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.
