The Death Of S Scale: An Outsiders Opinion

I like your thinking here Andre'

Don't forget the handsome K5 Gilbert produced as well

When I was a kid in the fifties, everyone had a Lionel train set. How many switches you had was your ranking in the herd. We would take turns hosting our "operating sessions."  But--there was always one kid that had American Flyer and once we had been to his house, we went back to our Lionel safe zone. Seemed odd, only having two rails and not quite big enough. I've always wondered what happened to that kid. Probably CEO of some Fortune 500 company.

Andre,

Your "drivelogue" as you put it nicely states exactly what this hobby should be all about; enjoying it to the best our abilities and there are so many ways to do that.  I would agree with you completely that the angry hoards decrying the death of S scale are largely missing the point that there doesn't need to be "new" trains to be produced to enjoy the overwhelming amount of what has already been produced in this scale.  You do have the advantage of having an excellent modeling skillset that gives you a head start over some, but modeling is something everyone can pick up with practice and patience.  I also fully believe that the "less is more" approach to modeling forces you into better decision making.  I am guilty of train hoarding as much as the worst offenders and I feel as if what has gotten lost as I have had the means to collect nicer and "better" trains is that I haven't needed to go back and re-evaluate those projects that could be great with work.  When I was in my 20's, broke, and buying cheap used HO, I was a much better modeler than I am today, and the end result was projects that were ultimately more satisfying.  American Flyer trains do have the advantage of being relatively scale already as you point out as a great starting point for detailing and improving. 

Personally, I made the jump from HO to O high rail and now both high rail and two rail.  Will I ever be able to build a layout?  That is the big question and depends on where I land next in my journey.  I do know that that 2 rail layout in my head is not going to happen at my current residence and my dreams of 20 car passenger trains are for now just that.  Your discussion about being able to let the HO layout go in favor of something else is truly excellent wisdom.  At 56, I'm not quite at the inflection point you have reached, however that time comes for all of us sooner than we expect.   

As long as there are people who can envision what makes for a great layout in S, there will be the means to make it happen.  Enough my own drivelogue in return, but a wonderful post and a reminder that this hobby is supposed to make us happy, not the opposite!

Andre,

Hopefully, welcome back.

Rich

From what little I have read recently, the big bugga-boo with S is really the lack of track to build a nice looking realistic layout with. Plenty of old flyer track but little available in more realistic track from the several manufacturers

Thank you all for some input.

I'm getting ready to head back out to my out building work bench and (hopefully) finish an F7A I've been working on, but later today/tonight I will reply to each post and discuss this further.

The thought of using S scale as a safety net has already made me not dread the onset of old age as badly.

I'm already making changes in my dirt motorcycle riding to better accommodate my aging, so it stands to reason that I can also expect changes will need to be made in order to continue enjoying miniature trains.

All fer now! Out to the building and hoping to add another engine "In Service"!

Andre

Andre,

I had O gauge trains as a youngster in the 1950s, HO for a few years, and then came back to 3-rail O gauge about 28 years ago and built two layouts - 12'-by-8' and 10'-by-5' - both of which are still in operation. I made the decision to stick with 3-rail O after considering S gauge, which I do think is the perfect size.

I'm older than you and not quite as agile as I used to be, so the completed railroads are a big advantage. For me, O gauge was a compromise but nowadays I spend more time than I ever expected on the hobby and the O Gauge Forum. So, my advice to you is to select a scale, build your layout, and plan to stick with it, despite whatever compromises are required by the scale you choose. Every scale has its advantages. Eventually, you will be happy just to have an operating model railroad that you built and, if you're like me, the scale won't matter.

MELGAR

Andre, I am the culprit that originally posted the picture of the 342 0-8-0. That engine is the less common 1952 version with red glowing smoke.

In my world S gauge is neither dead nor dying. There will be fewer new products for a while but there is plenty available in the resale market. Here a few more pictures I recently took on my layout.

Here are a few more.

I have often wondered at the attraction of the doomsday approach to life that some folks seem to favor/need.  It turns out that while the world changes, there are still people doing seemingly outdated and weird things like collecting barbed wire, running model T Fords, breeding horses and playing with with three rail O gauge trains (or S gauge Flyer from 75 years ago).  So finding some pleasure in an activity should not be altered by the doom and gloom crowd.  Live in the reality you want .

The pictures in this thread seem to show S-Scale as alive and well.  If fact it has never looked better.

I'd say your mistake was in throwing out the idea for a 19th Century Colorado line.  LaBelle does some nice rolling stock and BTS structures should work well.

I was disappointed there were no new engines in the 2025 catalog. So I took action by searching out older engines in road numbers or road names I did not buy when they were released. This month I bought five MSOB Legacy engines from the 2011 and 2012 catalogs. I have opened four of those boxes and have the engines running on my layout. Probably better than ordering from a catalog and waiting a year. I also bought eight older but NIB freight and passenger cars I did not have. There is no shortage of S gauge items to buy, even when you have a house full as I do.

Track can be an issue but there are solutions. For those who do not want Gilbert or GarGraves there is Lionel. Lionel S gauge FasTrack is the best sectional track made with its tight joints and solid NS rail. It is made in 20”R and 27”R curves and turnouts, with enough fractional length pieces than any layout that can be designed can be built without the need to cut the track sections. AM has a lot of flex track but they are out of sectional and turnouts.

It would sure be better if a supplier made S gauge code138 numbered turnouts, but no one does. S Scale America has code138 NS rail available for hand laying track and turnouts. SHS/MTH sectional track, flex track and 20”R turnouts are widely available in the resale market. My layout was built using SHS/MTH flextrack and hand laid #5, #6 and #8 turnouts. The turntable was purchased from a commercial supplier.

Below are two pictures on my turntable, one is my original 1950 322AC Hudson that triggered my lifelong attraction to toy trains. The other is one of my new 2025 purchased, 2011 Challengers. Both run perfectly on this layout. In fact, anything Gilbert ever made in S gauge runs on this layout yet I also run AM engines and S Scale America cars with scale profile wheels on the layout. I can even unload my American Flyer coal dump cars, auto unloaded cars and log dump cars, and operate the uncouplers and turnouts using my iPad. I see no reason to be negative about operating in S gauge.

Something to ponder on aging....at least from my POV:

In 2005, at the ripe old age of 34, I broke my back in a ski accident and had a difficult....but very successful....recovery.  (I have full mobility and zero back pain 20 years later.)

For about four months, I had to wear a "turtle shell" over my torso and had very limited mobility.  But I was able to still enjoy three rail O Scale Trains b/c the oversized, lobster claw type couplers were still useable and functional to me....barely.

It hit me...at that moment....what it will be like to age or suffer a severe, permanent injury.

From that moment, I had ZERO issues with our trucks, fast angle wheels, and oversized couplers.  They were able to be easily manipulated when I could barely walk and stand.

I've never had the inkling to convert to Kadees ever since....nor will I.   I prefer not to see the thumbtack and like certain newer styles of couplers very much....but I'm riding three rail O-Scale to my grave.

Great topic and observations.  I’ve never considered S, but have dabbled in N, 1 Gauge, HO and O since coming back into the hobby about thirty years ago.  A recent move has resulted in the inevitable decision about what to keep, and what to let go.  For me, keeping a few pieces of Pre-War O for Christmas duty and the display cabinet is letting me now concentrate on building an HO layout for all the Maerklin I picked while overseas.  True, its smaller size presents some challenges, but I’m keeping it simple, taking inspiration from some of Lionel’s and Maerklin’s early display layouts, where the trains were the stars, not so much the scenery: think classic metal roadbed track, vintage signals and other accessories, where the emphasis is on play value and using one’s imagination.  As my wife said earlier this morning, “Even after thinning out the collection, you’re still going to have a lot of trains to run.”  Not a bad place to be….

Berkshire President, great that you had a full recovery from that accident. With the amount of three rail O gauge items available there is good reason to stay with it. Same with keeping the original trucks and couplers. I have seen layout pictures with the Lionel electromagnets cleverly hidden.

A lot of people told me to switch to Kadees and to use DCC. After some thought, I stayed with Legacy for the control system and became determined to keep the original Gilbert knuckle couplers and link couplers. The layout has a lot of uncouplers placed around the layout. Interestingly, no visitors see them until I point them out.

Additionally, one cannot have Legacy engines without some Sensor Tracks. Lionel has never made an S gauge Sensor Track. I was determined to have three. No problem, we bought three O gauge FasTrack Sensor Tracks and removed the circuit boards. These were mounted under pieces of SHS track. The picture below shows the result of integrating a Sensor Track and uncouplers into the SHS track. This was done before Lionel made the separate sleds. The Sensor Track is to the left of the uncoupler.

Andre, I like and can relate to your approach. As we're all model railroaders, in a very "large tent" as Bear Owen used to say, and considering how realistic S-scale track can be (am picturing the beautiful RTR 2-rail track with built-in roadbed that I've seen in S-scale over the years) I have been tempted to make the switch from 3-rail with the same understanding that you came to.