1959 American Flyer 20048 Department Store Special 11-02-2022

In January of 2018, I purchased a boxed American Flyer train set No. 20048 Department Store Special at a local home estate sale.
This set is the six panel "Scena-Rama" layout. It is the predecessor to the "All-Aboard" panel train layouts.
If anyone is interested in a detailed power point presentation of this set, or a PDF of the two page instruction sheet, please contact my friend Austin through the email or links in his Austin's American Flyer trains TH-cam channel. He has agreed to forward these for me.
/ austinsamericanflyertr...
The scenic panels and track roadbed are made from a fabricated cardboard material similar to egg cartons. The panels are to be painted and decorated by the end user with materials supplied in the set.
When I got it home, I sorted through the contents. I found it to be approximately 98% complete. The main item missing from the box was an engine wrap or box for the 21085 locomotive. I want back to the estate sale to see if the wrap or box had been pulled out of the set box by someone and set aside. No luck.
I did not find any stakes for the Christmas Tree flat car. I supplied a very nice set of eight stakes.
I found one flat staple in the set box. There should have been at least six of these. They are designed to push through the panels and attach them together.
The engine and tender had been operated but showed very little usage. All of the freight cars had been out of their boxes either to be operated or at least viewed. These all showed minimal handling or use. Flaps to boxes had been torn. I taped all that I found back in place on the correct matching boxes.
The bags of powdered paint were fragile and leaking. I bagged them in zip lock bags and kept them in a separate cardboard box to prevent damage to any of the other set items. There were small bags of red, yellow, and blue paint. A medium bag of brown paint. A large bag of green paint. A medium to large bag of dark green painted sawdust grass.
I am not a collector of boxed sets. I am an operator and like a wide variety of American Flyer trains and accessories. I worried for months about how to store / conserve this set. My friend Gary recommended a friend of his at the Oregon coast that collected boxed sets and specialized in 1953 and newer knuckle coupler items.
I took a lot of new photos and put together a nice power point of the items and emailed them off. We came to an agreeable amount for the set. Gary and I made a nice day trip drive to the coast and delivered the set in November of 2018.
I hope you found this informational.
Thank you for viewing.

[@flyerjunction]

A very colorful set. Any railfan would love to see that going down the tracks. If it was mine, I would have started planning a painted desert scene with those panels. LOL. Thank you for sharing.

[@willamettevalleyAFtrains]

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@joezuccardo3245]

Nice set I would like to see it running on your layout Thanks

[@willamettevalleyAFtrains]

I documented everything that was in the set. I am an operator, not a collector. I sold the set to a friend shortly afterwards that collected boxed sets and like new items.

[@joezuccardo3245]

@@willamettevalleyAFtrains To bad I would like to have seen it run before you sold it

[@daveclarklumber]

Amazing set. Thanks for sharing!

[@MygrandpasTrain]

That's a beautiful set. Looks like some of those cars might be kind of rare too.

[@willamettevalleyAFtrains]

It was an interesting and well cared for set.

[@8avexp]

Nothing super rare. Not too many uncataloged sets contained collectible items.

[@plunkervillerr1529]

No Sound Me!