--- In [email protected], tennsgauge@... wrote: > > If we all are resigned to the scale market not growing, and if we talk > negatively, and especially if we write negative emails like this to a large > audience, possibly including Lionel managers, we may succeed in keeping it > about 1 in 10. > > I would hope we would encourage Lionel to offer items that would have more > direct appeal to the scalers. > Ed's response was constructive. It was intended to reflect that the UCC3 > loco as offered may not give a true gauge to Lionel of the scale market > with so much of the cost being electronics that most scalers cannot use on > their layouts.. > > A better test of the scale market would be to off the U33C with and without > the TMCC/Legacy stuff as well as with a choice of wheels. > > I think Lionel's mikado, if it had been offered with scale wheels, and > without TMCC, would have been a good seller to the scale market. It was a > quality product, and though expensive, was much cheaper than buying brass. > And it would have been at least some cheaper without the TMCC. > > Just my opinion. - Earl Henry, Nashville >
You have to remember that Lionel isn't run like SHS, AM or SSA. It took A LOT of serious lobbying by 3-rail O Gaugers to get the Milwaukee Road S3, a group far larger than our little merry band. Lionel seems to feel that their propriatary electronics are a "value added" feature, and most of the new upper end stuff has it whether you want it or not. And it's pretty clear they want to migrate Legacy to Flyer. They also seem to run on pre-orders. I have my doubts that there would be enough folks preodering a Flyer locomotive with scale wheels and straight DC. And even more doubts for a DCC 8-pin plug. They can also be strange sometimes. When I sent a friendly email to customer support about the lack of engineer/fireman figures and some of the other things that got dropped from the Challenger, their response was simply that they would give me an RA number and a refund if I wasn't happy. It's not that I wasn't happy with the chooch, just wanted to know if the engineer/fireman figure would be available from customer support... Now, I think the new products like the Pacifics, Mikados, Challengers and U33C's are an overall good thing for S. It's just aimed at the HiRail/Flyer market and the scale side may get a crumb or two. So, here's the "talk to us" link on the Lionel website: http://www.lionel.com/ContactUs/ Click on the appropriate topic and feel free start lobbying for scale wheeled straight DC S Scale locomotives from Lionel. Rich G(ajnak) ------------------------------------ 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/
