A bit over a year ago I got out my 60+ year old American Flyer S-gauge model train set with original Gilbert track and switches and got it running. Over the course of the past year, I have designed a basic 3-loop track layout, built a modular 10x10 ft raised track table, installed many additional pieces of Gilbert 2-rail track and Gilbert 720A switches, added MTH Z4000 transformer, Legacy 990, and DCS Explorer along with acquiring a variety of conventional, FlyerChief, and Legacy locomotives and rolling stock. I found Legacy and FlyerChief to be most enjoyable. However, the preponderance of S-gauge locomotives are in the post-war era … few manufacturer options for new-featured S-gauge Legacy and/or FlyerChief locomotives. This is also reflected in the scarcity of S-gauge dialogue compared to O-gauge dialogue on the various model train forums. And I don’t see that changing. So, after mulling things around for a while, I decided that I wanted to avail myself to the wide-variety of O-gauge railroading discussions and purchasing/operating options while not doing away with the S-gauge layout that I had already planned, built, equipped, and had operating.
Here are OGR hyperlinks to two previous posts of my S-gauge learning experiences over the past year:
Bear in mind that these were authored with focus of speaking to the S-gauge community. Moving from traditional S-gauge transformer control to Legacy and then to DCS was a daunting thing for me at the time and I found little info online on doing so. So, I opted to document my experiences for anyone else so motivated. Hence the two posts.
So, I’ve now opted to document my experience expanding my S-gauge layout to include O-gauge operations and control as I’ve found little info on line on doing this by others … see atch’d pdf. So far, everything is working as expected and I am able to continue to operate my S-gauge layout while enjoying the variety of O-gauge railroading options that are available now and in the future. My layouts are operationally focused ... so no scenery at this time.
The transition experience is attached along with a couple of photos of the combined layouts.
Regards,
Tom
