Posts Tagged ‘American Flyer trains’
S Scale Model Railroad
You want to know what’s really at the cutting edge of model train hobby? What’s about to break that has every model trainer tossing and turning with anticipation? What style of model locomotive do collectors go coo coo for?I could go on and on like this, but let me just let the cat out the bag: it’s s scale model locomotives. Yeah, that’s right, s gauge? If you’re not that acquainted with scales and gauges then you probably don’t know that this isn’t a standard gauge nowadays. Do you even know about different scales? Alright, well let me give you the nitty-gritty on these before you start hearing about them in the news:
Two words, “American Flyer”:
This line of locomotives has entered the hall of fame of toy locomotives. Nostalgia explains a lot. American Flyer’s s gauge trains had their hey-day right after World War II when the baby boomers were starting to sprout up. This was in large part an attempt to challenge Lionel who was the king of the roost through the 50’s. S scale is an “inbetween” scale, way huger than HO but smaller than Lionel’s O. S scale is one 64th the size of a real train whereas Lionel’s O scale is one 48th the size. These are still pretty substantial trains but not so much so that you would have to have them only outside. These locomotives are a lot of fun to color and weather.
S gauge is not common:
Since American Flyer pretty much created s scale and then went out of business shortly after, you don’t stumble across it much. A.C. Gilbert, who ran American Flyer at the time, manufactured this gauge as an attempt to make a line of trains that would keep up with Lionel by producing high quality locomotives that weren’t interchangeable with Lionel locomotives. That means there are not that many vintage s scale American Flyer trains. Because of the law of supply and demand, American Flyers brief life span has increased the demand for their parts and sets. The nature of this devotion has just made the trains that much more valuable.
American Flyers are about to enter the market again:
American Flyer’s arch-enemy Lionel bought them out in the 60’s and is now looking to resurrect both brands by re-introducing the vintage 1950’s toys that are so cherished by collectors. The fantastic success of these releases has driven Lionel to commit to reproduce the s scale locomotives that avid fans are so in love with. It might not be long before we have to make room for s gauge as yet another main scale in the model training world.
Now’s the instant 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. It’s like the coffee house fad of the early 90s. And you said no one would ever pay more just for some coffee.
Here is more information on Model Train Scale. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Model Trains.
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