S Scale Model Railroad
You want to know what’s really at the cutting edge of toy train world? What’s about to break that has every model trainer tossing and turning with anticipation? What style of toy train do hobbyists go gaga for?I could go on and on like this, but let me just let the cat out the bag: it’s s gauge model trains. You got it? You don’t even know what scale that is, do you? Do you even know about different scales? Alright so here’s what you should know for your next toy train railroader’s meeting:
Here’s a blast from the past, these s scale trains are “American Flyers”:
In a way it begins and ends with this. But a huge explanation why this gauge is so popular is because after having been decommissioned during World War II, American Flyer retooled and came out with a new line of state of the art trains in s gauge. This was in huge part an attempt to compete with Lionel who was the king of the roost at the time. S scale is an “inbetween” gauge, way bigger than HO but smaller than Lionel’s O. Real world trains are 64 times larger than s scale toys whereas real world locomotives are 48 times the size of Lionel’s O. That signifies that S scale is a bit more user friendly in terms of the minimum space suggestions for the track but still large enough for those of us that are into the arts and crafts aspect of model training. You can still really get into detailing with these large toy locomotives.
S scale is not a standard gauge:
A further reason that s scale has gained such popularity is that s scale is uncommon. American Flyers are fundamentally the exclusive kind of locomotives that were mass produced in this scale and even American Flyers were only made in this gauge for a brief period just after World War II. That means there are not that many vintage s scale American Flyer trains. This also means that those collectors of the s scale trains in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s had to make most of their replacement trains from scratch and to meticulously maintain their trains since replacement parts in the pre-google age were difficult to track down. The nature of this devotion has just made the trains that much more sought after.
American Flyers are about to enter the market again:
American Flyer’s nemesis Lionel bought them out in the 60’s and is now looking to reinvigorate both brands by releasing the vintage 1950’s toys that continue to be so loved by hobbyists. The great success of these releases has driven Lionel to resolve to re-introduce the s scale locomotives that avid fans are so infatuated with. It might not be long before we have to make room for s scale as yet another common size in the toy training world.
Now’s the time to put your chips down if you want to cash in early on this tip. This is when the early adopters wade in and check things out. Don’t say I didn’t give you a heads up later on. It’s like the coffee house craze 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.