Early Post-war Scale Flange Cars

In an effort to produce a more realistic product, Gilbert used scale flanges in the early engineering samples from 1945 and and also in early 1946 production.  Unfortunately this was not practical with the new light weight plastic cars.  Also, when brass button track trip was abandoned for a flange activated track trip, it was clear that such small flanges would not be sufficient.  Gilbert kept the scale drive wheel flanges on the locomotives, which you may have noticed are noticeably shallower than the other wheel flanges, and these are observable in all Gilbert locomotives.