You are "spot on" Richard, as usual. AF was originally trying to compete with Lionel O gauge and offering a lower priced but quality product. At the time it was aimed at a young age group. I have always assumed that Lionel 0-27 was Lionel's marketing response to AF but perhaps not. (I would be interested if someone could confirm that or not). S manufacturers today, have been offering their Hi-Rail product to existing AF modellers who are now mature adults, but also offering "scale" versions to modellers, mostly whose background has been in AF or Lionel 0/0-27 and have become dis-satisfied with AF or the smaller scales as the alternative. HO and possibly N modellers, now used to the NMRA standards, are a market we would feel approachable with their lack of the satisfying heft and greater reliability of S, but of course this is a bit of an uphill battle considering the price and variety available in those scales. My promotion in the UK has been entirely of Scale standards as I have found virtually no former AF users. There is a branch of the Lionel Club in the UK with only two AF collectors. About half of my small sample of customers have been involved in UK O scale while only one of which chose Hi-Rail, others are looking at alternatives to G sizes for garden use. Only one ex N scaler and one ex HO. The others have been a switch from British 00 outline to American outline which I suppose is not really the same. At any rate, I have not promoted Hi Rail at all except where that it appears in the AM catalogue, so I do believe the future is with "Scale" except that AF does exist but with sadly surely ever fewer followers.
Best wishesDes Browne, Holywood, Northern Ireland ________________________________ From: Richard Karnes <[email protected]> To: S-Scale <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, 13 February, 2011 23:24:43 Subject: {S-Scale List} Promotion of S All -- Apparently I need to make myself perfectly clear. My arguments for separating AF and hirail out of S scale promotion are based entirely on the prospective audience -- converts from HO and N scale. Those potential converts are not interested in AF and hirail. They are used to being able to purchase any manufacturer's rolling stock with assurance that it will operate with any other manufacturer's rolling stock. This is because all the equipment they hve owned conforms to NMRA wheel and track standards. Converts to S are entitled to the same interoperability. The problem arises when they don't know that S has incompatible scale and hirail standards, and they don't stop long enough to figure it out. To me, this is the sole reason for the popularity of On3, a scale/gauge combination that has seen very little prototype use in the USA-- ever. The N and HO person who wants/needs to scale upward wants to settle on a scale/gauge whose standards are unambiguous. Those who attribute my motives to anything else are mistaken. While I believe that toy train collecting and model railroading are two dfferent hobbies, I also recognize that there is a continuum between these two poles. In that respect, I salute all of you. As Jace has said, aren't we all just playing with trains? There is a place to promote AF and hirail, and that is in venues like Classic Toy Trains and TTOS meets. Scale promotion in such venues is a waste of resources. The converse argument plays in venues like the general-circulation model railroad magazines and shows that are dominated by NMRA-standard-compatible modelers and products. It's just good marketing sense. Dick Karnes [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [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: [email protected] [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/
