S Scale Model Railroad

You want to know what’s really at the vanguard of model locomotive hobby?  What locomotives do hardcore model trainers lust after? What retro style of locomotives are going to make a come back the way bell bottoms and tye-dye did a the end of the Reagan Era?  Alright, here it is: s scale model railroads.  Yeah, that’s right, s scale?  You don’t even know what size that is, do you? Do you even know about different gauges?  Alright, well let me fill you in on the nitty-gritty on these before you start hearing about them in the news:

Two words, “American Flyer”:  

In a manner of speaking it starts and ends with this.  Nostalgia explains a lot.  American Flyer’s s scale trains had their strongest days right after the Big One when the baby boomers were starting to sprout up.  This was in big part an attempt to compete with Lionel who was the king of the roost at the time.  S scale toy railroads are slightly smaller than the Lionel O gauge.  Real world trains are 64 times bigger than s gauge models whereas real world locomotives are 48 times the size of Lionel’s O.   These are still pretty substantial locomotives but not so much so that you would have to have them only outside. You can still really get into detailing with these big toy trains.

S gauge is not a standard gauge:  

Because American Flyer in effect invented s scale and then went out of business a little while after, you don’t come across it much.  American Flyers are simply the exclusive kind of trains that were mass produced in this scale and even American Flyers were only manufactured in this scale for a small period just after the Big One. That means there are not that many of them.   Because of the law of supply and demand, American Flyers short life span has inflated the demand for their parts and sets.   This has made American Flyer the Holy Grail of toy trains for many fans.

American Flyers are about to hit the model train market again:  

American Flyer’s nemesis Lionel bought them out in the 60’s and is now looking to reinvigorate both brands by marketing the vintage 1950’s toys that continue to be so cherished by trainers.  The s gauge toys they are due to re-introduce should take the model train world by storm.  It might not be long before we have to make way for s scale as yet another standard size in the toy training world.

So if you want to get in front of this wave, now’s the time.  This is when the early adopters wade in and check things out.  Don’t say I didn’t give you the low down later on. It’s like the coffee house fad of the early 90s.  Not only that, American Flyer and s scale just rock even if nobody were into them. 

Here is more information on Model Train Scale. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Model Trains.