Perhaps an old time Sn3 guy will chime in, but it seems to me that Tomalco was the only one making any Sn3 detail parts in the late 60's. Looking at Ernie's model, the air compressor, injectors and such are about the only commercial parts on it.
Back then there was a S scale club in Abq building a layout using HO scale track as S scale narrow gauge. HO standard gauge works out to about 42" in S scale. They had their railroad written up in Model Railroader back then..
So, I wonder if Ernie's 497 was 3 foot gauge or 42" to run on HO track?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2019 12:12PM by Earl.