Peter, John, we will need to set you up with some old S Gauge Herald magazines. There was a series of articles by Bernie Thomas and others about converting AF to a scale like appearance. With a little work you could easily equal most HO of the time. At the time AF was cheap and one could cut the stuff up without fear.
HO progressed since that time into better plastic and a whole array of brass. More recently, I think I can safely say that much of the brass has lead way to the resin and very high end Chinese plastic in that market. S on the other hand had to spend much of it effort in just staying alive even as N and G sprung up around us. I remember seeing some 000 stuff years ago and it barely ran--it just needed some big dollars behind it to make it happen which we never had. I had expected that the AF folks would eventually die off and/or give way to the scale crowd but that doesn't seem to have happened, instead we sort of followed the 0 market and stayed with two groups but with a lot less distinction (2 vs 3 rail). It is frustrating I'm sure, to our mass manufacturers, to some of us, and to anybody thinking about getting into S. But I think the serious 'tire kicker' will eventually find a direction to go in and find his nitch in Sn, S scale or S hi-rail. And by the way, a few years ago when I would photograph ads for SHS, we did several ads that were entirely Scale and some that were totally hi-rail. Problem with that was it cost SHS double the $$$. Bob Werre--having fun in S scale with some AF on the shelf! John Degnan wrote: > Does Peter's reply (quoted below) sound familiar to anyone out there? This > is the EXACT same stuff I have said since I came into S. But I won't gloat > this time... ... ... well, ok, maybe a little. > > TOLD YOU SO! > > John Degnan > [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:Scaler164%40comcast.net> > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Peter Vanvliet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:pvanvliet%40comcast.net>> > To: <[email protected] <mailto:S-Scale%40yahoogroups.com>> > Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 9:12 PM > Subject: {S-Scale List} S Scale Marketing: was SMMW Scale Model Kits Sales > Figure > > > Having just switched to S, I have to agree with John here. When I > > first started researching what was available in S and being a "scale > > modeler" in N, I *knew* I didn't want anything to do with > > "toy/hi-rail/American Flyer" trains. > > > > When I first started thinking about switching to S, one of the first > > things I needed to research for myself was, "Is S just a toy-train > > scale?". It was thanks to the local Houston S Gaugers group and their > > modular layout in the malls and shows that I realized that there was > > a "scale" version of S available. But my previous bias was to think > > of S as a toy-train scale. > > > Just some thoughts from a newbie's perspective... > > Peter. > > [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/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
