S-Scale model train enthusiasts display their 'just right'-sized layouts this weekend

Model trains mean a lot to members of the Pittsburgh S-Gaugers, a club for model railroaders interested in all aspects of S-Scale trains.

For three members in particular, their love of the hobby started when they were young.

Jim Whipple, Roger Schneider and Jon Knox can recall the moment they first became fascinated with model trains. All were introduced to the hobby through their fathers — and the admiration stuck.

“Everybody has a story,” said Whipple, 67, of Indiana Township.

The club meets twice a month — once on a Monday at a Harmar restaurant, and once on a Sunday at a club member's house or in Tarentum.

The S-Gaugers also attend five or six shows a year where people showcase model train layouts.

This weekend, the group will have two layouts on display at the World's Greatest Hobby on Tour show in Monroeville.

Knox, 63, of Butler County started the club in 2003 after recognizing the need for a group that focused on S-Scale trains in the Pittsburgh area.

The club has about 40 members in southwestern Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia and eastern Ohio.

“A city the size of Pittsburgh with the history of the industry here and how common trains used to be, it seemed like, to me, the S-Scale trains ought to have a group of people here,” he said.

“Frankly, somebody needed to take the lead and get something started, so that's what I did.”

S-Scale sits in the middle, sizewise, of popular railroad modeling scales at a ratio of 1:64 (a comparison to the size of an actual train). It is smaller than O-Scale (1:48) and Gauge-1 scale (1:32), and larger than HO-Scale (1:87) and N-Scale (1:160).

“S-Scale is like the Goldilocks scale,” Whipple said. “It's not too big, it's not too small — it's just right.”

People familiar with S-Scale will recognize the American Flyer brand name, which is where it originated.

“If one uses the word(s) American Flyer, that's the best publicly well-known connection to S-Scale,” Whipple said. “They ran on two rails rather than the traditional three rails that Lionel (O-Scale trains) did, and they were a little bit smaller, which tended to (fit) into the houses built in the postwar period a little better.”

Knox said the club offers camaraderie for S-Scalers and allows them to develop their modeling skills.

The S-Gaugers' appearance in the Monroeville show “could be very exciting,” Whipple said. “It's a chance to have many more people to see the layouts, see what S-Scale is like and have it before the public.”

The layouts include the club's interactive Hi-Rail layout and its Modular layout.

Knox and Whipple oversee the Modular layout, which is designed to look like old-time Pittsburgh. Schneider oversees the Hi-Rail layout, which has toys and a circus diorama complete with fabric circus tents, and an operating Ferris wheel and merry-go-round.

“It looks really, really neat,” said Schneider, 74, of Murrysville.

The Hi-Rail layout is designed for young children. It has a series of buttons younger kids can push to watch the toys in action.

The Modular layout is designed for children 10 and older. It has hand-built models, including a “scratch-built” model of a mine that used to be in the Library section of South Park.

“That one is supposed to represent Pittsburgh in the 1950s, and we can update the stuff to look like the 1970s,” Whipple said.

Kurt Jablonski, advertising/promotions manager for the World's Greatest Hobby on Tour show, spoke highly of the Pittsburgh S-Gaugers and their two layouts.

“One is a finely detailed S-Scale layout, the other is an S-Gauge layout that they encourage the public to interact with,” he said. “There are buttons (that) operate different parts of the layout and kids can even help run the trains.”

The show promotes model railroading. It last came to Monroeville in 2007.

Madasyn Czebiniak is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-226-4702, mczebiniak@tribweb.com or via Twitter @maddyczebstrib.