The San Diego S-Gaugers is a tax exempt 501(C)(3) association of model railroaders founded January 19, 2008, in San Diego, California, dedicated to a three-part mission:
1. Promotion of S-Gauge model railroading
2. Education about S-Gauge model railroading, about model railroading in general, and about railroading in general.
3. Having fun in the process
To contact the club, email sandsgaugers@gmail.com.
Come visit us in La Mesa's Grossmont Center.
You can come in for a tour between noon and 6:00 PM on Saturdays and Tuesdays except for holidays.
Come in and see the changes that have been made recently; we never stop!
See below for directions to come see us.
Got trains?
Got a box of old trains in the garage? Bring them in and see if they still run. We have a test track not only for S scale trains, but also for Sn3, HO, N, and O Scale trains.
We can test them with AC, DC, DCC, or Lionel Legacy power sources.
Do you have childhood memories of American Flyer trains? Did you convert to HO or N due to space limitations? Are your eyes and hands finding smaller scales difficult to work with? Take another look at S Scale trains.
We invite you to join us! No space for a train layout at home? Come run your trains on the club layout, learn how to service or repair them, learn how to build and landscape a layout, and meet a bunch of interesting, knowledgeable people. Don't have any trains? That's okay; if you love trains, come join us anyway. For information about joining the club, go to the "About Us & Membership" page.
Big Changes Are Coming!
The engine service yard that we built in 2013 was connected to a corner of the layout for several years, but that configuration doesn't fit in our current Grossmont Center location. It has therefore been sitting in the middle of the layout as we deliberated various possibilities. We are excited to unveil the plan we came up with and invite you to come in and watch the progress. Here's a drawing of the planned changes and new modules:
As visitors enter the door, they will see directly in front of them an aisle that takes them between two new corner modules to a viewing area in the middle of the layout, surrounded by trains! On the left are the two Gilbert Siding modules with operating accessories that have recently been displayed in the alcove at the rear of our suite. Straight ahead is the engine service yard that has been enlarged to accommodate the eastbound mainline running around the yard. On the right is a new S-curve module and the Girder Bridge Module that is currently on the front of the layout.
We have a Reefer and a Hobo
The back wall that was for many years a California hillside scene, has been repainted as a PFE refrigerator car.
And Hobo Joe is climbing the ladder. Everything is complete except the door latching mechanism.
And we have a train wreck
To show one of the things a work train does, we have staged a train wreck on the modules in our rear display cubicle.
Some freight cars have derailed and the Industrial Brownhoist crane is lifting the tank car back onto the track.
The circus has come to town!
You may have noticed the circus engine and two cars in the display case near the entrance. We've completed that train and it's now sitting in the passing siding on the S-curve.
And we purchased a reproduction set of the circus cutouts that Gilbert included in their 1950 Circus Set.
The circus will be on the S-curve until the new buildings are installed there.
We even have trapeze artists!
Are you looking to buy some trains?
Some of the trains and accessories donated to our club are offered for sale on a consignment basis at the Gilbert Gallery website.
Look for items for which the owner is shown as SDSG or simply SG.
In addition to S-Gauge trains, some HO and O Gauge trains are available, and a few N and Z scale items,
plus some decals and bulbs that can be used with any scale.
Do you have childhood memories of American Flyer trains? Did you convert to HO or N due to space limitations?
Are your eyes and hands finding smaller scales difficult to work with?
Take another look at S Scale trains.
100% of the selling price (not including sales tax) comes back to the club to support our operations.
Like to see the trains run?
When we're closed, the trains still run. Just push the button outside the window and the trains on the window layouts will run for about a minute.
And there's also a button inside that runs the trains.
John Constans' Sn3 Westside Lumber Layout
In August of 2012, we visited John Constans' Westside Lumber Sn3 Layout on an NMRA layout tour.
Little did we know that six years later, his widow would donate it to our club in his memory.
We have transported it to the side room of our clubhouse, reinforced it, and created a new mount for it, refurbishing it for public display.
Click the picture to learn more about it.
Our Latest Layout Tour Videos
The visitor's view:
And here's a video of the layout from the engineer's viewpoint:
The mail train pulls through Gilbert Town to deliver a bag of mail and pick up outgoing mail (video courtesy of Guido Hamacher).
We get a lot of special visitor trick-or-treaters on Halloween.
Our videos page has a lot more videos for you to watch.
As you enter, you are greeted by the girder bridge and military aircraft museum modules on the front of our big modular layout.
Click the picture below for a view of each of the modules in the layout.
To the right is the first of our three window layouts, Liberty Loop, named for our previous home in San Diego's Liberty Station shopping center.
We have named our railroad the Grossmont Central Railroad in honor of our current clubhouse hosts, Grossmont Center in La Mesa, and Raulf lettered the club's American Models Baldwin diesel locomotive for it.
Click the picture to see more pictures and the story of why and how the layout was built.
Click below for a video tour of Liberty Loop:
To your left is our second window layout. Depending on the time of year, you will see one of four seasonal layouts.
At Halloween, Christmas, and Easter we have a loop or track around a seasonal ceramic village.
Click the picture to see more pictures and the story of why and how the layout was built.
Because we have a buildings for only three seasons on the seasonal layout, Mark suggested that we build a classical
1950s American Flyer layout to display the roots of our S gauge history. Click the picture to see more pictures and a video of it.
We named it Streeterville in honor of Burdette Streeter who donated his collection to the club.
In the alcove window to your far right is the Lego Window Layout provided by the L-Scale Museum.
Over the years, Michael Todd, curator of the L-Gauge Museum, has brought in a variety of Lego creations, most recently Lego Train layouts, to enhance our clubhouse. To see more about each of them, click the picture or "The Lego Window Layouts" link in the sidebar menu at the left.
Here's a video of the Lego train on the Flintstones display in May of 2023.
If you happen to come by when we're not open, push the button outside the window and the trains on all three window layouts will run for about a minute.
Our Timesaver Game
The Timesaver is a game/puzzle created by John Allen and published in Model Railroader Magazine in 1972.
It comprises two identical mini-switching yards connected by a short track that holds only one car.
Each yard has five spurs each long enough for two or three freight cars and a run-around with space for one car on one side and two on the other. Each yard has a switch engine and five freight cars scattered around in the yard.
The objective is to move the cars around into some specified final position. The person who does it in the shortest time wins.
Alternatively, it can be played as a cooperative two-player game where the final position for some cars is in the other player's yard.
For more information and pictures of the Timesaver, click the picture or the "Timesaver" link in the sidebar menu at the left.
Member Projects
Dale created some freight cars and work cars that are more interesting and realistic than those manufactured by Gilbert and other manufacturers, and many of the buildings on the layouts were built by club members.
Click the picture for a web page dedicated to member projects like this.
Meetings and Other Events
The club has monthly meetings, at 10:00AM to noon, generally on the third Tuesday of the month (see calendar of events below).
At the January meeting each year, we hold the election of officers and collection of annual dues.
At the club's June 2016 meeting, Wes Noel demonstrated the proper application of Bullfrog Snot to increase the traction of an engine's drive wheels so it can pull more cars.
Click the picture to see the video of this clinic.
More clinics will be added as we shoot videos of them.
In March, we began a series of informal engine repair workshops.
Calendar of Events
September 16 10:00AM - noon Regular Monthly Meeting
September 25 10:00AM - 3:00 Workday
October 21 10:00AM - noon Regular Monthly Meeting
October 23 10:00AM - 3:00 Workday
October 25 noon - 4:00PM Lego Build Event
October 31 noon - 6:00PM Regular hours; Trick or Treat 3:00 to 5:00PM
November 18 10:00AM - noon Regular Monthly Meeting
December 20 noon - 4:00PM Lego Build Event
December 16 10:00AM - noon Regular Monthly Meeting
January 20, 2026 10:00AM - noon Annual Meeting and election of officers
How to Find Us
Grossmont Center is located in La Mesa, California, east of San Diego, just off Interstate 8.
You can see it from the freeway. Take the Grossmont Center exit and turn left (north).
Enter through the portico next to the Reading Cinemas, between Jamba Juice and Panda Express.
We're on the left, up the aisle next to Super Brows.
Our legal address is Suite 181, but we are Suite 304 on the Mall Map.
