The Gilbert Gallery
American Flyer S Scale Freight Cars

The passenger cars naturally fall into coherent sets based on their common design and/or railroad names, but that's not true of Gilbert's freight cars. As on the real railroads, the typical American Flyer freight train contains cars from a variety of railroads around the country. For that reason, I never paid much attention to Gilbert's sets until one day when I discovered by accident that I had collected enough freight cars to assemble the K5358W Challenger set. That got me started and I'll be putting together and photographing all the sets I can with my cars and engines. I have a page that shows freight sets and a page for each type of freight car shown below.

K5358W Challenger Steam Freight Train made in 1953 & 1954.
Click the picture to see more freight sets.

#48321 1994 Christmas Boxcar. Click the picture to see the rest of the Christmas cars.

#982 State of Maine boxcar. Click the picture to see the rest of the boxcars.

#923 Illinoius Central Refrigerator car. Click the picture to see the rest of the reefers.

The difference between boxcars and reefers is perhaps easiest to see in the hatch cover in the roof where they put the ice into the reefers or bulk commodities into the boxcars; in the picture below, the reefer is on the right and the boxcar on the left.  You can also see differences in the doors of the above two pictures.

From the side, you can see the difference in the doors.  Also, the panels in the side of the car are noticeably wider on the reefer.  Again, the reefer is on the right and the boxcar on the left:

#929 Missouri Pacific stock car. Click the picture to see the rest of the stock cars.

I made up this Southern Pacific Freight Train to haul my growing collection of Hopper Cars.
Click the picture to see all of the hoppers.

#916 D&H gondola with canisters. Click the picture to see all of the gondolas.

#926 Triple-Dome Tank Car. Click the picture to see all of the tank cars.

#936 Erie Wire Reel flatcar. Click the picture to see all of the flatcars.

#42590 Union Pacific autorack car. Click the picture to see all of the autorack cars.

#1919430 Road Runner aquarium car. Click the picture to see all of the aquarium cars.

#48845 Fort Knox mint car. Click the picture to see all of the mint cars.

#977 operating caboose. Click the picture to see all of the cabooses.

Over the years, Gilbert made four different kinds of couplers, three of which are common and familiar to most American Flyer owners: link, knuckle, and Pike Master.  The fourth, the so-called "solid knuckle coupler," was short-lived and not used on very many cars.  Lionel later came up with its own version of knuckle coupler.  American Flyer has therefore gone through five generations of couplers.  Because there seem to be a lot of people confused by this, I created a page to show the differences.  Click the picture below for more detail.

It takes time and money to maintain a website like this.  If this site is interesting and helpful to you, please contribute financially to its ongoing success.  You may send a contribution via PayPal using theupstairstrain@yahoo.com as the payee. Both credit card and direct transfers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

If you or your friends have some American Flyer trains and would like them to go to a nice home where they'll be loved and cared for, this is the place!  Email me: theupstairstrain@yahoo.com.  See my Wish List for the items I need most.  Thank you very much.

On the other side of the coin, I post pictures from time to time on my For Sale page of surplus items I have for sale.

This gallery will continue to grow and become more comprehensive as I collect more cars and as visitors like you send me pictures of the cars I don't yet have.  If you have a car that you would like to share with the world, email me a picture:   theupstairstrain@yahoo.com.  Click here for a list of the pictures I need to complete the Gallery.

The books I am using for reference are listed in the Bibliography page.  All the writing and all the pictures on this website are, however, my own, except where cited.  No copyrighted materials have been included and all pictures provided by others are used by permission.

Now show me:                                                                                                                                    
The Gilbert Gallery Home Page  
Engines    Passenger Cars    Freight Sets    Work Cars    Accessories    Infrastructure Gallery  
  
Christmas Cars      Boxcars      Refrigerator Cars      Stock Cars      Hopper Cars      Gondolas
Tank Cars      Flatcars      Aquarium Cars      Autorack Cars      Mint Cars      Cabooses

Pictures Needed     Useful Links     For Sale     Wish List     Bibliography     The Upstairs Train