Is S scale still an option?

@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:

There's plenty of value priced 027 equipment which can be converted to S gauge for model railroaders not into rivet counting who just enjoys the pleasure of running trains.  

This brings up the Lionel Hi-Cube box car.  Are they suitable for S gauge?  They look too small to be true O scale to me.  The original releases had attractive color schemes.  There was even a yellow Frisco which was only available in a set as I recall.  I've thought about this for several years but have never posted the question on any forum before.

A list of 027 equipment from all manufactures that will work well with S gauge trains would be nice, perhaps even for the NASG?

Joe

Don't know if the old MPC Hi-Cube would work.  Never tried it, never will.  Probably would be way too tall, though.

I can hardly be called a rivet counter, but proportion is very important to me.  Lionel's attempts at rebranding some traditional O27 for Flyer look awkward to my eyes unless heavily modified.  As I've probably mentioned before, the old Lionel "Scout" double door boxcar is almost perfect in proportion as is for S.  Jerry's conversion shows that, although the graphics are a little off, IMO.

Cars like these from the low end Lionel Junction sets have wonderful graphics that would really fit right in after a conversion:

Rusty

@Rusty Traque posted:

Cars like these from the low end Lionel Junction sets have wonderful graphics that would really fit right in after a conversion:

Rusty

Little surprised they haven't released those as American flyer.  I mean - use what ya got - is their mantra.

@poniaj posted:

Close enough for government work.  Wouldn't notice a darn thing why they were moving.  Ladder detail would help if it were sitting still.

@Jacobpaul81 posted:

Close enough for government work.  Wouldn't notice a darn thing why they were moving.  Ladder detail would help if it were sitting still.

The roof detail is way over-sized.  I've looked at grinding off the roof walk but the roof contours are too challenging for me.  Too much work for a mediocre piece of rolling stock.

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

@Tom Stoltz posted:

The roof detail is way over-sized.  I've looked at grinding off the roof walk but the roof contours are too challenging for me.  Too much work for a mediocre piece of rolling stock.

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

Yeah, the roofwalk is a little wide, its grab irons are clunky and of course it's molded on.  I just shaved off the grab irons off and called it a day.  There weren't a lot of options back around 1986.

Never said it would be a fine scale model, but the bulkiness can be mitigated with a nondescript paint job.  (Save the lime green and orange for another project...)

Rusty

@Rusty Traque posted:

Yeah, the roofwalk is a little wide, its grab irons are clunky and of course it's molded on.  I just shaved off the grab irons off and called it a day.  There weren't a lot of options back around 1986.

Never said it would be a fine scale model, but the bulkiness can be mitigated with a nondescript paint job.  (Save the lime green and orange for another project...)

Rusty

I think it looks good in the photos.  Cars were different.  When every element is the exact same from car to car, it starts looking fake.   Harder to get that 2-3 inch variation at 3/16 to a foot - so a bit of over-exageration isn't necessarily a bad thing. 

I don't know if anyone saw my question about kinsman kits.  Worth it?

@Jacobpaul81 posted:

Close enough for government work.  Wouldn't notice a darn thing why they were moving.  Ladder detail would help if it were sitting still.

I've run a long train on my club's layout with this car in the consist and nobody caught it.  Even our resident rivet counters...   When pointed out, they laughed.

Sorry, no experience with Kinsman kits.

@poniaj posted:

I've run a long train on my club's layout with this car in the consist and nobody caught it.  Even our resident rivet counters...   When pointed out, they laughed.

Sorry, no experience with Kinsman kits.

It's 100% convincing.   I feel the same way about Weaver cars in O.  Anyone who says they notice the low detail in a moving train -  are full of it.   It's when they are sitting that it "might" be noticable.

@Jacobpaul81 posted:

It's 100% convincing.   I feel the same way about Weaver cars in O.  Anyone who says they notice the low detail in a moving train -  are full of it.   It's when they are sitting that it "might" be noticable.

Fully agree.  That's my take on the High-rail verse scale wheel profile debate.

Most of my stuff on my former railroad that took up residence  were Pacific Rail Shops, S Helper and American Models with the occasional DPH/SSA, Flyer conversion and cars of unknown parentage.

I like to model the typical.  Once you get a sea of boxcar red, it all tends to blend together...

Indeed, when the last train pulled out in March of 2020, it was with a mixed bag of cars with varying levels of detail.

Rusty

@Rusty Traque posted:

Most of my stuff on my former railroad that took up residence  were Pacific Rail Shops, S Helper and American Models with the occasional DPH/SSA, Flyer conversion and cars of unknown parentage.

I like to model the typical.  Once you get a sea of boxcar red, it all tends to blend together...

Indeed, when the last train pulled out in March of 2020, it was with a mixed bag of cars with varying levels of detail.

Rusty

Nothing wrong with that.  All the funny bright color schemes came in after your timeframe anyway.   I love steam and wood cars but I do have an affinity for early tofc too.  I've always loved images of cigar band F7s with a line of 20' trailers.

@Jacobpaul81 posted:

Nothing wrong with that.  All the funny bright color schemes came in after your timeframe anyway.   I love steam and wood cars but I do have an affinity for early tofc too.  I've always loved images of cigar band F7s with a line of 20' trailers.

I've got my share of "shiny things..."  They just usually weren't "permanent fixtures" on my railroad.  The BAR State of Maine and New Haven McGinnis cars came into being in the mid-50's.  Who doesn't have a State of Maine boxcar lurking in their collection somewhere?  Particularly as I have an elastic timeframe: generally mid-late 50's to mid-60's.

Oddly enough, the old Gilbert catalogs are quick references for when some of the colorful cars came into being as they tried to keep up with some of the latest prototype freight car paint schemes.

Rusty

Talking O-27 conversion - I'd wondered about the K-line semi-scale offerings and came across this.

@Jacobpaul81 posted:

Talking O-27 conversion - I'd wondered about the K-line semi-scale offerings and came across this.

The old Atlas O "Industrial Rail" 4-4-2 from what I've read is 1:64 or darn close to it.  Even a "scaler" or two have converted one.

As far as the K-Line ex-Marx freight cars go, they are more or less 1:64.  IMO they fall into "eye of the beholder" territory.  I had considered trying to covert some to scale, but I found the detail too crude (cruder than the Lionel "Scout" boxcar) to make the effort.

K-Line was going to produce some freight sets using a modified ex-Marx 333 Pacific, but K-Line went under before that could happen.  They would have been interesting.

Several S-Fest cars were produced using the K-Line cars.

Rusty

That is Carl Tuveson's engine and layout. There is a complete "how to" on his site to modify that engine.

@Rusty Traque posted:

The old Atlas O "Industrial Rail" 4-4-2 from what I've read is 1:64 or darn close to it.  Even a "scaler" or two have converted one.

As far as the K-Line ex-Marx freight cars go, they are more or less 1:64.  IMO they fall into "eye of the beholder" territory.  I had considered trying to covert some to scale, but I found the detail too crude (cruder than the Lionel "Scout" boxcar) to make the effort.

K-Line was going to produce some freight sets using a modified ex-Marx 333 Pacific, but K-Line went under before that could happen.  They would have been interesting.

Several S-Fest cars were produced using the K-Line cars.

Rusty

Yea, I went investigating the scale of the semi-scale locomotives thinking some of the boilers might be conversion worthy - they produced several good models in O-27 and O scale - the were just underpowered.  The semi-scale ones tend to sell for cheap cause few people want semi-scale locos...  But even though they are small for O-27, they are still too large.   I was mainly investigating the long-term posibility of somehow building a Baldwin mountain (knowing even if a Mountain were to ever be released, it'd be a Mohawk).   ATSF and SLSF both had quite a few Mountains.   

The Atlas loco looks a little 1:29 ish to me.  Fine with the cars - but out of scale with the track.

@AmFlyer posted:

That is Carl Tuveson's engine and layout. There is a complete "how to" on his site to modify that engine.

Hey Tom, I was curious and tried to find the ''how to' but did not see it.  Am I over looking it?

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

On the left hand column of Carl's website click on TMCC for S. Then scroll down the list of TMCC items and you will see "Links To Carl's S Gauge TMCC Conversions." Keep scrolling down, the 4th item from the bottom of that list is "Converted to S Atlas O Gauge Atlantic", click on that.

My 2 cents, regarding the OP's question.

"Yes", if you are willing to accept the pretty limited options.

Like most everyone, I feel 1/64 is the "perfect" size, so I dabble.

I've been able to collect some vintage "scale" rolling stock, and since my Flyer 300 and 310 run SO well, I picked up some spare tenders and converted them to Kadee couplers, so I can run these together.

310:

300:

Here's the 300 coupled to a Mid Gage boxcar:

Not overly interesting, I know, but I have fun doing stuff like this... 

Mark in Oregon

@AmFlyer posted:

On the left hand column of Carl's website click on TMCC for S. Then scroll down the list of TMCC items and you will see "Links To Carl's S Gauge TMCC Conversions." Keep scrolling down, the 4th item from the bottom of that list is "Converted to S Atlas O Gauge Atlantic", click on that.

Got it, really great!!!  Thanks