Frank, You will get lots of answers on this. :) Amrican Models (www.americanmodels.com) has fair bit of NYC equipment in steam and in diesel. J3a, Empire Express Light Pacific (out of stock at AM) Alco FA/B cab units Alco PA Alco RS3 Baldwin S12 EMD FP7 in pass. or frt. schemes EMD GP18 EMD GP35 EMD E8 (out of stock at AM)
There's a start for you. As for the Lionel, scale wheels are available on request after you've purchased it. Yes, one nice thing about S is the space to add DCC (and sound). Welcome to standard gauge. :) Ken On Sat, Aug 18, 2012 at 7:43 PM, Frank J Knight <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi All, > > This is about the challenge of switching to S scale. Actually not quite > true in my case as I have been modeling in Sn2 Free-mo since 2007. The > challenge for me is trying to model standard gauge in S scale. I've been > dragging around a lot of N scale equipment for almost 10 years and was > going to dig it out for a permanent layout. Nagging in the back of my head > was the thought that the larger S scale equipment would be more to my > current tastes. With that thought in mind I am giving S standard gauge a > serious chance but getting started is more of a challenge than I expected. > > To start with I have a bundle of code 100 Tomalco flex track but I also > want to be able to hand lay track like I have done for the past 50 years in > every scale that I have modeled. I tried finding a 3-point track gauge but > it seems that they haven't been made for over 10 years in S scale. Tomalco > makes a 2-point track gauge and I have a couple on order. I don't have the > 2-point gauges yet so I can't really compare them to 3-point gauges but it > just seems odd to me that 3-point gauges aren't available. I have 3-point > gauges in HO, HOn3 (Sn2) and N. > > Next is the challenge of finding equipment. Since I live in Maine there > are no local S scale hobby shops. Ordering S products online turned out to > be more of a challenge than I expected. Seems there must be a special > language for understanding how to buy S equipment online. Looking for a > locomotive I cam across this description on one website: > CODE DESCRIPTION PRICE $369.99 > LNL648142 S AF U33C, EL > > Let's see it is S and is a GE U33C lettered for the Eire Lackawanna. A > Google search shows me a Lionel #48142 loco with EL lettering. Well the AF > obviously stands for American Flyer which means wheels aren't scale. Not > what I was looking for but just an example of a site that is truly not > user friendly. > > My plan was to buy some NYC locos and cars. I grew up across the street > from the NYC so I thought it would be a logical choice and easy to find. So > far I've come up with one used NYC S-12. I want to have some steam so I > checked out the River Raisin site which has good pictures and descriptions > for their steam and while they list a NYC 0-6-0 it is hi rail. They have 6 > other 0-6-0s listed that are all scale. Must be a conspiracy. I called one > shop and while he had many NYC cars and locos listed he was sold out of > just about all of them. Maybe the NYC is not going to be an easy prototype > to model after all. > > Well I have managed to order the one used loco and a few cars so I have > something to run when I get some track down. My plan is to put together a > couple of modules as a switching layout to get started. I have leftover > module materials from my Sn2 layout and it will give me some fliexibility > and portability. I expect it will take another couple of weeks just to get > most of what I ordered. > > In the meantime I converted a friend's American Models GP9 to DCC. After > working on the tiny Sn2 locos the ability to drop a TCS T1 decoder in that > loco was a snap and it cost less than $25. As a DC loco it would slow to > about 7 scale mph but with DCC it would crawl about 1.5 sacle mph. Well at > least not everything in S is a challenge. > > If anyone knows where the NYC equipment is hiding please let me know. > > Frank Knight > Sn2 Master > S Rookie > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > >
