You want to know what’s really at the vanguard of toy locomotive world? What’s coming down the pike that has each and every model trainer anxious with anticipation? What throw back style of trains are about to make a come back the way bell bottoms and tye-dye did a the end of the Reagan Administration?I could go on and on like this, but let me just let the cat out the bag: it’s s gauge toy locomotives. You got it? If you’re not that acquainted with scales and gauges then you probably don’t recognize that this isn’t a standard scale nowadays. Do you even know about different scales? Alright, well let me fill you in on the nitty-gritty on these before you start hearing about them in the news:
Here’s a blast from the past, these s scale trains are “American Flyers”:
In a way it begins and ends with American Flyer. Nostalgia explains a lot. American Flyer’s s scale locomotives had their strongest days right after the Big One when the baby boomers were starting to sprout up. This was in big part an attempt to challenge Lionel who was the king of the roost at the time. S gauge toy railroads are a little smaller than the Lionel O gauge. Real world trains are 64 times bigger than s scale toys whereas real world trains are 48 times the size of Lionel’s O. That signifies that S scale is a bit more manageable in terms of the smallest space suggestions for the track but still large enough for those of us that are into the arts and crafts aspect of toy training. You can still really get involved with detailing with these big toy locomotives.
S gauge is not a standard gauge:
A further reason that s scale has gained such a wide following is that s scale is not a standard gauge. A.C. Gilbert, who owned American Flyer at the time, produced this gauge as an attempt to make a line of trains that would keep up with Lionel by introducing high quality trains that weren’t interchangeable with Lionel trains. That means there are not that many vintage s scale American Flyer trains. This also means that those hobbyists of the s scale locomotives in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s had to make most of their accessories from scratch and to meticulously maintain their trains since replacement parts in the pre-web era were difficult to come by. The nature of this devotion has just made the locomotives that much more sought after.
American Flyers are about to be introduced into the model train market again:
Lionel LLC, who bought the American Flyer company when it went bankrupt in 1966 has recently started re-releasing popular American Flyer trains. The s scale toys they are due to re-release should take the toy train world by storm. It might not be long before we have to make room for s scale as yet another standard size in the model training world.
Now’s the moment to put your chips down if you want to cash in early on this tip. If you want to say “I told you so” to your model train friends you should jump in now. Don’t say I didn’t give you a heads up later on. Remember when I told you about this little coffee house called Starbuck’s. Not only that, American Flyer and s gauge 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.