Welcome to the NASG Web Site (2024)

Welcome to the National Association of S Gaugers' web site! The NASG is a non-profit organization that supports all 1:64, or S-scale, modelers, manufacturers, and vendors. We have a ton of content, so take your time exploring this web site.

The 2024 NASG Convention, to be held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is now officially open for registration! We invite you to join other S enthusiasts to the "S Event of the Year", where we will have rail- and non-rail tours, vendors bringing their S wares, informative clinics, and contest models to show. Get inspired and enthused about modeling and about S! Bring your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, and your display or contest models. Spend time with old friends and make new ones. Make a vacation out of it! Visit a beautiful part of our country. You can find all of the details on our web site here, or click on the "Events" button.

copyright © Brooks Stover; used by permission.

This A-B-A set of American Models Alco PA locomotives show the handiwork of Ron King, an NMRA Master Model Railroader. Ron super-detailed the consist by adjusting the roof contour over the windshields, filing portions of the truck sideframes to better emphasize the individual parts, and re-building the pilot coupler openings. He also added many details, such as piano-wire grab irons, lift rings, scratch-built windshield wipers, air hoses, coupler cut bars, diaphragms, and cab interiors. The photo shows Ron's train visiting Gaylord Gill's "Buffalo & Chautauqua" layout, passing the small PRR freight house at Angola, NY. Ron's own layout is a beautifully-built HO-scale one that features the Erie Railroad, but he has been a member of Southeastern Michigan S Gaugers for many years, and he generously applies his skills during work sessions at the layouts of his S-scale friends. The photo was taken by Brooks Stover on an iPhone Xs Max, and it appears on the inside cover of the July 2024 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman magazine in the NASG promotional ad campaign. For information on how you, too, can have a photo of your layout appear in one of the NASG ads in RMC, see this page.

copyright © Bill Lane; used by permission.

Sam Powell was well-known in the S community. He wrote many magazine articles, built beautiful layouts, gave clinics at the NASG Conventions, and shared his knowledge with others. On the "S-scale" mailing list hosted by Yahoo Groups at the time, in late 2015 he was sharing photos and details about a new project he had started, which was a PRR E6 4-4-0. Sam shared that he was starting this project from an American Models 4-6-2. He scratch-built the cab, and got parts from various sources, including from Bill Lane. Then, in January 2016, we received word that a snow storm had hit the area where Sam lived, and while clearing his driveway, he had a heart-attack and passed away, which shocked us all as he appeared to be in good health. Bill was eventually able to obtain Sam's uncompleted project and has been steadily working on completing it. Sam was not a "rivet-counter", so Bill's objective is to build the model as Sam might have completed it. Over the intervening years, while Bill has worked on this project from time to time, he also has asked and received help with this project from several other individuals, which included the construction of the tender body, and the addition of brass walkways and compressor. This photo shows the model with the engine mostly complete (handrails are still needed), but the tender still needs more attention. As Bill notes on his web site's page dedicated to this model, Sam's last layout was moved to Tri-Town Area Historical Society in Dawson, PA, and one of the members there discovered a tender in the collection of items that came with the layout, which appears to be a chopped-up Industrial Rail O-27 tender that they, speculate, was likely to be the one for this engine. You can see information about Sam's Penn Creek Valley layout and his version 2 on this web site.

copyright © Bill Winans; used by permission.

Bill Winans had the opportunity to visit Bob Farmer's Sn3 layout recently, and took this great photo. Bob has a 16' x 16' freelanced layout that is based on the northern California coast-line area, but he extensively uses D&RGW equipment, mostly for the ease of modeling. Bob's layout is still pretty much a work-in-progress, but he has completed several areas, such as the one shown in this photo. You can view a few more photos of Bob's layout on the dedicated page we have for it.

copyright © Alan Balma; used by permission.

PRR #9175, an NW2, in the fall of 1956, crosses a lake with cars to be interchanged with the NYC in Canandaigua, NY. The NW2 and the freight cars are from S-Helper Service. The house is a B.T.S. "110 Second Street" kit. The girder bridge is a 90-foot Walthers HO-scale kit and sits on Pre-Size Model Specialties abutments. The background trees are all Scenic Express Super-Trees, and the foreground trees are made from Woodland Scenics armatures with Super-Tree material affixed. The water is art resin topped with Woodland Scenics Water Ripples. An interesting side note on the NW2; S-Helper Service is to be commended for their accuracy in producing this model, in that the Pennsylvania Railroad only had one Tuscan-colored NW2 and it was road number 9175. You can see more photos and a description of Alan's layout, the PRR's Elimira Branch, on this page. This photo appears on the inside cover of the June 2024 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman magazine in the NASG promotional ad campaign. For information on how you, too, can have a photo of your layout appear in one of the NASG ads in RMC, see this page.

copyright © Jim Martin; used by permission.

Jim Martin provided this beautiful shot taken on his layout. The "Port Dover Branch" layout is a U-shaped, sectional layout, where the engines run on internal batteries and they are controlled via BlueRail Trains' system. You can see a few more photos of Jim's layout on this page.

copyright © John Henning; used by permission.

John Henning's EMD BL2 has a beautiful Chesapeake & Ohio paint scheme on it. The BL2's look is always polarizing as some people really like its looks and some people think it is ugly. EMD introduced this engine in 1947. "BL" stands for Branch Line, and it was EMD's attempt at creating a road switcher that had good visibility in both directions. EMD wound up only selling 59 of these engines, as the railroads simply weren't interested in them. The S-scale model was produced by B.T.S. in 2005. It consisted of a resin body. The model was available as a body-only kit, or a complete kit that included the American Models drive system. Greenbrier Railroad Models bought several of these kits, built them, and sold them fully painted and decorated. John's model may well be one of those. By the way, Bill Wade, of B.T.S., still has the molds for this body, so if there is enough demand, he could be talked into doing another run of these. His original run's production number were around 50 models. So, if you have one of these, they are rare. You can see a few more photos of John's layout on this page.

copyright © Bill Winans; used by permission.

Bill Winans has been steadily making progress on his layout. This overhead view is of a coal tipple scene on the Coal Creek Central branch line of his Saint Louis Eastern and Pacific layout. The branch line is narrow-gauge (Sn3). Bill's track work is a work of art. In the corner of the layout he built a wye that contains a crossing through one of the legs to serve the larger coal tipple. The track at the bottom of the photo serves as a run-around track that also leads to a spur to a second coal tipple. The open space of the wye cleverly holds the water tower, and another leg of wye connects to the engine servicing facility shown on the far right of the photo. You can see construction photos of Bill's layout, as well as a track plan on this page.

copyright © Roger Nulton; used by permission.

Southward train #5 pounds the diamonds of the NYC and PRR at Ames Junction. The two F3 A-units were produced by S-Helper Service. Roger converted them to Phase 1 versions by installing high fans, removing the grills between the two portholes, and installing a third porthole. The B-units only needed high fans. He used decals sold by Microscale Industries, a product line whose S-scale decals are now owned and available from Des Plaines Hobbies. You can see more photos and details about Roger's layout on this page.

copyright © Bob Hogan; used by permission.

This photo was taken by Bob Hogan on his Sierra Northern Railroad. The SP cab-forward #4294 is a Southwind Models AC-12. It is pulling a long string of Pacific Rail Shops R-40-24 PFE reefer kits which Bob assembled and weathered. The Truckee local on the siding is a Smoky Mountain Model Works resin kit for a GE 70-tonner that Bob modified, detailed, painted, and lettered per Southern Pacific's actual #5119. The caboose behind it is a Gold Coast Railway brass C-30-1 model that he also painted and lettered. This photo appears on the inside cover of the May 2024 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman magazine in the NASG promotional ad campaign. For information on how you, too, can have a photo of your layout appear in one of the NASG ads in RMC, see this page.