Dick, Thanks for providing the history of your dealings with Bruce Heald. It certainly provides some context to his letter. I’m glad to hear that you and MRN are open to the S gauge community at large. After all, it takes all of us to provide the market for firms such as SHS, AM, DPH and others. I believe that there are many in that community who will eventually find their way to running with smaller flanges, as I have. Focusing on the positive aspects of scale standards, as you have done, and treating them with respect will help them find their way. Name calling will only perpetuate the divisions among us.
Roger Nulton From: Richard Karnes Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 5:34 PM To: [email protected] Subject: {S-Scale List} Re: Bruce Heald's letter in Model Railroad News Roger Nulton et al -- I have had a lot of correspondence with Rev. Bruce Heald. The first was his positive response to my September 2009 "S Curves" column, in which I covered the issue of designing a model railroad that will hold one's interest. Rev. Heald's lengthy letter extolled the virtues of a prototypical operating scheme, and I agreed with him. His letter, together with my response, appeared in the Nov. 2009 MRN. The next significant exchange was in response to my September 2009 review (in MRN) of the Pennsylvania Heritage Models two-truck Birney streetcar. Based on the review, Rev. Heald inexplicably purchased the scale version of the streetcar (even though it's available in hi-rail too, a fact made clear in the review). And boy did he complain (to me and MRN) about how terribly the car ran on his tinplate track. I forwarded his note to PHM's Tom Doherty while at the same time suggesting to Rev. Heald that he contact Tom and ask for a wheelset trade. He did, and was satisfied. But now I knew that Rev. Held would rather complain in public than act in private. I have never challenged Rev. Heald's concept of operation. I agree with him! As for favoritism toward scale in my reviews, I review what I get. I am always on the lookout for S stuff to review. My first choice is to contact the vendor and ask for a review sample. Some comply, some don't. In the latter situation, I have now and then purchased a product at my own expense and reviewed it. And sometimes my publisher or editor digs up something and sends it to me to review. I cannot review hirail motive power because my layout's trackwork is incompatible with hirail locos. But other MRN staffers do, e.g., David Otte's review of the American Models Texas Special in the May 2010 MRN. As for my "scale" bias in "S Curves," I plead guilty. I am biased toward promoting S scale (as opposed to hirail or tinplate) because I can't imagine any modeler considering switching from O scale or N or G or HO to S would ever want go from his NMRA-compatible-interoperable world to S hirail. I admit that the situation for people contemplating switching from O hirail to S is different, but their market segment is much smaller that the potential HO converts. I want to keep S simple for the non-S people -- a necessary task with so many coupler, wheel, and track options to wade through. So I do not know why Rev. Heald spent the bulk of his rant about operation in response to my May 2011 "S Curves," particularly since he already knew that I have no disagreement with him about operation. My only point in my May column was how non-S people perceive S. Apparently, some S people find it very difficult to think outside the box. Dick Karnes Model Railroad News [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/
