http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine/2010-05-05/
Just how long has it been since someone could acquire anything new in S scale? Decades?
Now, now, you know perfectly well S scale is still active - I think they run a page ad in RMC displaying ‘What’s New in S scale’.
That said, S scale seems stuck in the steam era, while there are magnitudes of 1/64 Matchbox cars out there styled from the 1960s and later - D’oh!
The goat should change his name to Rocky[(-D]
Forum members here model in S scale. I believe IronRooster is one of them.
The question this raised to me is how much exposure the strip author, Steve Pastis, has to railroads and model railroading? Is he in fact, dare I say… one of us? When the Goat character asks “standard or narrow guage?” it indicated to me more than just watching trains in a Christmas display.
The comic “For Better or Worse”, which is now in reruns, so to speak, occasionally featured the husband’s garden railroad. The cartoonist’s husband in real life has a large 1/12 scale outdoor layout that was featured in MR some years back.
George V.
Pearls before Swine is one of the few comic strips (along with Zippy the Pinhead) where the cartoonist (Steve Pastis in Pearls, Bill Griffith in Zippy) routinely appear as themselves in their own strips. That said, I don’t recall in the few years I’ve been reading Pearls before Swine any previous mention of model railroading, so maybe Steve just did a bit of research on the web before-hand for this strip…
Maybe he’s acknowledging a model railroading friend.
Hey, I thought model railroading was no longer a factor in mainstream consciousness, and was dying away! What gives here?
I see model railroading mentioned every so often in the comics I follow on line and in the local papers.
Usually, the character who has model railroading as a hobby is portrayed as a nerdy, loner type, etc. All the stereotypes discussed before on the forums.
Here’s one from a couple of weeks ago. http://comics.com/rubes/2010-04-22
It has personnal significance for me. It appeared a few days before my 47th birthday and I work for the UP. I printed off a copy and hung it in the crew room at work.
Jeff
S scale is not quite the dead horse you might think. An diesel motivepower is well represented;
Yes, I do. There isn’t as much as in HO, but there is a fair amount. This site http://www.trainweb.org/crocon/sscale.html provides a pretty good over view of what’s available.
The two major manufacturers/importers are S Helper http://www.showcaseline.com/ and American Models http://www.americanmodels.com/. Both of these produce their line with Hi rail and scale wheels, S Helper provides both wheel sets in the box for everything except their steam locomotive.
Several structure manufacturers such as Bar Mills have an S scale line of some of their structures.
All the basics needed are available in S including track, engines, rolling stock, structures, parts, etc.
The major lack is steam locomotives. There are currently a 2-8-0, 4-6-2, and 4-8-4 available RTR non brass, standard gauge with scale wheels plus a 4-6-4 in NYC streamlined. BTS occasionally has kits for 0-6-0 and 2-8-0’s.
Many of the products available today, are new within the last decade.
In addition to standard gauge there is Sn3 and Sn2.
Enjoy
Paul
On the Comedy Central show “Ugly Americans”, one of the characters (the security guard) was seen working a second job because “My model trains don’t pay for themselves.” Granted, it was meant to illustrate that the character is a bit of a loser, but I still chuckled.
Pearls Before Swine is probably the best comic strip running these days. Lots of clever wordplay and really bad puns.
Sure, he’s giving a shout-out to David Letterman…
John