Chicago, Illinois-based toymaker William Frederick Hafner developed a clockwork motor for toy cars in 1901 while working for a company called Toy Auto Company. According to the recollections of William Hafner's son, John, William had developed a clockwork train running on O gauge track by 1905.
Hafner's friend, William Ogden Coleman, gained control of the Edmonds-Metzel Hardware Company, a struggling hardware manufacturer in Chicago, in 1906 or 1907. Hafner and Coleman began producing toy trains using Edmonds-Metzel's excess manufacturing capability after Hafner was able to secure $15,000 worth of orders. By 1907, two American retailers, G. Sommers & Co. and Montgomery Ward, were selling Edmonds-Metzel trains. In 1908, Edmonds-Metzel adopted the American Flyer brand name for the trains, and by 1910, Edmonds-Metzel was out of the hardware business and changed its name to American Flyer Manufacturing Company.
Initially American Flyer was something of a budget brand, undercutting the prices of Ives, which was at the time the market leader. The trains proved popular, and American Flyer was soon expanding its product line. However, the company's rapid growth led to strains in the relationship between Hafner and Coleman.
In 1913, Hafner left the company, having beieved that he would be given a significant portion of the company if the trains proved successful. Coleman refused when Hafner asked to exercise this option. Hafner started the Hafner Manufacturing Company, which sold a line of trains called Overland Flyer. Sommers immediately stopped carrying the American Flyer trains in favor of Hafner's brand. Initially, the Hafner and American Flyer product lines were very similar, suggesting they may have been built using the same tooling. This suggests the possibility of the two companies continuing to collaborate. The Hafner company was run by William Hafner's son John Hafner from 1944, merging with Chicago plastics manufacturer Wallace A Erickson in 1950. Hafner survived as a manufacturer of clockwork trains until 1951, when John Hafner retired and sold the business to All Metal Products Company, makers of Wyandotte Toys. All Metal products was bankrupt by 1956, the original Hafner tooling being purchased by Louis Marx, almost certainly to prevent acquisition of the tools by a competitor. Marx relocated the Hafner tooling to a subsiduary in Mexico, where battery and clockwork powered sets were manufactured.
For additional background information, with illustrations, please refer to the TCA Western Division Index of Manufacturers web site.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
page views since 1998