I now have three different types of HO Scale 4 wheel diesels to convert into Sn42 critters: A Mantua Davenport Diesel, a Model Power DDT Plymouth Industrial Switcher, and a Tyco Diesel. The Mantua and Tyco locomotives are very similar even though they don’t look like it at first glance. The Mantua switcher is an [...]
Sometimes I think it’s good to get back to basics. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with a good model railroad track plan for a 4 x 8 Sn42 layout. I want kind of a western theme with some mountains (or at least hills), a tunnel or trestle (or both), and good [...]
I don’t currently have room to build an S Scale model railroad for my full size S Scale locomotives but I’d like to get some model railroading done. One option I’ve been thinking about is building a small 4 x 8 layout in HO scale. HO layouts are fairly common on the 4 x 8 [...]
My main interest in S Scale is prototype modeling, especially SP’s operations in California’s Owens Valley – the Slim Princess narrow gauge and the standard gauge Jawbone branch. I want a train in my garage though, and I’m not going to put my expensive brass engines in the harsh (relatively speaking) environment of my Man [...]
Grand River Models has a really cool little welding shop available in S Scale. Lately I’ve been spending so much time and energy, etc. on locomotives and rolling stock that I haven’t been paying much attention to buildings, but this little shop is a beauty. It’s more for scale type S Scale layouts than for [...]
Besides the American Flyer train stuff I just bought, I also got a couple of HO locomotives to convert to Sn42, which is S Scale models running on HO standard gauge track. In S Scale the HO track scales to 42″ guage, which is close enough to 3′ to satisfy many people including me. The [...]
I just bought my first American Flyer train set. Well, I didn’t actually buy a set because complete American Flyer train sets are pretty expensive. Instead I bought individual components to make my own set. I got everything on EBay. The first thing I got was an American Flyer locomotive. Some of the rarer and [...]
OK, it’s not quite S Scale, but I found a great site on converting various locomotives and rolling stock to “55n3″ – 3 foot gauge narrow gauge modeled in 1:55 scale. The site used to be called Pacific Coast Airliner RR and featured many articles on scenery and building Sn3.5 and On30 models on HO [...]
If you do “scale” modeling in S Scale, you might notice that your box car choices are somewhat limited, especially if you model the post-WWII era. Although kits for steel box cars have been produced by various manufacturers over the years, basically you only choice in a ready to run S Scale steel box car [...]
One of the advantages of HO Scale is that you can fit a pretty nice looking layout with continuous running on a 4′ x 8′ sheet of plywood. While this is also possible with a Hi Rail S Scale layout (21″ radius track is available for American Flyer and compatible trains), it’s not really an [...]