Notice: his site is dedicated to the Kris S Gauge production, and that I do not have any information on the O gauge production of either Kris or Kusan.
The History of Kris S Gauge Trains
In the early 1970s, Hobby Surplus shipped some 3000 original Gilbert shells to Kris Model Trains of Endicott, NY, where they were painted into new road names. Reefers, Boxcars and Triple Bay Hoppers were included in this lot. Some details of the Kris repaints are given in the rare "out of print" book GREENBERG'S GUIDE TO AMERICAN FLYER S GAUGE VOLUME II in the Variations section. (page 82, Copyright (c) 1991, Greenberg Books) A list of road names is printed in this book, though it is apparently incomplete, lacking for instance the Hershey's reefer pictured below.
In the spring of 2001, at a TCA Southern Division train show held at Sarasota, Florida, a number of pieces of Kris rolling stock turned up on a seller's table, in unused condition. Five of the cars pictured on this site were purchased from the dealer at that time, and a couple of dozen other cars the dealer had were sold by him shortly afterwards on eBay to other buyers.
In November of 2001, I came upon what what is a American Flyer variations collector's dream. I purchased a lot of 151 unused Kris shells, which contained all but three of the cars listed in Greenberg Volume II, plus several not mentioned at all. I am taking advantage of this good fortune to document with photos and publish on the Internet for the first time, pictures of seldom seen Kris rolling stock. These often brightly colored cars look great on a layout or display shelf, and are a rare look into some post Gilbert / American Flyer history.
Anyone who has in their collection Kris cars that are not pictured here, are urged to send a photo to the webmaster of this site, along with any relevant information so that it can be added..
My thanks to Kris car collectors Ralph Eisenmann and Shawn Solderitch, for providing several photos of Kris cars that are in their personal collections for use on the website.
Thanks, Chuck Harrington
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Unless otherwise noted, Kris car photographs copyright (c) 2003, 2004, Chuck Harrington - All Rights reserved! |