased American Flyer, a struggling manufacturer of toy trains; and, Gilbert re-designed the entire product line, producing 1:64 scale trains running on O gauge track... although these are sometimes referred to as S scale or S gauge trains, they are technically O27; at the same time, Gilbert introduced a line of HO scale trains, which were primarily marketed under the brand name Gilbert HO; 1965, A. C. Gilbert produced James Bond movie tie-in figures and a slot car road race set featuring Bond's Aston Martin DB5 ;Gilbert was the largest employer in New Haven from the early 1930s to the late 1950s, more than 5000 in three shifts at its Sound Street Manufacturing facility; in the late 1930s, the company expanded to produce home house products and small appliances including mixers, milk shake machines, toasters, stoves and ovens, and washers; the Gilbert Company struggled after the death of its founder in 1961; Gilbert's family sold its shares, and the company was never profitable under its new ownership; near 1967, Gilbert was out of business; Erector was sold to Gabriel Industries and moved production from Erector Square in New Haven, Connecticut, to Lancaster, Pennsylvania; American Flyer was sold to Lionel."

Since the A. C. Gilbert Company no longer existed, the Gabriel Company continued to use the brand name on its Erector Set and microscope products, a practice that subsequent owners of the Erector brand have continued; current Erector toys have the words "The construction toy from A. C. Gilbert" on their packaging; Lionel also uses the brand name on its American Flyer products, along with the old Gilbert catchphrase, "Developed at the Gilbert Hall of Science", on its product packaging; a rare one for your collection;
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