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Back in the 30's, the
heyday of "O" gauge, some model railroaders began searching for a smaller scale
that would take up less space but retain the advantages of detailing and the heftiness of
modeling that O afforded. To them HO was too small and so it was generally conceded that a
more desirable gauge would be found somewhere between O and HO, thus the 3/16" scale
came to be. It appears that 3/16" to the foot trains were first made in the United
Kingdom in 1919 when Charles Wynne created the M.R. 4-4-0 No. 999 locomotive, held in
existence today by the S Scale Model Railway Society of the UK.
What we do know is that S scale 3/16" model railroading
was conceived in the U.S. by Ed Packard. In the late 1920s Mr. Packard owned a model
airplane company known as "Cleveland Model and Supply." At about the same time
as the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair, considered by the staff at Model Railroader magazine
to be the event that rally launched the hobby of model railroading; Mr. Packard started a
magazine called "Cleveland Model News." S scale free lance historian Richard
Douglass notes, "Issue number 1 was the Jan/Feb 1933 issue, and some of the issues
published that first year contained plans for railroad freight cars. The real gem for S
scalers is the winter 1934 issue, which came out in the first quarter of 1934, exact date
unknown. This issue contains an article on how to build a 3/16 scale model of the then
revolutionary UP streamliner train, with accurate plans. How long the 3/16 scale model kit
project was in planning at Cleveland Models is unclear, but it likely took a year or two
to gear up for production kit releases in 1937. His kits were released as "C-D"
scale (Cleveland Designed) into the so called "battle of the scales", where many
versions of O, HO and OO scales were fighting it out. Cleveland Models produced 3/16 kits
for several years but failed to gain a foothold in this highly competitive model railroad
market. By the onset of World War II, it was clear that the winners were the long
established O scale, and the up and coming HO. Cleveland Model's 3/16 trains were not a
success, but his model airplanes kits were a great success and have a following to this
day."
Thus, during its infancy, 3/16" model railroading became known
as "C-D", originating from the term "Cleveland-Designed," the
trademark of Mr. Packard's Cleveland Model & Supply Co., preceding A. C. Gilbert
Company's line of American Flyer™ trains. As Douglass noted above, it was 1937 when
Packard began marketing 3/16" scale wood and embossed paper kits. A year later he
marketed two powered locomotive kits -- a CGW 4-6-0 and a PRR 0-6-0 switcher. Some years later, the National Model Railroad
Association (NMRA) recognized the scale and renamed it "S scale" because of the
“S’s” in three-sixteenths (scale) and seven-eighths (gauge). At a subsequent 1942 NMRA meeting the designation
"S" was formally adopted for 3/16" scale model railroading. |
