Monday, November 11, 2013

Pittsburgh S-Gauger RR CLub



The Pittsburgh S-Gaugers 10th Anniversary Celebration Overview.
 by Jon Knox

The Pittsburgh S-Gaugers recently celebrated their 10th year as a club by visiting the Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum.

The group attended a talk by Bill Potthoff on the 1912 train wreck on the Mill Creek branch of the LVRR. The interesting talk was well received and all were impressed with the association’s efforts to restore the former Darlington station and the creation of the outstanding museum. After Bill’s presentation, Mary Bush entertained the visitors with her storytelling of 1940’s coal mine and coke oven operations as depicted in the Wilpen video. The visitors appreciated the restored bobber caboose and the displayed railroad items from a bygone era. The visit concluded with a group photo taken on the caboose followed by dinner at Carol and Dave’s Roadhouse in Ligonier.

The Pittsburgh S-Gaugers is a southwestern Pennsylvania S-gauge model train club.  S-gauge is the size of trains known to most people as American Flyer. They were manufactured by the A.C. Gilbert Company after WW II until 1966. The American Flyer line is still being made under new ownership and there are presently many other companies making S-gauge trains. S-gauge trains run on two-rail track and are larger than HO and smaller than O-gauge trains.

The club's members express their interest in S-gauge trains in several ways. Some collect and operate vintage American Flyer trains only. Others add compatible, modern production rolling stock. Still others mix modern production models with assembled kits and/or scratch-built models and modify them to be as realistic as possible. Regardless of approach, our members enjoy creating displays for their model trains to run on. Club members often show their trains to the public at area train shows such as Greenberg’s Train and Toy Show, the Carnegie Science Center’s-Locomotion Weekend and the LVRRA’s annual model railroad home tour.

Although it’s been ten years since “restarting”, the club's "roots" extend back to 1963 and several members from those early days are still active. New members are always welcome, and have come from all over the region, ranging from Clarion PA to Fairmont WV.