Yes, it's 'S' !!

S gauge/scale trains are virtually unknown in Australia, although it's a very popular gauge in the U.S..  The leading manufacturer there is American Flyer, who introduced the size after WWII to compete with the slightly larger Lionel 0 gauge three-rail trains.  The gauge used (distance between insides of rails) is 7/8" and the scale 3/16"/1', or a proportion of 1/64th full-size.  This places it about midway between HO and O gauge.  My S scale Santa Fe F-7a diesel loco arrived recently and I've now had time to photograph it.

The S scale engine is the left hand one, with an HO version on the right for comparison.  Unfortunately I don't have an appropriate piece of S gauge track yet, so the loco is 'farming'!!  Long term readers of this blog will remember that my aim is to have the same loco in every popular model railroading scale, to clearly illustrate to visitors to my Trainbarn the different scales and gauges, which can be very confusing.  The only one I need now to complete the collection is an O gauge one- probably from Lionel.

While this loco is compatible with American Flyer, it is made by 'The Showcase Line' (S Helper Service), and is a superbly detailed scale model.  S Helper are one of several companies helping to revive S scale in the U.S.  Incidentally, American Flyer is now owned and produced by their former arch-rival Lionel, who are releasing an ever increasing amount of quality product.


Here's another photo, this time including another F-7a which hasn't yet featured on my blog.  It's in TT (tabletop) scale, and was produced by Rokal in East Germany during the 50's and 60's.  It's about half way between HO and N scale, the introduction of which effectively killed TT.  More about the fascinating world of TT another time.

The only other country to use S gauge/scale was East Germany, where a small range of tinplate items was made by the company Stadtilm during the 50's.


At the risk of causing confusion, S scale (1/64th) is also used by scale model railroaders who wish to model narrow-gauge prototypes of 3' or 3'6" gauge.  To do this narrower gauge tracks are used- perhaps the most common is 16.5mm (normally used by HO or OO trains), which fairly accurately represents 3'6" gauge.  This type of modelling is particularly common in New Zealand whose railways are 3' 6" gauge, and to a lesser degree here in my home-state Queensland.  This scale/gauge is called Sn3 1/2- the 'n' signifying narrow gauge.  Ok, I'm getting off the track here a bit!!


Anyway, that's a very brief summary of S Scale, and serves to introduce my most recent acquisition.  I hope it will eventually be part of a very interesting display.