Hi Art; No, I'm quite sure that S in Britain was not influenced by Flyer, but that tends to make my point about what S would be like without A.C. Gilbert here. The point is made quite well on the S Scale Society web pages here:
http://www.s-scale.org.uk/history.htm Two pertinent passages are: "Unlike the case in America, S scale never attracted any significant commercial support in Britain although a GWR type Prairie tank was made commercially in 1951 by Palitoy. This model was built to about 1:61 scale or very close to 5mm to 1 foot. There were no further commercial developments at the time and therefore, in the early days members were forced to plough their own furrow, assisted only by the limited range of parts produced by the Society." "Whilst the oldest 'scale' society, in terms of membership the S Scale Model Railway Society is still the smallest. As it seems unlikely that there will ever be any significant commercial development of the scale, S scale will remain a 'niche' scale for the experienced modeller who wants the challenge of creating something a rather different." I am no more happy than most of the rest here that no mass-produced S model appears to be possible here unless it can be compromised to take Flyer curves and switches; my point remains that without A.C. Gilbert's toys, the scale products that draw scale modelers to S probably wouldn't exist. While continued reliance on the Flyer Compatible segment of the gauge clearly has a downside, I'm not sure we would be having this discussion without American Flyer to popularize S (to the degree it was) in the late 1940's and 1950's. Pieter Roos --- Art Armstrong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Let's not overlook the existence of S Scale in > Britain. Were they motivated by American Flyer? I > rather doubt it. I think the popularity of S-scale > is due to its size and scale. > > There is no disputing the influence of Gilbert and > AF on the American market but I would not say they > were responsible for the popularity of S-scale > today. I don't think S-scale got really popular > until scale products were available. The S-scale > influence on me was the Southwind SP 2-8-0 and Bill > Wade's publication and products. > > There must be many modelers like me who have no > memories of American Flyer. > > Art Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
