S Scale News
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Welcome to the new home of S Scale News! S Scale News is being developed as a resource for news, tips, techniques, tools, and links into the world of S scale model railroading.  S scale models are 1:64 or 1/64 of full size. The scale is also expressed as 3/16ths of an inch to a foot.

Scale vs. Gauge

Sometimes you will hear "S gauge" used interchangeably with the "S scale", but this is confusing to new modelers in this scale. S Scale describes the size of the models, while S Gauge describe the gauge of the track, or distance between the rails. Today S scale modelers build models on different gauges of track including standard gauge (usually what is meant by S Gauge) and various narrow gauges including Sn42, Sn3, and Sn2.

 

What's New on this Site?

The latest addition is the availability of the S Scale Product Database Project. This project has been in the works since 2003 and is building a catalog of key S scale model railroading products. Check it out!

Also on the TOOLS page we have begun the expansion of our S scale historical documents library. Do you often hear about S scale products previously made, but for which you can find no information? Looking for a catalog for a manufacturer no longer in operation? Or perhaps you're looking for the instruction sheet for a S scale kit? Check out our online Document Library. We provide these documents in Adobe's PDF format in the hopes that they will be available to anyone...One caution though -- some of these are large files so be patient...

Lookings for something not yet in the library? Many hardcopy documents are available from the NASG's Russell M. Mobley Library.

S Scale History

Although S scale is one of the minority scales in model railroading, it enjoys a group of committed enthusiasts enjoying products ranging from more toy like models all the way to highly detailed models.  Because it has been and remains a minority scale, S scale has a reputation as the modeler's scale or the scratchbuilder's scale. And because it is halfway between O scale and HO scale, the size of S gives you many of the benefits of O scale, but allows many layouts to be built in the same space as HO scale layouts.

S Scale is one of the oldest model railroading scales. Although modelers in England developed 1/64 model trains prior to the start of 1900's, there was not significant until the 1930's-1940's when CD Models marketed 3/16" model train sets under the name America Flyer Trains. Later American Flyer was purchased by A.C. Gilbert, and the term S Gauge was adopted by the National Model Railroading Association (NMRA) to represent that gauge that was half of #1 gauge (1/32). And as they say, the rest is history,. A.C. Gilbert's improvements in 1/64 modeling and promotions of S gauge largely shaped the world of 1/64 modeling today. Read more about the history of S scale modeling

Today's S Scale

We hope you find this site's content useful in your S scale modeling. We encourage you to explore the various facets of this site using the navigation buttons above.

  • You'll find news from the world of S on the News page.
  • The Products section will grow over time to provide information and reviews of many of the fine models and other products that either have been or are available in the world of S.
  • In the Organizations section you'll find further information on many fine organizations that support S scale modelers -- both locally and nationally.
  • The Publications section will introduce you to 1:64 focused publications that are available to S scale modelers.
  • In the Tools section, we hope to provide you tools that assist your S scale modeling. The first of these is our Track Estimator, to assist in planning track purchases.
  • And since many of today's modelers want more control over their layout that and standard DC power pack provides, we provide some information on the use of DCC (Digital Command Control based on NMRA DCC) in S scale.

Enjoy the hobby of model railroading, and we  truly believe that S Scale is THE model railroading scale that will provide many hours of pleasure throughout your lifetime!

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