Perry’s been in touch with his S gauge model trains:
“Hi Al,
My name is Perry I live in Metairie (a suburb of New Orleans, Louisiana). I belong to an S gauge club. The Crescent City S Gauge (CCSG) for short. We took our portable layout to a show recently at which I took pictures.
The first picture is of our yard. The coal drag is mine.
The next picture is of Art’s module and the corner next to it. The corners and the yard belong to the club. The next module is an oil rig and a gas station
This is Norman’s turn table module.
Larry’s bridge module.
This corner is made by Larry.
This is Jay’s refinery module.
This is Art’s transfer table where we make up and break up trains or store car we are not running. The blue engine is mine.
The mules in the distance are club modules with Jay’s buildings on it.
This is my duck under bridge.
These are some switch tracks that are next to the yard.
This is the 4th corner with Larry’s station on it.
Perry”
A bif thanks to Perry for sharin his S gauge model trains.
And now on to a subject I’m always banging on about – making a start.
And it just goes to show, lack of space should never stop you:
“Hi Al,
I’m sure you’ll be forgiven for a bit of housekeeping. I can only begin to imagine how many emails you receive, and with video clips attached they probably take up a huge amount of storage.
Anyhow, a few weeks back you kindly published my idea of using a “Loft Bed” (aka bunk bed without a lower deck) to house the layout. I’ve taken the plunge and it’s now assembled, and I’ve started preliminary construction of the baseboard. When it comes to carpentry I’m not Thomas Chippendale – and no David Bailey when it comes to photography – but I think you’ll get the idea. A very welcome side effect is the huge area underneath where I can store things.
The next step is to cut the boards so they fit round the uprights, and then I can slot the final one in to make a 6’ x 8’ area on which to build things in N Scale using Tomix. They’re relatively unknown here in the UK (Kato has much better availability), but years ago on a trip to Hong Kong I caught the train bug and bought a Tomix starter set. By the end of the trip I almost had to jettison half of my clothes to be able to shut the case again. In the end common sense prevailed and I bought another one, but I’ve been hooked on Tomix ever since.
Best regards,
Paul”
A big thanks to Perry for sharing his S gauge model trains and to Paul too.
That’s all for today folks.
Please do keep ’em coming.
And if today is the day you get started on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.
Best
Al
PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.
PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.
Please excuse my ignorance but I’m not familiar with S guage. Are there photos to make comparisons? However, your layout is fantastic!
Frank near Mickey Mouse Orlando
Well we used to have an active scale group within our S gauge club but I’m aftaid thats pretty much done . There were modules built to NASG standards, but no more….oh well
I believe S is traditionally a quarter of an inch to the foot, so a bit smaller than O but quite a lot bigger than HO.
I like the modular idea but you do seem to end up with a rather patchy scenic effect and no real sense of landscape, great for a club show at a shopping mall or suchlike though.
Rod
I miss the dirt – the stuff that makes the scene look real. Trees, plants, people … but I like the camaraderie of the club. What would it take to combine the two? Maybe more than an occasional meeting would allow for; more like a permanent location used only for that so things weren’t ever taken down?
Very interesting. You do not see much s gauge. I like the portability factor. Fun to go out somewhere with it. Rob McCrain
I have seen modular layouts at the TCA meet here in York, PA but they seem to sacrifice some of the details you would expect from a permanent fixed layout in order to avoid some of the more serious damage that could occur during transport. I belong to a railroad club here in York founded in November of 1943 that actually built and OWNS the clubhouse. The details that the club is able to accomplish without having to worry about transport is quite amazing. The word “model” is not in the name because they operate just like a prototypical (real) railroad
S Guage is exactly 1/64 of an inch equals 1 inch in scale. 3/16 of an inch equals one foot.
We have 2 other modules and a bunch of trees that fit on those and some of our modules but the guy that owns them did not make the trip this time so we did not have them, the modules or the trees. That is the problem with a club set up if someone doesn’t come we are a little short.
There are really a lot of S gauge snuff assailable. Lionel now owns American Flyer and build a lot of S gauge snuff, there is also American Models, MTH that bough SHS and is now manufacturing SHS snuff along with several small manufactures.
interesting idea w the modules…
American Flyer’s are really koool trains to work with
keep em runnin fellas
stjohn in long beach calif
The Plantation Train Club in Leesburg Florida has two tracks of S Gauge (American Flyer), two tracks of O Gauge (Lionel), and 1 track of G Gauge running around the ceiling of the club room. Also, a complete HO fills the room below. An N Gauge modular is stored and displayed at Christmas time as well as a Z (Marklin) Gauge.layout. 6 different scales of trains in one location. This is something to see if in the area.
Impressive .. Good Job, hope you had fun
Great pictures Perry of your club’s layout. So what is the actual gauge in S track as IU have never really heard of it. Secondly what a positive place to do railways. I love New Orleans. Paul thanks for your photos too. Cheers Rossco, Adelaide, South Australia
S Gauge in the UK is catered for by the S Gauge Society and it is claimed that the gauge has been in operation for over 100 years. Although the S Gauge Society has been in existence since 1946. The scale is 1:64 and the track width is 22.43 mm compared with 18.83 in P4, 18.2 in EM and 16.5 in HO and OO Gauges.
Very much a scratch built system you can see more by visiting the S Gauge Society Website and do have a look at their Gallery which includes good coverage of many of their members layouts. Well worth a look.
Jerry
Wonderful to see an s gauge train layout on display! Since the layout must be portable, some of the details modelers like to include can’t be part of the layout, but believe me, my non-portable s gauge layout at home has lots of scenery elements. S gauge is a wonderful size to work in because it doesn’t take up as much room as o gauge , but it’s big enough that you can do lots of work to customize scenery elements. For example, all my buildings ( the music shop, dry cleaners, pet shop, ice cream parlor, supermarket and upstairs apartments) all have interiors created by me, which has been great fun.
A proud S-Gauger
1/64 or 3/16’s scale is interesting and the size is not confined to S ‘gauge’ 2-rail trackage. 3/16’s scale size was also extensively used by Marx toy trains in their later era AC center-rail powered rolling stock that operated on 3-rail O gauge tubular track similar to Lionel 027 track… Also if you look at some of the smaller Lionel 027 trains you’ll see that they’re also very close to 3/16’s size….
Loved it. S Gauge is the perfect size
“S” was always more scaled with Plasticville than “O” of coarse. Noticed this even at 10yo, are those well known buildings still available today, meaning the 1950’s vintage? Recently watched the Boys’ Club S gauge original B&W tv airings from the 50’s and how real those broadcasts were back then, always with helping fingers of coarse lmao.
Even for a few hours set-up a lot of work & time is represented with these things. Go to a few car shows or just sit out on porch summertime. So have a ‘13 Boss Mustang that’s going up now in value and maybe 5 or 6 total in ME these days… No big deal but taking that for display somewheres, WON’T be doing that ever. So just standing around 6 hrs. and wiping fingerprints off car… don’t think so. Parades out of the question, they all tell me I’m welcome with that thing, no thankyou. Point being I can always be doing anything more productive at those times than afore mentioned.
As Usual, Rich
S gauge … very popular in the 50’s when my dad bought me many American
Flyer trains. Tracks are 2 rail, with Lionel being 3 rail. Much bigger than HO.
Nice to see an S Gauge layout. Nice work gents.
S often gets lumped in with O in the US since it is closer in size to O. While S is 2-rail DC, O is 3-rail AC. A few manufacturers still make engines and rolling stock, it is not nearly as popular as O or HO. Modern engines can be equipped with DCC.
Gilbert American Flyer was the largest manufacturer after WW II. Lionel just was that much bigger and took over the market. I always thought S was the perfect size for modeling, not too big or small.
Bob