Page 28 - November December 2017

are now offering an ever-increasing range of the SHS product. All AM and MTH/SHS products are available with either Hi Rail or Scale wheel pro- files. “Lionel Corporation,” which had bought the original “American Flyer” brand, has suddenly blossomed with a range of new S products includ-
ing articulated locos, (their “Big
Boy” was not well received but their “Challenger” is excellent). All are for “Hi-rail” standards but with “scale” conversions already available from third parties for some items, and of course there are a myriad of small suppliers who come and go. All these suppliers have tried to supply to both the larger “Hi-rail” (tinplate) demand as well as the “scale” market. Sup- ply was recently complicated by the Chinese factory trying to consolidate it’s manufacturing processes, stop- ping supply to AM and SHS among others, though this hiatus is gradually being overcome. Importantly, a large range of scale flexible track is avail- able under the “Tomalco” brand. This has highly detailed plastic bases with the other track components as “ready to lay” needing some track spiking
for long-term durability. I should also mention the “Whiteoak” brand of Turnouts. Whiteoak was marketed
by Kelvin White and more recently
by myself, but made by “Marcway” using their system of rail, soldered to
North American Railroad Books: No.1 Signature Press
Established in 1993, Signature Press are based in California. They are known for the high quality of their books and for putting great emphasis on excellent historical accuracy. The most well-known Signature Press au- thors are Robert J Church (The 4300 4-8-2’s, Southern Pacific Daylight Locomotives), Patrick C Dorin (The Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway), David F Myrick (Railroads of Arizo- na series), John R Signor (South- ern Pacific books) and Anthony W. Thompson (5 volumes of Southern Pacific Freight Cars and Pacific Fruit Express).
While the emphasis of Signature Press is most definitely on the Southern Pacific Railroad, they also produce titles on locomotives, freight cars and interurbans. The books
are characterised by a considerable
PCB board sleepering. Made in large batches hence the intervention of Kelvin and my- self, there is no question these are very smooth operating and cheaper than Tomalco in UK but with a very limited range, an e-mail to me will produce more information.
So a reasonable range
of RTR models has been
available for some time.
Costs are higher than HO
but much less than O scale. The heft is very attractive and results in more consistent operation. There is now a huge active USA market, possibly of the order of 10,000 modellers. About 80% of these, use “Hi Rail” standards and the rest in “Scale” including a large proportion of modellers in Sn3 where again the “Heft” of S-scale is attractive though only brass or kit built rolling stock is available. In UK, there is no dealer except my modest effort, where my ability to promote the scale is now limited. Direct Mail Order can be a source of American S-scale product. Only two Members in NMRA BR have built S-scale Layouts, Nigel Bowyer and Don MacDougall, as well as Raymond Hall and myself with some progress. I know of two other modellers planning more modest switching layouts though not Mem-
number of pages (usually 300-400), numerous black and white and colour photographs, and sometimes rele- vant endpaper maps, usually in full colour.
One compensation for the modeller
Whiteoak turnout with short piece of Tomalco flex track at front photo Des Browne
bers. There are also a few Modellers in Continental Europe who have had photographs published. There are also some “HiRail” enthusiasts about. Mr Niel Trump exhibits part of his huge AF collection at the Eden Park Train Show run by the Beckingham
& District M Rly Club. Also notable and based in the UK, is the S-scale Model Railway Society (SMRS), a group of about eighty modellers, fol- lowing British outline who have come together to share skills, provide a base for bulk buying common British components to assist with scratch building. So generally there are more than just a few S-scalers to share the camaraderie that develops with the use of a minority scale that is “not too big and not too small, but just right!”
Des Browne
or enthusiast who owns a collec-
tion of these books is that they are holding their value very well in the secondary market. There seem to
be two main reasons for this: firstly because of the sheer quality of the books and secondly because a good number of the titles are now out of print, and there is little or no prospect of a reissue. For example, “Southern Pacific Daylight Locomotives” by Church is now very hard to find, and reputable booksellers in the USA are asking anything from £140 for a copy. “Southern Pacific’s Shasta Division” by Signor is also a well regarded title, but like the SP Daylight book is now long out of print and can command
a three figure price, Copies of these books do appear for sale in the UK from time to time, and fortunately at rather lower prices, as demand for them in the UK is usually less than “across the pond”.
Rob Tinker
24 ROUNDHOUSE - December 2017