I'm glad folks found my input useful, and apologize for the errors. If I have a chance over the next week or so, I'll collect this info and put it on a Web page for future reference, with all due credit to the Trainboard posters of course. The "S" in "S scale" stands for "Scale," as opposed to the more toylike equipment available in O scale at the time. I did mention it in my earlier post, though it may not have been obvious in context. I've actually found my original source for this information: a 1955 book entitled How to Build and Operate a Model Railroad, by Marshall McClintock. Chapter 2, "Giants, Midgets, and In-Between," confirms some of my information and corrects some other: Z remains a mystery, though I think my earlier theory is plausible (the "ultimate" letter for the "ultimate" smallest scale). [ 18. November 2004, 02:56: Message edited by: Rob M. ]
Don't forget T gauge. The T stands for 3mm between the rails, currently the smallest trains running on rails. Whoops didn't realize I dug up a thread from 2004, I need to watch it when I click on links at the bottom.
I've always questioned the idea that TT was driven out by N, and I know I'm not the only one. The first American N products that weren't junk novelty items came in 1966-67. TT was declining before then. TT also collapsed before 1970 in West Germany (where Rokal was the main manufacturer). British TT, made by Tri-ang to a scale of 3mm/foot but also on 12mm track, ended production before H.P. Products or Rokal, definitely before N could have seriously challenged it. It's also been said that TT failed for a lack of RTR products. That begs the question of why nobody introduced them in the late 50s-early 60s. This is a US-specific view, as Rokal and Tri-ang TT were definitely RTR, and indeed aimed at the trainset market from the looks of them. Incidentally, the Rokal F7 means there was an RTR American TT locomotive... The most reasonable suggestion I've seen (though, again, US-specific) is that it was HO that killed TT. Specifically, the rise of Athearn, making passable-quality HO available cheaper than any other scale. TT had been more price-competitive when it was introduced in the late 40s, when metal kits from Mantua, Varney, MDC/Roundhouse, etc. dominated HO. In that case, the moment TT was doomed wasn't 1960 (when Arnold invented N) or 1966 (when the first decent US N locomotive arrived). It was 1961, when Athearn switched from rubber-band drives. I'm rather interested in "lost scales". A while ago, I found http://americanoo.blogspot.com/ and did quite a bit of reading. Maybe it's the appeal of a scale so short-lived its entire history can be encapsulated.
