Don, You may be right... maybe my perspective would be different has I been a modeler back then... but I'm not so sure. I wasn't born until 1969, and the few wooden kits of any kind in any scale that I have had first hand experience with is the few S scale kits that Russ Mobley GAVE me not long after I came into S scale... all of which I ended up passing on to a new home. But I am at least familiar with such kits. Yet considering what was available in HO scale even in my early years... junk like Tyco, AHM, etc... all of which being far harder to convert to scale than just popping on a pair of Kadee couplers on to bring up to a USABLE state, I feel I have still seen at least some remnant of what could be called the beginnings of the hobby; I call it that because (exclusing brass), the absolute BEST that HO had to offer up until the LATE 1980s was the Atlas/Roco (white box) models... and you just about can't even GIVE those away anymore.
But what I realize is that products similar to that are no longer available in HO, and the common characteristics that were designed into those earlier models are no longer present... talgo-mounted couplers being an example... and in most, but not all cases even molded-on grabs and such are gone or going. And show me, if you can, ANY HO manufacturer that still offers the X2F 'Horn Hook' couplers as stock on their models. I can also make my point using Atlas O's 2-rail OR 3-rail options as my examples... Atlas O gave us the OPTION of a pivoting pilot or a rigid one (and scale or non-scale wheels)... and they didn't stop there, they even developed an entirely new line of 2-rail track for those who wanted scale reaslism. I respect and greatly appreciate them for this. But we're not even being given this pittance of consideration from Lionel. My real point here is that HO is constantly improving and moving on, whereas it seems that the one BIG DOG manufacturer that S scale has (Lionel) is refusing to do what a much littler dog (Atlas) has done (in O scale). I look on ebay constantly for one particular set of O scale freight cars in 2-rail configuration that I feel I just have to have - the Gunderson Twin-Stack cars in TTX scheme, and I CANNOT find them... all I ever see is 3-rail. I wonder why? Is it because they are in high demand and that the 3-rail models are not? Out of OVER 2,600 auctions on the Atlas O scale section of ebay, only 772 are identified as 2-rail... that is a little under 1/4 of the total number of auctions. And looking at the S scale section of ebay, out of 4,981 auctions only 32 are for AM models and 47 are for SHS models... and 3,799 are for AF items. What does that mean? Is there more demand for the scale models and less demand for the AF stuff? Maybe not... but POSSIBLY. But whatever the reason, I'll wager you that a much larger percentage of the scale items currently being auctioned will be sold by the end of the auctions than of the AF items. Now, and lastly... I think Jim King has PROVEN without doubt that there IS a market for SCALE ONLY (non-AF compatability)... scale-only being the extreme right wing of this debate... and he has done it with KITS as opposed to RTR. I would be willing to bet just about anything that IF he were able to produce these SCALE ONLY models in RTR form, his sales would GREATLY increase... and that a HUGE part of that increase would be due to AF fans. My SAL B-7 box car being a PERFECT example... #1. it is it a KIT, @2 it is a model of a southeastern prototype, and #3 it is it NOT AF compatable... yet it is his SECOND highest seller! Just imagine if you can and if you dare.... just how many more he could have sold if it were a RTR model. But like I said... maybe you're right. John Degnan [email protected] [email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: Don Thompson To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2012 06:18 AM Subject: {S-Scale List} Re: New American Flyer S Scale models Dear John, It can only assume that you have not purchased a Lionel U33C. If S scale had a think tank that proposed a way for Lionel to start making S Scale models for the S Scale market to influence those of other scales to consider and join S scale, I think the first step would be a highly detailed model with the including the options of scale wheels and KD couplers. In our mind, the U33C is a great first step and announcing a SD70ACe with scale wheels installed is a wonderful 2nd step. I think if you had modeled S Scale with us in the 70's, when our S Scale options were wooden reefer kits and converted flyer freight cars, you would have a different perspective on the importance of these latest developments by big "L". Don
