I recently retired from one job and while I will be involved with other
ventures, I have a big
rule, make sure the project is well thought out and will make a meaningful
contribution.
because of this, I have not read the massive catalog posts with any interest
because I
cannot see any contribution to be made with a catalog except creating more
landfill
material. As it was pointed out most of the things in S come and go, a catalog
is obsolete
soon after it gets published. You might take exception to this with the
American Models
catalog and I will grant you the point. It is a simple catalog with only a few
artsy shots
and then simple images of what is available. American Models has not printed a
catalog in
what ten years, you can see what he has done with the money a catalog would
have eaten
up, he has made new product. He may have printed the catalog now because it
gives him
one place to show everything he accomplished since the last catalog and what he
has in
the market, I would hope he would not waste any effort on another catalog until
he has
good reason (like lots of new things). If he prints a catalog again without a
number of new
items, does he become a catalog printer and not a model manufacturer? I have a
difficult
time understanding why a company in most any market would spend 10,000 (15,000?
20,000?) dollars creating, printing, distributing a catalog if there is not
breath-taking
reasons like new things to display. A catalog is just a lost business expense,
there is rarely
any return on the catalog. Tell me it gives you some new business... If the
company is
doing great they get a 10% return on sales (profit), a 10,000 dollar catalog
takes 100,000
in sales to break even. Return on investment is not generating cash that does
not build a
bottom line. The NASG has a good website, construct several good segments that
would
be FAQ for those considering S. One for the person who had AF when he was
young and
is now considering getting back into model railroading, one for the prototype
modeler,
one for the operations modeler and whatever other groups you want to maket to.
Item two, a video. Steve said good technical things, from my point of view,
Keller makes
nice little videos, 20 minutes of content, 33 minutes of video, lots of repeat
scenes.
Someone buys them, I personally don't know why. You watch it one time
then?????? Better
to find the guy who likes to buy this sort of thing and borrow it one time.
Perhaps it is
because most of my videos are historical prototype focused as are the magazines
I read.
We take four good S videos, someone might like to see the video one time then
what? I
don't know, perhaps I am missing something. The focus Paul Scoles had with his
video,
telling a "how to story" with the layout being a supporting actor has merit, it
would be
watched a number of times as a person is working on projects that are supported
by the
video. Selecting these topics would be tough, the Model Railroader series
takes a hit in
my point of view because the "how tos" are pretty basic and don't lend
themselves to
watching more than one time. Pieter and John ask the key question, what is the
purpose
of the video. If it because HO has videos and we feel left out? Promotion?
to whom and
with what distribution. I think a video focused on fine modeling would help
drive the guy
returning to the hobby to On3. Are we trying to convince a person in another
scale to try
S? What are their needs and how are we addressing them? Better to feature
layouts tying
them to specific areas of model railroad interest such as operations or
prototype building.
If this is the case, why not build the video segments and then have them on the
web to be
deployed on demand. Lower costs to produce and no distribution cost.
Last weekend I attended AmRail 2008 in Chicago, folks driving and flying in
from hundred
of miles away just to operate on fine layouts. Most had no scenery, the
rolling stock was
low buck but everything tracked (and coupled) nicely. In my opinion, these
railroads did
not lend themselves to the strengths of S which are great detail, the
opportunity to build a
great looking model scene. Most of the guys in operations do not care, most of
the town
structures were cardstock tents and they were fine with that. A layout like
Mike Fyten's
that offers great "operations" with great scenes is a rarity and while every
operator talks
highly of it, the huge layout with 3000 Athern cars and cardstock signs seems
to be what
takes their breath away.
Personally, I love S for what it does well and I look forward to hosting
operations sessions
on a layout similar to what Mike has. Spend some time on a "mission statement"
that has
consensus then lets talk, now I have layout work to do and would rather avoid
these
projects like I try to avoid the other ongoing personal opinion discussions.
So Steve I am
happy to help on special turnouts and enduring Mary's anger because we defiled
more of
her house with model railroad but this will need to wait until you return from
China.
Happy S Scale model railroading guys.
Ken Zieska
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