# S scale track gauge



## daveh219 (Sep 16, 2012)

So...I joined the NASG and also bought an S gauge which arrived with instructions. Now, as a preface to this I have used both a HO and N gauge before...with good results. But when I checked some of my wheel gauges I found them to ALL be too short. I also checked the tracks and found them to be out of width also. So, I;m wondering if the gauge is out of kilter OR all of my post war wheel sets are. Has anybody else has this problem???


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Interesting you ask. I sent about 30 cars to the layout builder for testing the track. The track is new production MTH flex, it is all in gauge. The turnouts are hand laid using Fastrack jigs. They are in gauge. The guard and wing rails were placed so both scale and tinplate wheel sets would run on the layout. All the cars I sent worked ok on the Gilbert and the SHS track layouts I had at home. 
About 50% of the cars had to be bad ordered on the new layout because the wheels were out of gauge, too narrow. They would derail at the turnout wing rails. The cars that passed the dime test worked. None of the new Lionel production cars (only 5) worked. All the AM cars were fine and about half of my original Gilbert cars had narrow, out of gauge wheel sets. I adjusted two of the Gilbert cars to allow a dime to fit between the flanges, they then worked fine.


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## daveh219 (Sep 16, 2012)

I've used the dime gauge before. I think I will check a couple of wheel sets with the dime and then the gauge and see. When you "adjust" the wheels do you just muscle them apart???


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Only with the original Gilbert wheel sets. I take the wheels out of the trucks to adjust them. I have not tried to regauge the new production Lionel. 
All the AM and SHS engines I sent worked perfect. The new Lionel flyer engines worked as well. Strange that the engines and tender trucks are in gauge but all the new boxcars are out of gauge narrow. It was not all the wheels. On some cars it was all 4, on some it was just one of the 4 wheels.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

The dime gauge is a great, easy, and fast way to check your wheel sets, and it only costs you .10 cents,lol..I muscle my wheels in the trucks as sometime the wheels move as you put them back in the truck.The inside of the track will usually measure between .085 to .087...


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