Streamliner Sets

Gilbert made four generations of silver streamliner.  Click the picture to see the individual cars and the sets in which they were included.

The uncataloged #50x series made in 1952-1953. (Picture courtesy of an anonymous donor.)

The #66x series made in 1950-1952.

The #96x series was made in 1953-1957.  These represented the heyday of American Flyer streamliners.  There were seven varieties in the series, distinguished by finish and colored stripe through the windows.

First is the chrome finish streamliners with no color band.

Satin silver streamliners with no color band.

The red stripe cars, shown here in the Santa Fe Chief, perhaps everyone's favorite train of the 1950s.

The chestnut brown stripe streamliners were made only in 1954. They are the rarest of the streamliners even though they were used in two sets, the K5469WT Silver Flash, and the K5418T Black Diamond.

The blue stripe cars of the Silver Comet made in 1954 and 1955.

The green-stripe cars in the Silver Rocket sets made in 1954 to 1957 These cars were also sold in the 1954 version of the K5351W Pacemaker.

The orange stripe cars in the #5670TRH New Haven Clipper set from 1956.

In 1957 Gilbert made a similar set of Orange-Striped Streamliners with stamped names rather than a separate nameplate riveted to the car body.  (Picture courtesy of Don Hasenzahlr.)

In 1958, Gilbert converted to a five-digit numbering system.  The fourth generation of streamliners, then, was little more than a continuation of the #96x series, renumbered according to the new five-digit system.  In fact, unsold inventory was sold in new boxes bearing five-digit catalog numbers even though the car inside the box had the old 96x number!  However, only the orange New Haven and red Santa Fe sets survived into the five-digit era.  Unlike previous sets, these were not consecutively numbered.

Five-digit orange-stripe New Haven set (Picture courtesy of an anonymous donor.)

The first five-digit red-stripe Santa Fe set (Picture courtesy of an anonymous donor.)

The second five-digit red-stripe Santa Fe set (Picture from an ebay auction by coyotecommerce.)

Lionel made the following sets under their American Flyer name:

#48944 AT&SF cars made in 1997. (Photo from an ebay auction by NicksTrains.com.)

#49604 Western Pacific California Zephyr made in 1993. (Photo from an ebay auction by Marty's Trains.)

#49606 Silver Flash Chestnut-Stripe set made in 1995-1996. (Photo courtesy of Silvia Classics.)

New Haven Orange-Stripe cars made in 1995. (Photo from an ebay auction by NicksTrains.com.)

#49614 Pennsylvania passenger set made in 2005. (Photo courtesy of  Mark Anderman.)

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