MyFlyerTrains.org

Posted in the Albums section of this website you will find some very rare Gilbert paper, a press kit that was used to promote the All Aboard Sets along with other A. C. Gilbert products of the year 1965.

All Aboard Press Kit - Bob Conner Collection

We dreamed of having the K-line O gauge version of the Big Boy remade into S, then early in 2008 Lionel announced that they were doing just that, complete with TMCC. It was presumed (and correctly so) that much of original K-line engine tooling would be used on the new S gauge version. (The K-line engine was not strictly scale reportedly 1/60th scale, give or take).

Lionel Big Boy vs Sunset Models Big Boy - Photo courtesy Bob Conner

I put my Big Boy on order early, and prepared to wait, just as I had for my Mikado a couple years before. At the April 2008 York meet, I eagerly went to the Lionel booth and looked for the engine, but it was not there, and it wasn’t at the October meet either. Then in 2009 there were rumors of May delivery, which moved to summer and then to fall. At October 2009 York there she finally was, running at the Lionel booth. Finally in December, the Big Boys started to be delivered, but after nearly a two year wait, not all owners are completely happy with the product.

I love my Lionel Big Boy, I can’t say it any clearer. But having said that, my Big Boy had a few problems as delivered. The tender derailed on S-Helper S-trax switches, there are a couple stiff and visible wires hanging down on the trailing truck, and the knuckle coupler sticks when trying to close it. Also the tender has tipped over onto its side a couple of times, and appears to be top heavy. In fact, Carl Tuveson now has a web page that seeks to catalog all of the engine’s defects, and provide solutions.

For me, satisfactory performance of the engine has been a matter of altering my layout, while having to debug the engine as well. I was able to easily fix my tender derailing problem by moving the flanged wheels on the tender, a solution mentioned at Carl’s site. Keeping the tender upright will require you to make sure all of your track work is up to snuff. I had to make a number of changes and repairs to my layout before the beast would run around with ease. I had expected to have to work on my tunnels and curves, to provide the necessary clearance for the engine to swing out over the track, but I was real surprised when the engine failed to clear my railroad bridge in my over under layout, so that meant raising the bridge a bit.

Lionel sought to deliver an engine that would run on most of our layouts, which means negotiating 20 inch Flyer radius curves and the articulated drivers navigate these curves with ease. The engine has sound that is impressive! We have not had in S before, an engine that really had enough room in it to have a decent sized speaker. Compared to the sound in the Mikados which was certainly adequate, the Big Boy’s sound is richer and fuller. I love the whistle, and let me tell you, this beast can really put out some smoke! I have never had a toy engine that felt so real on the layout. Yup, it’s a toy. It is not a highly detailed scale model, but for us ham handed big kids, we can pick it up without having parts break off!

There are already those who are kit bashing the engine, modifying the tender to trucks for better scale, and I even heard of someone who is planning to build a complete replacement tender for their toy, ah model. There are many different opinions as to what modifications can make the engine better, but it is certainly nice that we have this wonderful engine available for us to modify.

Some have pointed out that an engine that retails for $799 should really not have the problems that have been seen with this product, and I couldn’t agree more. It certainly is not plug and play at this point. If you want to just take an engine out of the box, put it onto your tracks and have it run perfectly the first time, this engine is not for you. But if you have always wanted a Big Boy, and don’t mind adjusting the engine and your layout some, this engine can be nothing short of spectacular!

Carl Tuveson has now removed the boiler shell from the Big Boy. Enjoy his photos of the Big Boy internals!

Carl Tuveson has posted a 10 minute video of the Lionel S Gauge Big Boy running on his layout. This is great stuff!

Chuck

The S List is buzzing with news that Lionel has shipped the Big Boys and some dealers have already delivered the pre-ordered engines to their lucky customers. Mine would seem to be days away, but Carl Tuveson has received and already posted some great photos of the Big Boy on his website. Here is hoping I get mine in time for Christmas!

Chuck

Although it has not previously been mentioned much on this website, the A. C. Gilbert Company also made HO trains for even longer than they made S gauge. Many of these HO models resemble closely their S gauge brothers, just HO scale. Dale Smith has a new website that indexes the Gilbert HO trains in a useful way, reducing the need to look though catalog pages if you are searching for a particular Gilbert HO piece. I know many of you also collect Gilbert HO along with your S, so I recommend you visit and bookmark The Gilbert American Flyer HO Index.

Now if someone would just create such a website to index S gauge trains. Now that would be a project!

Chuck

Note: There are also Gilbert HO catalogs available for viewing in the catalogs section of this website.

I am happy to offer the S gauge train community a chat room!

To use the chat room click “Chat” on the menu at the top of this page. You do not have to register to use the room, though I think most people will want to register and select an avatar. To enter the room without registering, just enter an unused username and click the chat button. Once you have registered, just add your password to this logon process. (The registration option is offered on the logon page.)

Though the official S-TRAINS chat is scheduled for 8 pm eastern time on Sunday evenings, you will find people in the chat room at other times as well. Please feel free to initiate a chat at any time!

Have fun, Chuck

Lionel did show the Big Boy at this October’s York!

When I first visited the booth on Thursday, I was dismayed to find the engine not sitting with the other Flyer on the display wall. The fellow next to me was grumbling about Lionel not bringing it to York again, and I just walked on to look at the rest of the show.  Imagine my surprise when I looked at the S-List messages that night in my motel room, to see reports of the Big Boy running at York!!

Running the Big Boy was, on the top of a three level display pulling four cars. Lionel used a circle of standard radius Flyer track that contained no straights at all. The engine chugged through a pretty narrow tunnel, without rubbing anywhere.  I was struck by how nice it looked running on those curves, having thought that the boiler might have so much overhang as to look grotesque. It didn’t, it looked great! I can’t really compare it to the K-line O gauge version, but I thought it looked breathtaking. I stood there a long time watching it, and came back several times to watch it some more, and so did others, many of them as I overheard their comments, were not S gaugers.

The engine has plenty of detail including two green marker lights on the front, and red leds on the rear; two large red ones at the tender corners, and a smaller red one somewhere near the center if memory serves. (I wish I could have photographed it, but photos are forbidden at York!) Though the Leds were on solid, the engine’s headlight which appeared to be a standard lamp, was dim and flickered some. This was my only negative feeling about the Big Boy as I saw it, and if the production units have this problem I could see someone coming up with a modification to make it brighter and more solid. But this certainly is not a deal breaker for me! A report of the S-list mentioned the unit has electro-couplers, the ability to uncouple the engine by TMCC control. The coupler at the rear of the tender did have a very fat area right behind the knuckle that looked to me like it might be the coil of wire necessary for remote operation! If it is an electro-coupler, I sure hope Lionel has made a lot of spares to be purchased as replacement parts.

Though the engine displayed was not without it’s critics, I think most Flyer fans will think that Lionel has produced for us a fantastic toy that even though very large will run on most of our layouts. The sign on the Big Boy display said shipping December 2009 with a List price of $799.99, though the November ship time rumor is out there. I am eager to see my pre-ordered engine delivered and running on my layout.

Chuck

I have something special to announce to you today, The American Flyer Factory Service Manual online! If you are like me, you have seen these service manuals for sale for hundreds of dollars and been unwilling or unable to purchase one. The manual now posted on this website is over 400 pages in length, and has been compiled from several factory service manuals. These manuals were used in actual Gilbert American Flyer Service stations, and are 50 years or so old. Some of the pages are are thus faded, torn, have finger prints, and even have notes that were hand written on them by the service technicians!

Recently, American Flyer collector Bob Conner loaned me for scanning a one foot high stack of original Gilbert paper, much of which is not currently posted on this website. This service manual is the first fruit to come off that tree, and I hope you enjoy using it as a resource. Scans are clickable to change their size, and if you are working on a particular engine or accessory, you might try printing out the scan and taking it right to your work bench!

I am very pleased to finally be able to bring this to you, and stay tuned for additional new Gilbert paper scans in the very near future! Thanks Bob!!!

Chuck

MyFlyerTrains.org welcomes a number of new “S Friends”, who have migrated their photo albums from s-scale.org. Paul Yorke, who has generously hosted train photos there for many years, has decided to close down his photo albums. If you are currently hosting your photos at s-scale.org, you have only to email me and request that your albums be transferred here. I will transfer your photos, and email you a password to your new site. It is that easy!

I would also like to point out that the photo hosting services of MyFlyerTrains.org are always free, and there are no limits to the size and quantity of train related photos that may be uploaded. Also you can rest easy, as I back up the photo albums on a regular basis.

I invite reader of this site to click on “Albums” in the above menu bar, and explore the many new albums of train photos.

Chuck