This page shows a listing of news entries from the past month.
by Ragg's To Riches
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Ragg's To Riches announces their latest structure kit, the JJ Harris Warehouse kit. It measures 23.75" by 6.75" with the platforms, which are optional. The kit comes with a 42-page, large print, spiral-bound book, that includes 77 photos and diagrams, tips for construction and finishes, and their glue syringe.
by American Models
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American Models announced that they will do a run of their GP35 locomotives in the BNSF paint scheme. Also announced were a Milwaukee Road GP9 and S-12, and a Lehigh Valley RS-3.
Owner Steve Cox announced on his web site that the company is now closed due to family situations. Cascade Rail Supply provided pre-cut homasote for laying track.
Jim Martin shares with us a kitbashed model of a Lindberg shrimp boat, which he turned into a Great Lakes fishing tug.
The final item for completing the revision of the "S Product Gallery" section of this web site was to move the handful of American Flyer-specific entries to the new "Modeling in S" button's "American Flyer" menu option. These cover our listings of the A.F. track, electronics, parts, and accessories. The reason for this move is that we don't cover those same topics for the other sub-divisions of S, but we do want to keep these listings for the A.F. enthusiast.
The AF articles page has been updated with the previous AF mini articles that were available via the old "American Flyer" main menu button. This new page also contains links to other web sites' articles, and links to how-to videos.
by Model Tech Studios
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This is a finished model, ready to go on your layout, diorama, or module.
by Model Tech Studios
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This is a finished model, ready to go on your layout, diorama, or module.
by Model Tech Studios
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This is a finished model, ready to go on your layout, diorama, or module.
by Model Tech Studios
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This is a finished model, ready to go on your layout, diorama, or module.
by K4 Decals
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Since decals in S-scale can always be a challenge, Mark Charles pointed us to "K4 Decals", who lists many road names, and can print them in S-scale.
The merged text that Bob Jackson wrote in a series of articles for the NASG's Dispatch was buried in a link in the S-scale History page. However, that made it hard to find, so it has been moved out of that page, and made into a menu option on the "NASG" button called "Our History".
by Port Lines Hobby Supply
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Port Lines Hobby Supply announces that they will be closed from February 28 through March 22, 2020. They will be set up at the April York show, next to MTH.
by Port Lines Hobby Supply
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This softcover book is available for $18.95 plus shipping.
by Port Lines Hobby Supply
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3D-printed parts for AF enthusiasts.
A page has been added to the "Modeling in S", American Flyer section, showing information about AF layouts. More will be added over time. If you have such a layout and you would like to have your layout's information and or photos shown on the NASG web site, feel free to contact the NASG webmaster.
A page has been added to the "Modeling in S", Sn2 section, showing information about Sn2 layouts. More will be added over time. If you have an Sn2 layout and you would like to have your layout's information and or photos shown on the NASG web site, feel free to contact the NASG webmaster.
A page has been added to the "Modeling in S", Sn3 section, showing information about Sn3 layouts. More will be added over time. If you have an Sn3 layout and you would like to have your layout's information and or photos shown on the NASG web site, feel free to contact the NASG webmaster.
A page has been added to the "Modeling in S", Sn42 section, showing information about Sn42 layouts. More will be added over time. If you have an Sn42 layout and you would like to have your layout's information and or photos shown on the NASG web site, feel free to contact the NASG webmaster.
A page has been added to the "Modeling in S", Standard-gauge/Scale section, showing information about standard-gauge layouts. More will be added over time. If you have such a layout and you would like to have your layout's information and or photos shown on the NASG web site, feel free to contact the NASG webmaster.
By request, a menu option has been added to the "News" page that shows all of the news entries from the past month.
From the South Jersey S Gaugers' newsletter, they reported that their club member Don McGinnis, from New Jersey, had passed away on December 16, 2019. Don was an elementary school music teacher for 32 years. He was an NASG member, who enjoyed modeling the Union Pacific.
We now have a dedicated page for the S-scale version of the Free-mo modular system.
We now have a dedicated page for the S-scale version of the T-TRAK modular system. The information was moved from the "NASG" button's "Engineering Standards" menu option to this new location.
We now have a dedicated page for the NASG S-MOD standard. The associated documents have been moved to that server folder, to keep everything together. The documents used to be accessible via the "Downloadable Documents" menu option of the "NASG" button, and also via that button's "Engineering Standards" menu option. The new page is accessible via the "Modeling in S" button's "Modules: S-MOD" menu option.
The NASG's AF Commemorative Car Program page that lists every single car that program generated, has been moved to the "NASG" button's menu. Since this was a program created by the NASG, it should really be associated with that button on the web site.
NASG member Marty Wik of Cave Creek, Arizona, passed away in the evening of January 29 due to cancer. Marty was a key member of the Valley of Sun S Gaugers club in Arizona. Marty (on the right) is shown admiring Bill Winans layout during the club's visit in 2019. Marty was an expert at getting old American Flyer products running again. He collected trains of all sizes, but his favorite was always S. He was also a car enthusiast, building hot-rods, and restoring cars from the 1960s.
A number of pages accessed via the new "Site" button, have been moved to the "Site" folder on the server, so if you have bookmarks or favorites to any of those files, they will no longer work. Simply click on the "Site" button, click on the menu option, and then make a bookmark or favorite to the new location of that page.
The "Featured Video" page now also includes videos for Sn3 and Sn2.
The "Contribute" and "Contributors" pages have been merged into the new "Contributions" page, accessed via the "Site" button.
by AS3DSolutions
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Bud Rindfleisch drew our attention to this company that specializes in locomotive detailing parts, including for S-scale. They offer air horns (shown), exhausts, fans, filter hatches, various clear lights (for use with 0402 SMD LEDs), plows, stanchions, steps, jacking pads, and winterization parts.
by Fourth Dimension
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Charles Malinowski recommends that if you are looking for something 3D-printed, be sure to include HO- and O-scale models in your searches. He was looking for a model of this particular handcar in S-scale, but only found it to be available in N- and HO-scale. He contacted the designer, and a couple of days later he was able to order this model via Shapeways. The model is a non-operating car with 20" wheels, gauged to standard-gauge, and measures 6' x 4'4".
by Portland Locomotive Works
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Portland Locomotive Works announced that they are now manufacturing custom pine trees (5 to 7 inches tall). They also announced that Timberline has gone out of business and Portland Locomotive Works bought their entire inventory of ground foam, foliage, and ground cover. These items will be added to the Portland Locomotive Works web site soon.
by Portland Locomotive Works
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Portland Locomotive Works announced that Timberline has gone out of business and Portland Locomotive Works bought their entire inventory of ground foam, foliage, and ground cover. Their ground foam is geared toward the discriminating modeler who is interested in an accurate color palette especially for the New England fall season. However, they can be used for any region of the country. A variety of colors are available.
by San Juan Model Co.
Doug Junda posted that they have hired someone to help with the office phones. The company is working on the former Grandt Line products' web site to allow for direct ordering. The former Grandt Line products are being restocked. They have moved all of the former Rail Graphics machinery and they are now set up to do custom decals. Orders are being filled as soon as possible, but delays are still possible.
by Portland Locomotive Works
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Portland Locomotive Works is considering creating the S-scale version of the Goose shed (they had previously done one in HO). They have received a few requests, but would like to get a few more firm commitments before starting this project.
by The Model Railroad Resource
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The latest issue of this free magazine is now available for viewing or downloading.
First, we want to thank Bill Pyper for a fantastic job he has done taking over the editorship of the NASG's Dispatch magazine from Jeff Madden. Bill was the editor from 2013 until the upcoming March/April issue of 2020. Bill recently also moved to a new home, and so he is already busy enjoying his retirement by building the benchwork for his new layout. Bill also promised to continue to write for the Dispatch, so stay tuned. Thank you, Bill, it has been a real pleasure to work with you!
Second, taking over the reigns from Bill is the new Dispatch editor, Richard Caugherty. Richard hails from Pennsylvania and has been a member of the NASG for a number of years. He has a background in teaching (Journalism, Written Communications, and Theatre Arts for 30 years in High School), printing, and was involved in editing and designing five different newspapers and newsletters. Richard's first issue will be the May/June 2020 issue. Richard is a member of the Pittsburgh S Gaugers.
The e-mail link "dispatch@nasg.org" is now re-directed to Richard.
Two of the main navigation buttons have been removed, namely "Scale Modeling" and "American Flyer". In their place are the new "Modeling in S" and "Site" buttons. The content that used to be accessible via the two old buttons is in the process of being migrated and re-introduced via the "Modeling in S" button's menu.
Everything related to the web site itself, has now been moved to the "Site" button. This includes this page (which used to be on the "News" button), and some of the menu options that used to be on the "Extra Board" button.
This is my active project for this web site right now, and I will devote however much time it takes to migrate all the data over, plus add new content. The reason why these temporary changes are being uploaded in the mean time, is because the rest of the web site must continue to be updated with all the near-daily changes. It is too complicated and too error-prone to cherry-pick which changes should be uploaded and which should not.
Please be patient with these intermediate changes. I am confident that you will like them when they are all done. My hope is to have these pages done before mid-February 2020. Be sure to keep checking this page for what changes have been made.
Continuing the revision of the "S Product Gallery" section of this web site to streamline the data, and better group and organize the various topics. The sixth change covers the Figures reports. Not much has changed in these reports, except that the "category" and "pose" have been merged, so that when you view the figures by category, you will see the various poses as part of the category names. As with the other reports, the importable file report has been modified to hopefully make it easier to import the listing into a spreadsheet program you have. Also, well over 30 new figures have been added to the reports.
Continuing the revision of the "S Product Gallery" section of this web site to streamline the data, and better group and organize the various topics. The fifth change includes the old "Boats" section, which has now been renamed to "Water Transport", and a new section called "Air Transport" (see "View web page" link above). The old Boats section was just a single page, but the new Water Transport section has now been updated with more reports, much like all the other sections. The new Air Transport has similar reports (which covers airplanes and helicopters).
by Scale_Model_StructureS
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Ed Sauers wanted a gazebo for his layout, so he found one on Shapeways, but it was in HO-scale. He contacted the designer, and within two days the S-scale version was available for sale. The model measures approximately 16 scale feet in diameter and a little over 13 feet tall. Due to the volume of the model, it is not cheap to print, but it may make for a very nice scene in your layout's town center or park.
by Lionel
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The latest Lionel catalog is out. Doug Peck reports that there will not be any printed copies available, so you will have to go online. Contact your favorite dealer to place your order for anything that strikes your fancy. Remember, Lionel will only produce those products for which it gets enough pre-orders.
by Die Cast Promotions
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by Die Cast Promotions
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by Die Cast Promotions
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Continuing the revision of the "S Product Gallery" section of this web site to streamline the data, and better group and organize the various topics. The fourth change is the "Vehicles" section. The following visible changes have been made:
The North Penn S Gaugers have changed their web site's domain.
A change made a few months back caused the wrong file name for the NASG web site's RSS feed file. This was fixed today, and, so if you are using the RSS feed in your web browser, it should now be up-to-date again. Sorry about that!
Continuing the revision of the "S Product Gallery" section of this web site to streamline the data, and better group and organize the various topics. The third change is the "Structures" section. The following visible changes have been made:
by Paplex
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Jim Martin drew our attention to this (new-to-us) manufacturer of paper template kits. While decidedly Japanese, some models could just as easily be found in the U.S., Canada, or Europe. And, with some computer creativity, you might be able to replace names and signs before (or after) printing. The company only sells PDF files for S- and N-scale. You will need access to a color printer, but the files are very cheap ($1 - $3).
by Rio Grande Models
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Rio Grande Models showed a large "CLOSED" image on their web site, leading to all sorts of speculation. They clarified what happened on their Facebook page:
"Some of you may have noticed the large "CLOSED" sign on the RGM website. The website will be closing in 2020, but Rio Grande Models is still operating for now and will eventually be winding down as it is in its current form. Due to the amount of orders coming in, we're limiting fulfillment to what we have on hand, or, kits we can assemble with the components on hand. This might result in some orders that are less than you requested, but you will only be asked for payment on what we can ship."
With what looks like Yahoo! Groups slow death, Dale Smith has downloaded all the messages of the S-Trains Yahoo! Group, and has made them available on this web site.
by Johnny Lightning
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by B&B Farm Toys
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B&B Farm Toys, a farming-related model retailer, is offering a set of undecorated Chevrolet C60 trucks, manufactured exclusively for them by Greenlight
by Port Lines Hobby Supply
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The Lionel pre-orders for tank cars, engines, the PRR wreck train, and Polar Express items were shipped out in December 2019.
Port Lines Hobby Supply bought Scenery Unlimited's remaining inventory, and molds for SU's resin kits, which they hope to bring back into production.
The 10" Yellow & Blue A.F. boxes have been produced again, and Port Lines has them in stock.
Port Lines has new Twin Whistle structure kits in stock: "Country Roads Grocery Store" and "White Tower, Deco Style".
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