Alco PA Santa Fe Diesels S scale / gauge by American Flyer September 1950

[@angeloavanti2538]

Nice. I had that engine set and 4 cars when I was a kid. Miss them.

[@jenniferwhitewolf3784]

First of these I have seen... great find in AF👍👍

[@stephenrickjr.7519]

My pair are dated October 1950. They have the molded hand rails. I also have the four extruded aluminum passenger cars to go with it. It runs well. It's great to see something that I have. Thank you 😊 !

[@vintage-model-trains]

Glad you enjoy seeing your trains!

[@F40M07]

Very shiny! Makes me want to get into S gauge!!

[@willamettevalleyAFtrains]

Very nice examples. It didn't take long for AF to upgrade to larger fields and armatures. At least those early chassis had bronze axle bushings. Thanks for running them.

[@MarkWick]

This is a particularly interesting video to me. About 1988, I went to a small train show in a church basement in Indianapolis, and found a $10 box of junk under a table. In in was one of these 360 shells with handrails, and the metal chassis. I could tell it had been chromed, but very little was left, and just enough of the nose decal remained to tell it had been Santa Fe. There was a crack in the nose and another at the rear. That bit of decal and the date stamp inside led me to do a lot of research to see what I had. These were the first post war diesels produced by Gilbert, and the production was stopped after only 880 if I remember correctly were made with the handrails. Mine eventually was repaired and completed as a Monon engine because I had worked a summer for the Monon.

[@vintage-model-trains]

It sounds like you had a great find, nice work repairing it!

[@AustinsAmericanFlyertrains]

I agree with my grandpa's train...sound like there is too much play in the chassis from axle wear. (I have a video of a rebush job I did on a PA if interested) But still...I've never seen an early chrome set in this nice of condition. It looks amazing! Thank you for posting.

[@DGHodgson-o8z]

Hi Leonard, even with some of the detail omissions, it must have been amazing to see these on a store display in 1950, better than anything you could get here in the uk at the time.👍

[@vintage-model-trains]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Petemonster62]

The Silver Chief!

[@MygrandpasTrain]

Those are in really nice shape, although sounds like the motors need a bit of a tune up, possibly new axle bushings. They should not struggle pulling that many cars (unless they are particularly heavy). I have a slightly later example where the chrome turned brown (probably from smoke tar), heavily rusted, one motor seized, and oval shaped axle bushings, flat spots on the wheels, I think it went through a flood and someone tried running it, dragged the wheels. It will be restored.

[@vintage-model-trains]

Thank you for your advice I'll look into the new bushings

[@AustinsAmericanFlyertrains]

I agree with my grandpa's train...sound like there is too much play in the chassis from axle wear. (I have a video of a rebush job I did on a PA if interested) But still...I've never seen an early chrome set in this nice of condition. It looks amazing! Thank you for posting.

[@TheFailroaders]

I have 2 of these, the a and b, both chrome, but over black molded shell, and with red warbonnet paint as well, just a lot of the black is showing through, I posted a video of them on my KZbin channel