There's another important thing that may well guarantee your success in your new venture. You seem to be pretty astute when it comes to the market place. In the past manufacturers from other scales have ventured into S without understanding the vagaries of the small, but complex S market.
It was interesting to read your comments regarding O scale. I've been rereading some of the old MR's from the late 40's. In July, 1947 they published the results of a poll. O still was in a solid second place, but HO had already taken over as number one. OO was waning, but still had more modelers than S. S and TT were the newcomers. S had 6.1% and interestingly, that percentage hasn't changed a whole lot. Meanwhile, today O has shrunk, OO and TT are all but gone, and N has taken over second place and HO still dominates. A lot has changed since the 40's. Scratch building is dying, and kit building is diminishing in the smaller scales. I am surprised that the same may be true of O since kit building is easier and more satisfying in the larger scales. Perhaps your reasoning that the O scale crowd is aging (ain't we all) explains it. O has lost most of its giants like Ellison and Armstrong and there's no one coming along to equal their stature. S has survived and continues to do so because it is a perfect blend of scratch building, kit building and R-T-R. We've lost some or our great modelers, too, but there is a new generation coming along that bodes well for our growth. As an S scaler. I welcome you. I would be happy to promote your products in the S Curves column in Model Railroad News. Feel free to send me any product announcements that you have. Good luck in your endeavor. Roy Hoffman www.s-scaletrains.com -- In [email protected], "Jim King" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I've been overwhelmed with comments from y'all re: my decision to move > into S scale from O. I hope I don't disappoint any of you with my > planned offerings. The Southern low side steel gon will be first out, > then the SR&RL/WW&F arch bar truck with single spring. There are MANY > other items I want to produce but won't show my hand just yet. > > I've had many discussions via email and phone with folks asking why I'm > leaving O. The most obvious reason is lack of sales. Since this is > about 50% of my full time job (I'm self-employed), income is a must. > When it comes to my family's well-being, business is business and if a > project won't pay its way and be profitable, I don't do it. Simple as > that. Since moving to O scale over 3 years ago, I've noticed few > reasons why O scale is not what it used to be: > > 1. Aging population with rooms filled with kits that will likely never > be built. Any scale can claim that but I think O is worst of all due it > being around much longer than most scales and being the most popular > until HO took over in the 1950s or so. All of us are guilty of just > getting "1 more kit" but, in fact, most of us don't have time to build > kits anymore. > > 2. S scale has been ignored by larger manufacturers. With the > exception of SHS, American Models and Des Plaines, the current > S-standard gauge market has been left to cottage industry manufacturers > (like me) to supply the demand. Don't confuse this with Grandt Line, > PBL and BTS ... I'm focusing on standard gauge, not narrow. These guys > have made a HUGE difference in the narrow gauge market and are to be > complimented for their efforts. > > 3. Affect of "big guys" in the scale. In my opinion, when you combine > an aging population with offerings from a large company, like Atlas, the > desire to build kits drops off significantly. The same situation is > occuring in HO as well as O. In O, Atlas recently bought out > Intermountain and started offering their cars as RTR, thereby helping to > kill the kit-building urges. Similarly, P&D's GP9 and F3/F7 have or > will be re-issued by Atlas RTR in various colors. Granted Atlas' main > customer base is the 3-rail crowd but 2-railers also benefit from this. > By swallowing up more parts and kits, Atlas is, in essence, hurting kit > makers because the current mentality is "why build a kit when I can get > RTR?". I can't argue with that if your time-limited or don't want to > mess with building kits anymore, but that attitude equates to reduced > sales for folks like me and, in time, will cause most kit mfrs to close > the doors. > > 4. On30 ... not to be confused with O scale in general. This a rapidly > expanding market, maybe the largest market in model RRing at present. > Bachmann is to On30 as Athearn was to HO in the 50s and 60s. B'mann > essentially re-birthed On30 into a mainstream scale and the wave of > modelers flocking to this scale from others has provided great > opportunity for small shops to start up and grow. I have no plans to > leave On30 but my main focus will be S/Sn2/Sn3. > > A well-trusted friend and fellow-manufacturer told me a couple days ago > that, in his opinion, S scale is about 10 years behind O scale in > growth. That's NOT meant to be slam toward S. In fact, it's a > compliment because this equates to growth potential for folks like me > ... and I intend to prove that shortly with the intro of the SR steel > gon. With your support, purchases and ideas, I look forward to > producing items you want to buy using state-of-the-art 3D CAD/SLA > pattern technology that has no equal. > > Jim King > Smoky Mountain Model Works, Inc. > http://www.smokymountainmodelworks.com > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! 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