These are the trains of your childhood: 

If you’re of a certain age these are the model trains you first noticed.  They’re the toy trains from the Christmas displays you remember as a boy.  Many of us placed these trains on our holiday lists in the hope that we might wake up to their whistle on Christmas morning.  And they’re also likely to be the model trains that you didn’t get because they were too expensive.  For this reason they are also the trains that remained forever in the realm of the wished for. Now that you have become a hobbyist again, they are the trains that are most likely to scratch that long festering itch.

Lionel:  

The name Lionel probably rings a bell for you, even if you don’t recall why.  Lionel is probably the archetypal model train making company in the United States.  Lionel has been around for so long that you can trace the history of toy training by following their circuitous course through the volatility of the hobby world. The reason why you associate toy locomotives with Christmas is because of an advertising campaign pursued by Lionel in the 1930’s.  It was these strategies that made them the top dogs of the model training world in the early 1900’s.  It was mainly because Lionel started to corner themselves at the higher strata of the market that they opened themselves up to usurpers.  By the Vietnam era when model training was at an all time low in terms of American participation, Lionel’s bargain based, tinier sized challengers pushed it out of business. But Lionel has been resurrected as Lionel LLC and, though still plagued by financial problems, continues to be one of the leading model locomotive makers around.  The Lionel brand still retains a certain allure that other well established train makers like Bachmann don’t.

O gauge is just a neat size to work with:  

Even though O gauge demands a lot more room than HO or N, its size also adds a great number of benefits.  O scale locomotives are a lot larger than HO scale locomotives.  Real world locomotives are 48 times bigger than O scale model locomotives.  It is a train that is easy to pigment, decal and weather.  You don’t require incredibly fine motor skills so even the clumsiest of children or most palsied of old folks can work with these trains.  Take it from me, even when I’ve had one too many lattés and my fingers are trembling like leaves in a storm I still have no difficulties with these trains.  Also, because of its size, you can really take in the little aspects of these locomotives.  You can really individualize your toy training experience with O scale since everything is on a gauge that you could do them from scratch. There is just a lot more that you can do with an O gauge toy railroad.

O scale is also a favorite for model train fans:  

Fan’s of toy locomotives just love O because of its association with Lionel trains.  Classic Lionel locomotives of bygone eras often fetch high prices on e-bay and many model locomotive enthusiasts like to collect Lionel trains from different decades so that they can have a sort of living record of the evolution of toy trains. 

Even if this were a brand new scale with no following, it would soon attract trainers solely because it just feels like the perfect dimensions for a hobby train. It does take up more area than other smaller types of trains, but this sacrifice seems well worth it for most of us.  Given Lionel’s long track record it is unlikely that this gauge of locomotive will go out of production soon.  Even if it did, the extensive tradition of Lionel will keep O gauge lovers stocked up for a good deal of time to come.  Just ask the rocker Neal Young who loved O gauge locomotives so greatly that he was at one point part owner in Lionel and is still retained as an consultant to the company!

Here is more information on Model Train Scale. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Model Trains.  

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.