How I almost got in to S gauge and maybe should have!

Well, Michael, it is never too late.

 

Bob

The "Dark Side" is always open!

 

Rusty

Also, while everyone nearby is having fun with their trains in that nice club room, you are sitting on the outside on your own, looking in with envy Regards, Neil

I'm happy being primarily into "O", but I always had nostalgia for postwar Flyer with the link couplers. My best friend, back around 1950, had a Flyer K5 with green New Haven passenger cars, and I liked that set better than my Lionel 224 with freight cars. When I got back into trains in the early 1980s, I bought a set like his. I have it running on a simple 6x4 layout in my cellar.

I also have the Hudson, and the 4-piece metal Atlantic (which I think is one of the most under-valued engine on the market). Hate to admit it, but I love the whitewall drive wheels on these.

Maybe you should count this as a blessing. Join the club and buy ONE set to run.

Would that that were so Bob....I have too much invested in O now. And, it is a GREAT scale to work with. I'm just thinking about my measly 8'x8' space.......

 

No, just thinking out loud. Can't go back and change now.......

Mike; like others have said, it's not to late. My layout is primarily "O", but I did have to have a dogbone of "S" inside the other two loops. I have a Postwar Gilbert 283 that runs and smokes like crazy, but I've enjoyed running the newer "scale" Lionel Mikados & Pacifics + my re-issued MoPac passenger set. With S-Helper & American Models starting to recover from the Chinese melt-down, more and more good "S" products will be in the pipeline for our enjoyment. My S-Helper F-7 & SW1200 switcher are first-rate runners.

My new Legacy U-33C has been very enjoyable.

Larry D.

Mike,

I am in S and it is a wonderful place to be, but if it be S, O, even HO, it is trains and that is a great place to be. Enjoy the fact that you can enjoy a super hobby and get away from the everyday world for a while.

Ray

AMEN brother!

I have changed scales more times than I care to admit. I have no problem pulling the plug you can get 75%-90% return by selling on eBay depending on what you have. I would agree that perhaps buy one set and join the club. You may find out you like it even better than O or not, either way you had fun and met some new train buddies. good luck.

I have purchased a couple of S-Gauge cars because they were offered in my favorite road name (Ann Arbor).  This hasn't caused me to go off the deep end and commit thousands of dollars to another scale.  So, spending a little to put together a train that you could run at the club would make sense in my book.

I always been in S in my in and out journey in the hobby and I still have my American Flyers that I had as a kid. But I have the opposite problem and keep getting tempted to go O gauge. If the store had a K Line circus train left when they first came out, the layout might have three rails.

 

The MTH EJ&E center cab transfer engine, even though not the correct engine for the J, is still tempting.

 

Maybe I should go in the basement run a train and it'll pass. And everyone is right regardless of scale it is a great hobby.

 

I just recently got into S as well, when a friend of the family gave me all of her old American Flyer stuff. I set up some of it in the center of my O gauge layout

 

I figured that S scale woulf be the perfect scale. Large enough to see, and small enough to have a nice layout in a limited space.

 

I have'nt made the switch yet [I may or may not] but it is never to late.

 

Bruce

I first started in O gauge,but the S gauge bug bit me in a big way, I really love it

and the two rail track nice!

 

Tin

After 25 yeas in O I'm back in S running link coupler Flyer and I'm having a lot of fun.  I'm also spending a lot less

 

I like the people and the S culture.

 

There are new products today and they seem to be appreciated more.  There's also a lot of old fashioned creativity and cottage industries. 

Michael, just to give a word of encouragement, I have recently liquidated a large O scale collection in order to switch scales.  I would say that between the B/S board and Ebay I was really surprised at how good the resale value of my stuff was, particularly on Ebay.  If you are serious about considering S scale, I would not let resale value hold you back.  

I have always like S and it goes beyond the the three rail versus two rail controversy. I have always like it's scale like appearance and all of it was to the same scale dimensions (except the cheap stuff Gilbert produced in the 60's). Modern S-scale looks good next to 40's era equipment.  I have HO but S has the right size and heft I like.  Modern O scale is great looking but I don't have the room for it.  Traditional O scale is anything but O scale it's a lot is closer to S scale. So forget about the rest go with the best S scale

I'm finding this is what I like about S as much as anything....

 

Mark in Oregon

Thanks all for your responses. I am sure that the "culture" as it relates to people from S gauge to 0 is one and the same. MODEL TRAIN enthusiasts are all great!